A wet year and major conservation efforts are paying off in the short term for the Colorado River, with California, Arizona and Nevada on track to conserve a record 1 million acre-feet of water or more by the end of 2023, officials announced last week.

That is an enormous amount of water: about 325 billion gallons, enough for about 333,000 households for a year. The water will stay in the badly depleted Lake Mead reservoir and not be earmarked for any one supplier to use in the future.

“Extraordinary conservation and massive amounts of snow and rain combined to drop Lower Basin use of the Colorado River in 2023 to levels not seen in 40 years, providing an invaluable reprieve for the beleaguered Colorado River,” said Michael Cohen, senior associate at the Pacific Institute, a think tank focused on water. “Hopefully, negotiators will use this gift to craft long term, durable water reduction solutions to ensure that we have sufficient water for people, agriculture, and the environment in the years ahead.”

But three California desert water districts are still awaiting federal approvals and taxpayer dollars to implement more conservation measures through 2026, when current guidelines for the river system expire. Environmental reviews have delayed the process, some said, though others say those reviews are vital.

Desert ‘low priority’ for feds?

“We’ve had a number of conversations with the feds and we just don’t seem to get anywhere with them. I believe we are a low priority with them,” said Bart Fisher, a Blythe-area farmer who sits on the boards of both the Palo Verde Irrigation District and the California Colorado River Commission.

PVID has applied for three years worth of federal funding in exchange for not using up to 120,000 acre-feet of water annually, saved by area farmers not planting and watering certain fields.

That water is often saved on the farms already, but it is currently “credited” to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, an umbrella agency for water districts serving 19 million people across Southern California, which can bank it in Lake Mead for future needs. Under the PVID proposal, it would instead simply stay in Lake Mead to keep it from declining further, or to meet systemwide needs across seven states.

Fisher said PVID already got state environmental approval for transferring rights to that water to another district, so there should be no further review needed before federal officials OK banking it in Lake Mead.

“We are just hanging our hat on that and waiting for a decision by the Bureau of Reclamation,” he said.

The Coachella Valley Water District and the Imperial Irrigation District submitted plans months ago calling for farmers to reduce planting and watering some fields, among other measures. They are also awaiting OKs and funding from the Bureau of Reclamation and its parent agency, the Department of the Interior.

Many agencies made conservation proposals in response to urgent calls to save between 2 to 4 million acre feet per year or face mandatory cuts to keep the river afloat after two decades of drought. All told, the desert districts have asked for nearly $1 billion in public funds to leave 1.4 million acre feet of water in Lake Mead.

CVWD has had some luck, winning funds for its groundwater replenishment curtailment proposal, in which it holds off on adding river water to its underground aquifer. It will save 35,000 acre-feet from 2023 through 2025, and compensation is $400 per acre-foot, said CVWD spokeswoman Lorraine Garcia. She said the agency saved another 9,000 acre-feet in 2022 under a different federal program. Their agricultural fallowing program is still under review by federal officials, though, in part because not enough farmers signed up.

“CVWD is committed to participating in the lower basin plan and taking action to leave water in Lake Mead,” Garcia said in an email. “Our temporary curtailment program allows us time to implement long-term conservation programs and actions to reduce overall demand on the river and on the local groundwater basin.

She added, “While imported supplies and groundwater replenishment are vital to our communities, conservation and increasing the use of recycled water are also essential to keeping the groundwater basin sustainable for the local economy and future generations.”

How water cuts will impact Salton Sea

IID’s Colorado River water manager, Tina Shields, said environmental questions related to their proposal include how keeping even more water away from the Salton Sea, which is already drying up, could impact residents along its widening dusty edges and area endangered species. For 2023, she said, they could use existing environmental approvals for their on-farm conservation program to pay for an additional 40,000 to 60,000 acre fee of water saved.

The sea relies on farm runoff and would likely get shallower in the short term if more fields sit fallow. But Shields said that over the life of an existing transfer program that ends in 2047, the additional losses would be “a blip.” Another 140,000 acre-feet or more that is not being used this year will automatically go to MWD’s balance, per pre-existing agreements, but the urban agency doesn’t need it this year either.

Shields and the Pacific Institute’s Cohen also noted that as the sea gradually dries, wetlands have emerged that are already being populated by endangered sand rails and other rare birds not seen there in 20 years.

“IID’s projected use this year is about 200,000 acre-feet below their allowed use, mainly due to Hurricane Hilary and the large storm the following weekend (as well as more conservation than expected),” Cohen said. “Additionally, the two storms added an estimated 80,000 extra acre-feet to the Salton Sea, so there shouldn’t be additional environmental degradation there (beyond the long term downward trend in elevation and upward trend in salinity).

He said that since 2023 is almost over, federal payments are likely not needed this year, but Shields disagreed, saying payments would go to farmers for conservation above what the rainfall had yielded. As for proposals through 2026, Cohen said existing state and federal environmental reviews and approvals or waivers are not sufficient. He said he hopes a revised environmental impact statement, expected to be released in the next week, will evaluate potential impacts to the Salton Sea, air quality and wildlife due to potential IID reductions.

The California Natural Resources Agency is also eagerly awaiting the release of the $250 million in federal funds allocated for further restoration projects at the Sea, linked to a finalized conservation agreement with IID. Shields said she thinks they are close, and hopes to have a final agreement to bring to the IID board for approval in early November.

In response to questions from The Desert Sun, Interior Department spokesman Tyler Cherry said, “We don’t have any updates on timing but we continue to work on finalizing conservation agreements.” He declined to comment on environmental reviews or payments during a rainy year, when water was saved anyway.

Beyond the interim measures, which could be finalized as soon as this week, federal officials last week formally began the process of determining the Colorado River system’s long-term future, with climate change driven droughts shrinking its flow, which has also been overallocated for decades An estimated 35 million people in seven states and portions of Mexico depend on its flow, as do more than 5 million acres of farmland.

Another wet winter?

A slight reprieve will occur this year, and depending on how a warm, wet El Nino atmospheric pattern progresses, possibly again next winter. California is expected to use 700,000 acre-feet less in 2023, putting it at its lowest amount since 1949, according to a news release issued Thursday afternoon. Urban Southern California is projected to be at its third-lowest level of river water use in 60 years, thanks in part to efforts to reduce outdoor watering for grass. The Imperial Irrigation District is on pace to use 200,000 acre-feet less than its legal allocation this year, with farmers switching crops or holding off on plantings and irrigation due to market price changes and heavy, at times destructive rainfalls. CVWD and the Palo Verde Irrigation District have also curtailed water use.

“This year … we’ve cut our use even further thanks to investments in conservation and partnerships forged between our agricultural, urban, and tribal water users,” said JB Hamby, California’s chief negotiator for future Colorado River supply.

As much as $1.2 billion in federal incentives are expected to help fund everything from water-efficient sprinklers for farm fields to payments to homeowners to rip out thirsty lawns. Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been allocated to Arizona tribes, cities and others for conservation projects. But California’s rural farming districts hold the oldest and largest rights to river water, and collectively could deliver almost half of the needed cuts.

Janet Wilson is senior environment reporter for The Desert Sun and a Stanford Lane Center Western Media Fellow. She can be reached at [email protected]