Not enough water in the Colorado River to go around

Yuma County Water Rights

Colorado River

BY JOYCE LOBECK
Yuma Sun

As demand in the Southwest increases for dwindling water resources, thirsty communities are casting their eye on the Colorado River as the lifeblood for their future.

But there already are too many straws in the river, a system that studies indicate is over-allocated and highly variable.

Spanning parts of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, California and New Mexico, the Colorado River and its tributaries provide water to nearly 40 million people for municipal use, irrigate nearly 5.5 million acres of land and is the lifeblood for at least 22 Native American tribes, seven national wildlife refuges, four national recreation areas and 11 national parks, according to a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation study released in late 2012.

Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Denver, Phoenix, Tucson and Albuquerque are among the many large cities dependent on Colorado River water. It also is vital to Mexico to meet agricultural and municipal needs in that country. In addition, hydropower facilities along the river provide more than 4,200 megawatts of generating capacity to help meet the power needs of the West.

The Colorado River system is operated in accordance with the Law of River, a complex series of treaties, compacts, decrees, statutes, regulations, contracts and other legal documents and agreements.

Under the 1922 Colorado River Compact, both the upper basin that includes Wyoming, Utah and Colorado, and lower basin of California, Arizona and Nevada were allocated 7.5 million acre-feet each. In 1944, Mexico was allocated 1.5 million acre-feet.

It has since become clear that the early decades of the 20th century, the period upon which the 1922 compact was based, has been the wettest period in the Colorado River gage record.

“The Colorado River is the backbone of our dependable water supply,” said Herb Guenther, former Yuma County lawmaker who served as director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources for eight years and is now a consultant for water issues.

“And it has the most competition,” he said.

A tree-ring study by a University of Arizona research team in 2007 documented the year-by-year natural variability of stream flows in the upper Colorado River Basin back to A.D. 762 with various dry periods. The biggest drought found in the entire record was an epic drought during the mid-1100s. That 60-year drought was remarkable for the absence of any wet years interspersed with the dry ones. At the core of the drought was a period of 25 years in which the river averaged 15 percent below normal.

Drought has again come to the Colorado River basin with a number of years experiencing below average stream flows. While the consistent year-after-year below average flows of the drought in the 1100s hasn't been experienced in the last decade, projections for the near future are not encouraging.

Guenther said estimates for over-allocation of the river range from 2 million to 4 million-acre feet.

And new research by UA scientists indicates an unprecedented combination of heat plus decades of drought could be in store for the Southwest sometime this century.

For every 1.8-degree warming in the future, Colorado River flow is projected to decrease between 2 and 8 percent, Connie Woodhouse, a UA professor of geography and development, wrote in her 2009 paper, “A 1,200-year perspective of 21st century drought in Southwestern North America.”

She noted that in recent decades, temperatures have been higher than during the previous 1,200 years and future temperatures are predicted to be even warmer.

In addition, she said, other research predicts that changes in atmospheric circulation will reduce the amount of winter precipitation the Southwest receives in the future. And new tree-ring research indicates that long-term droughts in the Southwest often mean failure of both summer and winter precipitation.

“Droughts similar to those that occurred in the past could occur in the future, exacerbated by climate warming,” she said. “Even without warming, if you had one of those medieval droughts now, the impact could be devastating. Our water systems are not built to sustain us through that length of drought.”

Relief apparently isn't in sight anytime soon.

Current Colorado River basin snowpack is 77 percent of average, according to the USBR website. Total river storage system was 52 percent of its 60 million acre-foot capacity as of May 5, compared with 62 percent last year. Lake Mead is at 49 percent of capacity and Lake Powell 47 percent. That puts Mead at 38 feet above the trigger to declare a shortage.

And another hot, dry summer is forecast for the West.

“While much of the eastern half of the nation has cooler and wetter conditions relative to last summer, the West will bear the brunt of this summer's drought and heat,” reported Paul Pastelok, head of the AccuWeather.com Long Range Forecast Department.

“It's a bit scary,” Steve Hvinden, chief Boulder Canyon operations officer for the USBR, said of the situation during a water summit in Yuma. He noted that the latest models show a “significant chance of a shortage by 2016.”

And that's without any new straws in the river.

Editor's Note: This story is the first in a series called Yuma County Water Rights, which takes a look at pressing water issues in the region.

Banning, Beaumont Assemblyman Wants Salton Sea Restored

"There was a time when the Salton Sea attracted more visitors per year than Yosemite," Nestande said. "I want to empower the Salton Sea Authority so they can return the area to the recreation and destination site it once was."

North Shore Yacht Club, Salton Sea. (Photo: Renee Schiavone)

By Renee Schiavone
Banning-Beaumont Patch

Palm Desert's assemblyman has proposed legislation this week to spur action on restoring the shrinking Salton Sea by allocating $50 million for projects overseen by the Salton Sea Authority.

Assemblyman Brian Nestande, R-Palm Desert, introduced Assembly Bill 709 ahead of a hearing Friday in Mecca, during which representatives from government and private organizations will address the sea's needs.

"The issues surrounding the restoration of the Salton Sea have been going on for far too long," Nestande said. "State and federal inaction has stymied restoration progress. We need to return control to the Salton Sea Authority as the lead agency so they can move forward."

AB 709 would require that $50 million in Proposition 84 bond revenue be earmarked for sea improvements and would direct the California Wildlife Conservation Board to apply for matching federal funds in support of restoration.

The Salton Sea Authority would take charge of all projects under Nestande's bill. Currently, the SSA -- composed of officials from Riverside and Imperial counties -- acts primarily in an advisory capacity.

"There was a time when the Salton Sea attracted more visitors per year than Yosemite," Nestande said. "I want to empower the Salton Sea Authority so they can return the area to the recreation and destination site it once was."

According to the assemblyman, the SSA would have to develop a concrete restoration plan that passes muster with the state Legislative Analyst's Office, after which funds would be made available.

Nestande's bill follows several proposals introduced last month by Assemblyman Manuel Perez, D-Coachella, that address funding for a restoration feasibility study and mitigation measures necessary to prevent environmental damage that might result from changes to the sea.

The 365-square-mile body of water -- the largest part of which lies in Imperial County, with the north portion stretching to within a few miles of Thermal -- has been plagued with increasing salinity over the last 40 years, to the point that some of the sea's deeper places are saltier than the ocean.

According to studies, nutrient compounds from agricultural runoff have created a "eutrophic" condition where high levels of hydrogen sulfide and ammonia kill fish and produce gagging odors.

Water reclamation plans by local agencies and Mexico, as well as a reduction of Colorado River supplies, will shrink the sea in the coming years, according to the Salton Sea Authority.

Assemblyman Nestande serves the communities of Banning, Beaumont, Cabazon, Calimesa, Cherry Valley, Hemet, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, San Jacinto, White Water, 29 Palms, Joshua Tree, Landers, Morongo Valley, Pioneer Town, Yucaipa, and Yucca Valley.

Unfettered vistas restored in remote valley

This is one of the massive pits left behind after years of gold mining at the Hart mining area. Those pits will remain amid other reclamation efforts. Several new uses for the land have been suggested.

By DAVID DANELSKI
The Press-Enterprise

As road graders moved earth for a huge solar power array in northeastern San Bernardino County, the reverse occurred in a remote, nameless desert valley about 30 miles way.

There, utility crews removed the 18 miles of power lines, leaving the lush stretch of the Mojave Desert more like it was in 1900, before gold was discovered in the hills.

Finishing the job in early January, the crew used a crane to hoist 5,000-pound bundles of wire onto a flatbed truck bound for a Las Vegas scrap yard. They also hauled away piles of creosote-soaked utility poles. The work is part of a reclamation effort by Castle Mountain Venture, which is cleaning up after a decade of open-pit mining.

Returning land to a wilder state bucks the trend in Southern California's deserts, where energy developers are in a rush to tap the vast spaces and ample sunshine and wind to help meet the nation's clean energy needs. If all the pending applications were approved, wind and solar projects would cover as much as 880 square miles of public land.

Yet the valley's fate is far from clear.

Conservationists and at least one legislator want it added to the Mojave National Preserve, which surrounds it. An energy developer wants to buy the former mining land to conserve as wildlife habitat -- compensating for habitat destruction elsewhere. And a wind energy company wants to build wind turbines there and erect new power poles along the same route where workers just finished taking the old ones down.

David Lamfrom, California desert program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, has been monitoring the power line removal with great interest.

Earlier this month, after the poles were down, he drove the 140 miles from his home in Barstow to the no-name valley.

Pivoting full circle, he saw only grassland, Joshua trees, hills, mountain ranges and sky -- no buildings, fences, wires or pavement. Inspiring, he said.

"This is one of the few places left where you can see as far as 25 miles without seeing the hand of man," he said.

The 18 miles of electrical lines had paralleled a dirt road for 20 years, carrying power to the open-pit mine in the Castle Mountains near the Nevada border. Gold was discovered there in 1907.

The modern-day mine produced 1.34 million ounces of gold and about 400,000 ounces of silver in about 12 years, according to the mine manager. The digging stopped in 2001.

In addition to removing the utility poles and wires, Castle Mountain Venture also has shaped the spent ore into contours that mimic the landscape and re-established native plants. The huge open pits will remain.

Coveted Land

Lamfrom wants to see the whole area -- the 7,600 acres owned or claimed by Castle Mountain Venture and more than 21,000 acres of public land surrounding it -- added to the Mojave National Preserve.

Adding the land to the preserve is one of Sen. Dianne Feinstein's legislative goals. A bill introduced last year by the California Democrat to create two desert monuments included provisions to add the Castle Mountains area to the preserve. She said she plans to reintroduce the proposals this year.

When Congress created the preserve in 1994, the area was excluded because of active mining operations.

A boost to preservation efforts could come from Oakland-based BrightSource Energy Co., which is building a 5.6-square-mile solar energy project in the Ivanpah Valley off Interstate 15 near Primm, Nev. Construction is under way for the first array of mirrors that will focus sunlight on a tower, where steam will generate electricity.

The energy company wants to buy 7,600 acres from Castle Mountain Venture to make up for desert tortoise habitat lost to the Ivanpah development. The first phase of the BrightSource project already has displaced 23 tortoises, a species threatened with extinction.

Such a deal would prohibit future mining, making the land an even stronger candidate for inclusion in the national preserve.

BrightSource's land-acquisition proposal is under review by the state energy commission, the BLM, California Department of Fish and Game, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Unanswered Questions

Complicating efforts to restore the valley to a wilder state are the pending wind development application and questions about whether tortoises actually would live in the area, as BrightSource envisions.

Oak Creek Energy Co., which has wind farms in the Tehachapi area, filed an application with the U.S. Bureau Land Management to develop wind turbines on thousands of acres of public land near the mine.

Ed Duggan, the company's executive vice president, said wind energy can be developed there in conjunction with conservation efforts. The company would mostly use existing roads and other disturbed areas, he said.

If the various agencies approve BrightSource's plan to buy the former mining land, it might not benefit tortoises much, according to some observers.

"It's pretty poor habitat," said Mike Conner, California director of the Western Watersheds Project, a conservation group that has followed efforts to bring large energy developments to the desert.

A wildlife survey of the mining area done last March found tortoise burrows but no live animals, and Juan Hernandez, a biologist retained by the mining partnership.

Replacement habitat should be of equal or better quality than the habitat destroyed, and the proposed replacement land just isn't as good for tortoises, Conner said.

U.S. Geological Survey scientist Kristin Berry, who has studied the animals since the 1970s, said tortoises are found only occasionally at elevations above 4,000 feet. The land BrightSource wants to buy ranges from 4,100 to 5,200 feet.

Hernandez said about 3,200 acres of the land under consideration has plants that tortoises eat, including desert dandelion, lotus and notched phacelia.

Mick Lynch, the mine manager, said tortoises were fenced out of the mining area about 20 years ago, but those fences have since been removed so the animals can return.

In addition, tortoises are expected to migrate to higher elevations as the globe warms, according to the land-buy proposal BrightSource submitted to the California Energy Commission and other agencies.

Bighorns At Play

Lamfrom and Hernandez said protecting the land around the mine would have conservation benefits beyond providing habitat for tortoises.

The area includes a rare ecosystem of native bunch grasses and a forest of full-sized Joshua trees.

Adding the area to the preserve could allow for reintroduction of antelope-like pronghorn, which are second only to the cheetah in running speed. The grazers are believed to have been hunted out by gold miners in the early 20th century.

The area also is a route for bighorn sheep making their way between the Piute and New York mountain ranges. Lynch said he often has seen bighorns running up and down the steep slopes of mine pits. "They are like kids at a playground," he said.

Lamfrom is hopeful that the deal will win approval and the land can become part of the Mojave National Preserve. "This could be the finest example of high desert grasslands in California," he said.