Tag Archive for: Bureau of Reclamation

Colorado River Water Managers Optimistic About Drought Plan as Deadline Looms

/in , , /by /Las Vegas Review-Journalby Colton Lochhead

Western water managers are optimistic that a deal to buoy the drought-stricken Colorado River can be pieced together in the waning days before a deadline set by the federal government rolls around next week.

The Bureau of Reclamation has given the seven states in the basin until the end of January to propose their own plan for voluntary reductions needed to prevent the river’s two main reservoirs from crashing, or risk the federal government moving forward with its own measures that would most likely result in mandated cuts.

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Drought Threatens Hydropower Produced by Colorado River

/in , , /by /Marketplaceby Savannah Maher

The seven U.S. states along the Colorado River — Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California — are up against yet another deadline to curb their water use amid extreme drought. They have until Tuesday to agree on massive voluntary cuts or the Bureau of Reclamation, a Department of the Interior agency, has said it will impose cuts on them.

The basin states have called the federal government’s bluff before, but whatever happens next week, millions of westerners and their livelihoods will be affected.

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Colorado River Water Negotiators Optimistic Ahead of Deadline

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Bobby Magill

Officials involved in the talks over how to cut Colorado River water use amid a historic drought say they’re optimistic a consensus will be reached by states before a Feb. 1 deadline even though the negotiations are in a delicate place.

If the seven Western states don’t reach consensus, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation will consider mandating water cuts—a move the states are working feverishly to avoid.

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‘It’s Imperative That We Take Action:’ Lake Powell Power Plant Could Stop Running by July

/in , , /by /12Newsby William Pitts

New predictions by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation show that Lake Powell’s water levels may fall below the level needed to produce power as soon as July 2023. The Bureau of Reclamation issues two-year predictions for the water levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead and revises those predictions every few months. It uses multiple projections to come up with expected, worst, and best probable outcomes.

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Feds Announce Plan for Massive Cuts in Colorado River Deliveries

/in , , /by /Arizona Daily Starby Tony Davis

The Bureau of Reclamation is for the first time legally signaling its intent to make major cutbacks in water deliveries from Lake Powell to Lake Mead and the Lower River Basin to protect the reservoirs that are on the edge of collapse. In online presentations last week, the bureau said it’s working through a formal process that could lead to cutting deliveries from Powell by 2 million to 3 more.

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Shasta Lake Level Causing Far-Reaching Ripple Effects

/in , , /by /KXTL (FOX 40)by Dennis Shanahan

California’s largest reservoir, Shasta Lake, is located 175 miles north of Sacramento. But what happens there impacts farming throughout the entire Central Valley.

Shasta Lake is capable of holding 4,552,100 acre-feet of water, which is almost five times the capacity of Folsom Lake. When full, Shasta boasts 365 miles of scenic shoreline. But for those visiting the lake in recent months, it is impossible to ignore how that shoreline is shrinking. The water is about 150 feet below the ideal surface level.

“We’re coming out of the three driest years on record,” explained Don Bader, area manager for the Bureau of Reclamation. “So that’s a huge hit to our storage, as you can see.”

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In Washington, Colorado Lawmakers Seek Long-Term Solutions for the Drying West

/in , , /by /CPR Newsby Caitlyn Kim

Some members of Congress from Colorado and New Mexico are encouraging the Bureau of Reclamation to use new funding to find long-term solutions to the Western drought, and particularly the dwindling and overextended Colorado River.

In a letter to Camille Touton, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, the lawmakers shared their priorities for how the $4 billion in drought money from the Inflation Reduction Act should be used.

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Pure Water Oceanside Project on Track for $9.9M Federal Grant

/in , /by /North Coast Current Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The Pure Water Oceanside project, a purification facility for recycled drinking water that opened in Oceanside earlier this year, is on track to receive nearly $10 million in federal grant money, the city recently announced.

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Citing Nevada’s Example, Cortez Masto Calls on Feds to Make Other States Conserve Water

/in , , /by /Nevada Currentby Jennifer Solis

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto joined state water officials Monday to demand immediate federal action on the Colorado River water crisis as Nevada faces its second year of mandatory water cuts.

Last week, federal officials announced that Nevada would lose about 8% of its water allocation, or 25,000 acre-feet of water, starting January 2023 as a stopgap solution to stabilize water levels at Lake Mead.

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‘There’s Simply Not Enough Water’: Colorado River Cutbacks Ripple Across Arizona

/in , , /by /Arizona Republicby Debra Utacia Krol

Up and down the Colorado River last week, the state, local and tribal leaders in charge of water supplies for more than 40 million people waited to see if the federal government would impose deeper cuts to river allocations.

The Bureau of Reclamation had given states and tribes an Aug. 15 deadline to find ways to conserve 2 to 4 million more acre-feet of water to stabilize the drought-stricken river and its two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell. Without such a plan, the bureau said, it would act.

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