Losing Eden by Sara Dant;

Author:Sara Dant; [Dant, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: NAT038000 NATURE / Natural Resources, NAT049000 NATURE / Regional, HIS036140 HISTORY / United States / State & Local / West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY)
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

24. Colorado River Compact region. Map by Amber Bell.

In the Southwest, the Colorado River serves as the wellspring of the region’s “hydraulic society.” The federal government manages the mighty river according to the so-called Law of the River, a suite of compacts and agreements among and between Mexico and the seven states with straws in its waters. The foundation of this entangled bureaucracy is the Colorado River Compact (CRC), which some have called the western equivalent of the Constitution. Signed in 1922 during the interwar era, the CRC defines the often strained relationships and water allocations between the upper basin states (Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico) and the lower basin states (Arizona, Nevada, and California). Over the years, the CRC has been a lightning rod of contention, particularly because the upper basin states supply the water that the lower basin states suck dry. In 1922 the CRC codified an estimated annual river flow of 17.5 million acre-feet as the basis for allocation. Each basin received 7.5 million acre-feet annually, Mexico received 1.5 million acre-feet annually, and the surplus could be divided among the lower basin states (with everyone understanding what this really meant: California).

And the fighting began. California refused to ratify the CRC until Congress authorized the Boulder Canyon Dam project (among others benefiting California), Arizona wanted to know exactly who was getting exactly what in the lower basin or it would refuse to ratify, and so on. Finally, in 1928 six of the seven states (all except Arizona) ratified the compact, and the drawdowns began in earnest. California, which adds not a drop to the Colorado River, nevertheless took (and still takes) the biggest drink, 4.4 million acre-feet annually, which never sat well with the other lower basin states.

Significantly, for the long-term management of this resource, the 17.5 million acre-feet (maf) estimated annual flow has proven to be an inflated prediction rather than an accurate annual flow. Instead, according to a 2020 U.S. Geological Survey study, the Colorado River’s flow has declined by about 20 percent on average over the last century and well over half of that decline is due to warming temperatures across the region. More specifically, the average annual flow between 1906 and 2015, measured at Lee’s Ferry, for example, recorded only 14.8 maf—fully 16 percent lower than the CRC allocation. And in the twenty-first century’s extended drought, this annual average flow has dwindled to 12.4 maf—nearly a third lower than the CRC allocation. Yet the once mighty river’s tamed water was the elixir the arid West craved if it was to realize its potential as the nation’s breadbasket.

The new, grand-scale cultivation the Colorado made possible was perhaps most remarkable in California. By 1930 the Golden State had become home to fully half of the entire West’s population (5.5 million out of 11 million). Blessed by its geography, California benefits from a weather pattern called the Pacific High—a high-pressure system that parks just off the coastline and diverts incoming storms northward, thereby bathing the Golden State in sunshine from March through October.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.