Colorado River Lower Basin States Reach Agreement on Conservation Proposal

Despite record snowpack from this past winter, water conservation for the Colorado River is still a major concern.

Last month, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation proposed three options: make additional cuts based on the water rights priority system, use a new across the board percentage system or no changes at all.

So, the three Lower Basin States of Nevada, Arizona and California wanted to take a different approach and put together their own proposal.

And representatives in all seven states that rely on the Colorado River support this new option.

“It avoids having the federal government basically come in and tell us what’s going to have to happen,” Imperial Irrigation District Public Information Officer Robert Schettler explained. “IID and the rest of the states have been working together to try to come to consensus. What we’re requesting is that the federal government pause this comment period and take time to analyze this plan so they give it a thorough understanding and give it a chance.”

The plan is to conserve 3 million acre-feet of water through 2026 with at least 1.5 million of that conserved by the end of 2024.

“We’re conserving 500,000 acre-feet a year, which is 16% of our water supply,” Schettler continued. “IID has proposed conserving another 250,000 acre-feet so that would be 750,000 acre-feet a year which would boost up to 24% of our water supply. There’s going to be some local impacts of some kind. We still have to talk about compensation with farmers to conserve more water. If we have to take land out of production, we don’t want to have that occur for a length of time. It may be seasonal or rotational so the field remains in service.”

Congressman Raul Ruiz is committed to ensuring bigger impacts on farmers don’t happen.

In a statement, he said in part, “I will be laser-focused on making sure our region gets our fair share of resources, and that the wellbeing of my constituents is front and center.”

“We need to keep moving on so conservation can actually start towards these projects,” Schettler said. “We’re not going to get there if we don’t get them started.”

Along with IID, other districts including the Coachella Valley Water District are anticipated to assist the state in meeting this new conservation volume.

Federal officials postponed the May 30th deadline for public comment to an unspecified date after the three state proposal was submitted.