in California,” said Tina Shields, water department manager with the Imperial Irrigation District (IID). IID can help, she said, through a


more flexible system that allows it to store water in the Colorado River and Lake Mead. “We particularly don’t want to see our water flow away from the state to provide other people economic benefits in other states,” Shields said. “Tere ought to be a way we can store our water that minimizes the risk to them but provides us with some longer term op- portunities as well.”


Any discussion of Colorado River water use has to include environmental impacts. “It brings us right back to the Salton


Sea,” said Michael Cohen, senior re- search associate with the Pacific Insti- tute. “Tere are a lot of questions at the Salton Sea because reducing the amount of water flowing to the Imperial Valley by 300,000 or 350,000 acre-feet per year would have a significant impact on the


Salton Sea,” referring to how agricultural runoff from Imperial Valley farms is an important source of water for the Sea. California’s 2016-2017 budget signed


by Gov. Jerry Brown June 27 includes $80.5 million for the first phase of the Salton Sea Management Plan. Te funds will be used for design and environmen- tal documentation and some construc- tion of wetlands habitat at the southern edge of the Sea. “Since the state has yet to put to- gether a plan to deal with the impacts of the current water transfer, there’s a real tradeoff between being a good partner on the river and not making the Salton Sea a sacrifice zone,” he contin- ued. “Some Basin interests are pushing the DCP as fast as they can; they want to sign this deal before the end of the federal administration, but they are rely- ing on the state of California to figure something out at the Salton Sea to pro- tect public health and ecological health, to demonstrate that California can make good on its existing obligations and not


Tis chart illustrates the annual fluctuations in Colorado River flow at Lee Ferry compared to the average historical flows, the average flows during the current drought, the average flows during the worst paleo drought on record and the projected average flows under climate change modeling.


exacerbate an already bad situation.” Water users in the Lower Basin of the Colorado River are acting with the knowledge that the river, more often than not, cannot meet all the demands placed upon it. “Unfortunately, Lake Mead, even without a drought, has a structural deficit,” Ted Cooke, general manager of the CAP, said at the briefing. “It’s over- allocated. More is committed to go out than comes in, so we have to find a way to balance those two things by voluntary reductions, if necessary.” While the Upper Basin states grapple with an uncertain supply, their plight contrasts somewhat with the Lower Basin states. “Te definition of critical levels is a little different for the Upper Basin than the Lower Basin,” said Don Ostler, executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission. “We’re looking at power generation; they’re looking at implementing the first short- ages in the Lower Basin. We’re getting shortages all the time but we don’t have a way to avoid them right now because of lack of storage.” Te Upper Basin states of Colorado,


New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming have never developed their full share of the Colorado River, in part because of their obligation to deliver water to the Lower Basin. As that region has grown over the past three decades, there has been the development of some additional storage. But other projects are still on the draw- ing board. Ostler said it’s important that both basins are successful in establishing good drought contingency plans and are prepared to implement them. “Te conditions in Lake Mead very definitely affect the elevations in Lake Powell,” he said. “Tere is a synergistic effect that’s very important and if the Lower Basin does things to help hold up Lake Mead it also, because of coordi- nated reservoir operations, provides some benefit to Lake Powell. Likewise, what the Upper Basin does to help hold up Lake Powell provides some benefit to Lake Mead.”


4 • Colorado River Project • River Report • Summer 2016


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