The Denver Post – Guest commentary: Water Crisis Demands Attention

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images. A bleached “bathtub ring” is visible on the rocky banks of Lake Powell in Utah in this 2015 file photo. 

This editorial by Brian Richter was originally published by the Denver Post. View original source here.

Among the important lessons learned from the COVID pandemic is that we need to be ever vigilant in monitoring for big emerging threats. And we must be poised to respond when risks escalate.

Given the dangerous water shortage risks mounting in the Colorado River basin, Colorado’s political leaders and water managers must heed those lessons and act quickly.

The Colorado River is the aqueous infrastructure upon which life in the American Southwest has been built. Its water flows through homes and factories from Los Angeles to Denver. River water pulses through power plants that electrify a regional economy the size of Australia’s, and it irrigates farms in the desert that deliver almost all the nation’s leafy vegetables in winter. Over the past century, the federal government built reservoirs throughout the river basin to capture and redirect water to cities and farms, generate hydro-powered electricity, and create massive playgrounds for water skiers and house boaters. In 2000, those reservoirs were nearly brim full. There seemed to be enough water for everyone to do everything.

Then the climate began to change. Scientists now label the past twenty years as a “megadrought,” one of the two driest periods in the past 1200 years. The river’s flow has decreased by 20% but we have not lowered our water use accordingly; the water demands of 40 million people now regularly exceed annual river flows. Each year, water managers must tap deeper into reservoirs to meet these needs. Lake Mead and Lake Powell – our nation’s two largest reservoirs — are now 60% empty. Lake Powell dropped 27 feet during the past year alone.

Everyone dependent on this river should be concerned. Just two more years like 2020 could set off a chain of damaging consequences. The hydropower turbines in Glen Canyon Dam would stop spinning, sending a shockwave of electricity shortages across the Southwest. Lacking outflow through the turbines, water remaining in Lake Powell becomes entrapped, shutting off flow into the Grand Canyon and jeopardizing endangered fish and ecosystems. Without replenishment from the river, Lake Mead would be rapidly drained by tens of millions of water users in California, Arizona, and Nevada.

Those water-starved ‘Lower Basin’ states would no longer be receiving their share of water as mandated by the 98-year-old Colorado River Compact. If the seven states sharing the river cannot work out an emergency solution, the case would move quickly into the courts, with the expected ruling that the ‘Upper Basin’ states of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico must immediately and drastically reduce their use of the river.

Under Colorado water law, Front Range cities from Colorado Springs to Fort Collins would be among the first to lose their water entitlements, curtailing their transmountain diversions from the river. More than half of Denver’s water is supplied by these diversions.

There are many pathways to sustainable water use in the Colorado River basin. Smart water conservation programs have enabled cities to lower their water use even while their populations have grown. Farms are shifting to less water-intensive crops and becoming more efficient in their irrigation.

But these transitions will take many years to implement at the scale needed, and we have run out of time. Two back-to-back years like 1989-1990 or 2002-2003 would trigger this water shortage catastrophe. Given this winter’s paltry snowpack, Lake Powell will likely take another big drop this year, leaving us perilously closer to disaster.

Only one solution can be implemented at the necessary scale and speed. We can pay farmers on the Western Slope to temporarily suspend irrigation and allow Powell to begin refilling. Fortunately, there are hundreds of willing farmers ready to help if the financial incentives are there.

This past year showed what can happen when politicians fail to respond to societal risk in a timely fashion. It is time for our leaders to move aggressively to manage our water risk.

Brian Richter led The Nature Conservancy’s global water program for two decades. As president of Sustainable Waters he advises public and private entities about water scarcity risks. He also teaches water sustainability at the University of Virginia. His latest book, Chasing Water: A Guide for Moving from Scarcity to Sustainability” was published in 2014.

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.