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WATER POLITICS

Via The Denver Post, an interesting article regarding recent moves between the U.S. and Mexico to ramp up discussions over efforts to enable downstream states to build desalting plants in Mexico that could provide water, albeit expensively, to both Mexico and the U.S.  As the article notes, they are also launching talks for Mexico to store some of its water in the U.S. in exchange for agreeing to take hits during shortages:

“…The meeting marks a new era in Western water politics when parched communities in Nevada, Arizona and California are eyeing water south of the border, not just north from Colorado and our neighbors.

“This takes some of the pressure off us as Coloradans,” says Glenwood Springs water lawyer Jim Lochhead, a lead negotiator in the deal.

Water, like high-risk mortgage bundles, is complicated stuff — not a topic most of us follow until there’s a crisis.

And no wonder. The 66 percent of our water that Colorado taps from the river has flowed bountifully throughout the state’s history.

But panic spread in 2002 when severe drought triggered shortages that caused Lake Powell to plummet. Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming must keep the reservoir full to meet their obligation to deliver 7.5 million acre-feet annually to Arizona, Nevada and California, which, in turn, must send about 1.5 million acre-feet to Mexico under a 1944 treaty.

Had the drought continued with such severity, experts predicted Lake Powell could have dried up by this year. Drastic cutbacks would have made painfully real the legal pecking order among Colorado’s river users, pitting Western Slope farmers with long- standing rights against Front Range city folk whose rights are far more junior.

“If the drought of 2002 taught us one thing, it’s that our water supplies are finite,” says Jennifer Gimbel of the Colorado Water Conservation Board.

“We learned in 2002 how fast things can turn,” adds Lochhead.

That crisis led to five years of talks resulting in a 2007 pact protecting Colorado’s water supplies in case of a long-lasting drought. Colorado feels particularly vulnerable because it doesn’t yet tap all its river water but ultimately needs its full share if our population doubles by 2050, as the state expects, even with the economic downturn.

Still, Nevada, Arizona and California keep scrambling to wean themselves off Colorado’s unused share and make up for shortages caused by climate change and their own growth. Their water bank, Lake Mead, is only 47 percent full. If drought continues three more years, Las Vegas is projected to lose 40 percent of its water supply. If it continues five more years, it could lose 90 percent.

That’s why they’re looking to Mexico for salvation.

Water talks between the two countries were set back dramatically in September when the main U.S. and Mexican envoys on the issue were killed, together, in a plane crash.

Wednesday’s ceremony seeks to ramp up the two men’s efforts to enable downstream states to build desalting plants in Mexico that could provide water, albeit expensively, to both countries. And it launches talks for Mexico to store some of its water in the U.S. in exchange for agreeing to take its hits during shortages.

Those talks are expected to top Ken Salazar’s to-do list on water issues when he takes over the Interior Department.

“We have no choice but to bring in supplies from the outside,” says Southern Nevada Water Authority’s Pat Mulroy, who also is eyeing piping in water from the Mississippi River to quench her customers.

“Mark my words,” she continues, “unless we do something considered outrageous by today’s standards, the West is going to run dry.”