60 minutes rewind
this past week california declared a statewide drought emergency it follows the first ever
federal shortage declaration on the colorado river triggering cuts to water supplies in the southwest
the colorado is the lifeblood of the region it waters some of the country's fastest growing
cities nourishes some of our most fertile fields and powers 1.4 trillion dollars in annual economic
activity the river runs more than 1400 miles from headwaters in the rockies to its delta in
northern mexico where it ends in a trickle seven states and 30 native american tribes lie in the
colorado river basin lately the river has been running dry due to the historically severe drought
the majestic meandering colorado river that cut through these red cliffs carving the grand canyon
is a wonder of nature and human ingenuity the glen canyon dam created lake powell and 300 miles down
river lake mead sits behind the hoover dam these reservoirs are now being sucked dry
by 40 million different straws that's the number of people in booming western states who depend
on the colorado to quench their thirst power their homes water lawns and splash in the sun
its waters irrigate farms that produce 90 percent of the country's winter greens
to all these demands add the stress of a 22-year drought as dry as any period in 1200 years and you
have a river in crisis these white bathtub rings is this where the water used to be absolutely brad
udall a climate scientist at colorado state university went out on lake powell with us
so all of this would have been under water yeah
so what does this tell you about what's happening on the colorado river well it's a signal of the
long-term problem we've been seeing since the year 2000 which is climate change is reducing the flows
of the colorado significantly lake powell and lake mead the two biggest reservoirs in the country
were nearly full in 2000 today they are at just about 30 percent capacity
the lake's now 155 feet below full it's dropped something like 50 feet this year and it's still
dropping yes and that's when power generation actually becomes to come into question it'll drop
so low that it may not be able to generate may not be able to generate power hydroelectric power yeah
brad udall has strong connections to the river as secretary of the interior his uncle stuart udall
opened the glen canyon dam his father congressman mo udall fought to channel river water to arizona
100 yards as a young man brad was a colorado river guide today he analyzes the impact of
climate change on water resources is the west on a collision course with climate change
in some ways yes but we have fully utilized this system we've over allocated it and we now need to
think about how to turn some of this back because the only lever we control right now in the river
is the demand lever we have no control over the supply so we have to dial back demand
70 of colorado river water goes to agriculture when the federal government declared the water
shortage it triggered mandatory cutbacks pinal county arizona got hit hard
pinal county alone we're going to be losing 300 000 acre feet of surface water
that's water that would be delivered from lake powell lake mead as part of the colorado river
300 000 acre feet is 98 billion gallons of water
whalen wurtz farms 500 acres in pinal county south of phoenix his family has tilled soil
here for four generations it's some of the most productive land in the state
crops from pinal county are shipped all over the country
words grows gourds cotton and alfalfa profitable but thirsty crops and his allotment of colorado
river water is being cut by 70 percent this is colorado river water yep kind of the the
lifeline of our uh irrigated ag here this comes straight in from lake mead correct this
is uh through hundreds of miles of canal system it's made its way down here to central arizona
and what percentage of your water is supplied by this canal it's been close to 50 percent
of the water that we've used to to farm here and uh this next year it's probably going to drop
down to about 20 percent of the water that we use that's one-seventh of what he was getting a
decade ago to use less water and make ends meet wurtz sold more than 300 acres to a solar farm
he dipped into retirement funds to repair and restart old wells he laser leveled his fields
to make irrigation more efficient but it's just not enough in the middle of this drought no it's
it's not enough so next year he told us he'll have to leave 150 acres uncultivated
what you see green here is eventually going to die i hope we'll have enough water to plant it
in the future but more than likely it's going to stay brown for quite some time
all the water users are going to have to give up something to keep that water in the lake
emilia flores is chairwoman of the colorado river indian tribes a reservation of four
tribes a few hours west of phoenix with the oldest and largest water rights in arizona
after being moved to reservations southwest tribes got rights to about a quarter of the river's flow
but government red tape and lack of infrastructure have prevented them from using their full
allotment flores told us until this drought tribes were never included in water negotiations why had
you not had a seat at the table before this because the tribes have always been overlooked
in the policy making and in in the law of the river but that day has come to an end when western
states first divvied up the colorado river in 1922 and later when the federal government built the
hoover and glen canyon dams the future seemed boundless and manageable through negotiation
and court battles states worked out agreements the law of the river to split the water equally
between upper and lower basin states the lower states use just about all their allotment and
it's fed their tremendous growth the upper states have never used their full share
now they are booming and say they need the water they've been promised i can see the bathtub brings
around here too we're trying to keep every drop of water we can into this reservoir for next year's
drinking water zach renstrom manages the water system for washington county in southwest utah
st george the county seat is one of the fastest growing metro areas in the u.s its population grew
29 percent this past decade the state of utah gets about a quarter of its water from the colorado but
most of washington county has only one source the virgin river which fills this reservoir so right
now we're in the process of implementing really strict conservation measures and if the cities
don't adopt those standards then we'll be out of water very quickly what is very quickly within the
next five to ten years so in the midst of this drought utah is proposing to build a one to two
billion dollar pipeline able to bring 27 billion gallons of water a year from dwindling lake powell
utah says it's entitled to the water by law you're talking about siphoning off water from
a lake that's already at a critically low level to help a city grow in the desert every state on the
colorado river was allotted so much water and at a water budget and so with their water budget the
state of utah has decided that it wants to use a portion of its water here in st george utah but it
was a budget that was set when water was plentiful it isn't anymore what is utah hoping for utah
wants the right to do what every other basin state has done we want to make sure that we have water
for our future for a hotter drier scenario that's coming up the story will continue after this
building a multi-billion dollar pipeline to pump out more water from an already rapidly
declining reservoir simply doesn't make sense in the 21st century jb hamby is vice president of the
board that runs california's imperial irrigation district one of the richest agricultural regions
in the country with the single largest allocation of water on the entire river
there's a lot of urban growth and sprawl occurring in other parts of the colorado river basin that's
really not necessarily sustainable hamby says california's imperial valley farms
have cut water usage almost 20 percent since 2003 but points out as the population of st george
utah grows so does its water use we need to think and rethink about how we grow and if we grow and
where we grow st george would say that they're not asking for more they're asking for what they need
i think what we all need to have is a reality check here and recognize that we live in an
era of limits right now and that's not going away anytime soon in fact it's only going to get worse
a big part of the problem is the law of the river itself a hodgepodge of rules and
regulations pieced together over the course of a century for example after all the litigation and
negotiations the law ends up allocating more water than actually flows down the colorado
and this in times of shortage channels that provide more than a third of arizona's water
must run dry before california is required to cut back so wait a minute arizona is being
called on to cut its water intake before california has to give up even one drop
pretty amazing it can't work in today's world and it's in some ways a little microcosm right of this
whole law of the river with these systems that have been put in place that just don't
work they can't work that's why a rethinks needed one example of rethinking the colorado
river indian tribes agreed to leave fields uncultivated leaving 48 billion gallons
almost three feet of water in lake mead the state of arizona agreed to pay them for their losses
my people want to help during this drought we want to save the river because
for centuries the river has always taken care of us so now we have to take care of the river
that's what negotiations are all about right it may be their ways to conserve and figure out how
to get the same goods and services for less water let's let ag grow crops that use less
water let's figure out how to make cities use water as efficiently as possible so i mean we
need some optimism here right desert ground but as we saw at this meeting of pinal county farmers
optimism is in short supply the farmer who's prepared the whole life worked the land farmed
the land is getting the short end of the stick farmers here and across the southwest
feed the country but it takes more than two-thirds of the colorado river to produce the bounty
with lake levels dropping arizona farmers like whale and wurtz fear their fertile fields
could become desert again you're going to see drastic cuts a drastic change of what next year
has to bring and for my particular family farm we're doing all that we can to keep it going
but i have a feeling it's just a matter of time before none of this exists
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