As we reported earlier. The federal government is further reducing
the amount of water states can get from the Colorado River basin.
The move comes as the American West faces unprecedented challenges
to preserve a river that continues to rapidly recede. Stephanie Sy,
who was in Arizona has our report.
Judy. Today's water cuts demonstrate the ongoing severity of the
drought in the West. Nearly 40 million people across seven states
as well as Mexico rely on the Colorado River basin. As of now, it's
reservoirs. Lake Mead and Lake Powell are both below 30% full as
climate change continues to fuel drier conditions. Next year, Arizona
will lose 21% of its yearly supply of river water. Nevada will go
without 8% and Mexico loses 7%.
Of its allotment for more on what all of this means. I'm joined by
Jennifer Pit. She has spent years researching and working to protect
ecosystems in the Colorado River Basin, most recently as a program
director for the National Audubon Society. Jennifer Thank you so
much for joining the new Zahra want to jump right in the Euro, U.
S Bureau of Reclamation announced. Lake Mead, which supplies water
to about 25 million people, is at an unprecedented tier two shortage
that was announced today and that has trigger
Heard these cuts.
How significant are they? That's the cuts are significant. But I
think even more significant is the rapidity with which the reservoirs
on the Colorado River are declining. And we have clear indications
that these cuts won't be enough. And today was supposed to be this
deadline for all of these states to reach an agreement on how to
make cuts amounting to 2 to 4 million acre feet of water. They didn't
meet that deadline are today's cuts.
We should expect to see by way of federal intervention and
They clearly don't seem to be enough. I think you're exactly right
there. And no, I don't think that's all we're going to see. The water
just isn't there. The question is not whether there will be cuts.
The question is who will make the decision about?
The cuts and how they will be allocated to different water users
in the basin, So I would expect that by the time 2023 rolls around,
we will have a sense of who will be using less water because we have
no choice at this point, Okay? And is that going to require all they
didn't set a new deadline? The Bureau of Reclamation Today the state's
missed today's deadline. So what does happen next? At what point
do we see more federal intervention or is there hope that this
States are going to reach some cooperative agreement. So you're correct
in pointing out that there was no new deadline established today,
and I do think
The federal government officials as well as really everybody who
works on the Colorado River would much prefer to see the states come
up with their own collaborative solution. But I think the message
we heard today is that if that doesn't happen
There is no doubt that the federal government will take unilateral
action.
They have to do that to prevent catastrophic outcomes on the Colorado
River, the Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner said today. Jennifer
that the system is approaching a quote, tipping point and without
action. We cannot protect the system. What broad actions do you think
are required at this point?
At this point, it's really going to be required that all water users
in all of the geography is of the Colorado River basin, using Colorado
River water figure out ways to use less, and that means cities figuring
out how to use last. That means
Irrigated agriculture. Figuring out how to use last. It means everybody
has to reduce uses of Colorado River water. You talk about how it's
used and I'm in Arizona, Jennifer, which is facing some of the biggest
cuts, and yet you see urban development continuing here on checked
when you have growing cities out west here, demanding more and more
water from a shrinking river. How does that compute?
And well, it can seem impossible at times. One thing I would point
out is that in the last 20 years we have seen that where cities don't
have access to water. They actually figure out how to add population
and new housing developments without increasing their water use.
And I think candidate number one for showing us how to do that. At
this point is Las Vegas. They are using less water than they were
20 years ago, and they have
Creased their population so it can be done. We just have to figure
out how to live a good life in the West with less water use. I just
want to ask you a sort of a mountaintop view question, and that is
is continuing to talk about this problem as a drought.
The right framing or is it more realistic at this point to think
about this as a climate change driven phenomenon that is not going
to end? That's a great question. And, yes, I think you're spot on.
Um, what we're seeing is that even in years, with average snowpack,
historically average snowpack we're getting run off into the river
that is well below average.
That's the result of the heat that we're experiencing in this region
evaporating the water off the land so that we're not getting water
into the rivers and where we don't have that supply that we used
to. So we can expect this problem to continue, and we need to figure
out durable solutions to this water supply crisis. Jennifer Pit,
the Colorado River program director with the Ottoman Society, Thank
you so much for joining the news hour.