The population around the Colorado River Basin has exploded in recent years, with the area now supporting roughly 40 million people. However, as more and more people are discovering the magic of the American West, water levels are declining to their lowest levels in history.
The Colorado River, which serves roughly 10% of the country, is the region’s most important waterway. Fed by our country’s largest reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the 1,450-mile river starts in the Colorado Rockies and ends in the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. Since 2000, the Colorado River basin has been experiencing a historic, prolonged drought that has most importantly impacted regional water supply and hydropower.
In an effort to conserve water and curb usage, states in the Upper Colorado River Basin have launched a $125 million program aimed at reducing reliance on the shrinking river.
The Upper Colorado River Commission, which represents Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming has put the Upper Basin System Conservation Pilot Program into effect, which will pay users with rights to the river’s waters to temporarily forego their allocations.
The program is part of a plan the four states announced this summer in response to demands from the Bureau of Reclamation for the seven Basin states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming) to cut their use by as much as 4 million acre feet.
The Upper Colorado River’s pilot program would pay water users at least $150 per acre foot of water conserved, or about 326,000 gallons. Although the commission has begun accepting applications for participants, the program still depends on the passage of the Colorado River Basin Conservation Act, S. 4579 which was offered by Sen. Hickenlooper (D-CO), Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) in the 117th Congress. This bill would:
Reauthorize the Pilot Program for Funding the Creation of Colorado River System Water Through Voluntary Water Conservation and Reductions in Use through the end of FY2026; and
Require DOI to submit an updated report to Congress on the effectiveness of the program together with a recommendation on whether it should be continued by the end of FY2027.
To view the Senate hearing on this legislation, click here.