Opinion: If the feds won’t force action, how can the rest of us save a rapidly deteriorating Lake Mead and Lake Powell? These 5 things might help.
By Joanna Allhands || The Arizona Republic
How are we supposed to save Lake Mead and Lake Powell now?
Eight weeks of negotiations didn’t get us anywhere near the 2 million to 4 million acre-feet of additional water conservation that must happen in 2023 to keep the nation’s two largest reservoirs on life support.
The federal Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees operation of the lakes, declined to offer any additional deadlines for new plans, after the seven states that receive Colorado River water were unable to agree on anything.
It also backed away from the threat it made in June of dictating cuts if states couldn’t save enough water. For now, all actions are voluntary.
That’s a mistake.
But if these are the cards we’re dealt, what needs to happen now?
1. No more kicking the can
It’s time to admit that after several years and multiple attempts to leave more water in the lakes, all we’ve done is kick the can.
The Band-Aids keep getting bigger, and the time we’ve bought with them keeps shrinking, because we still use much more water than the Colorado River can reliably produce.
We’ve hit a crossroads: If we don’t do a lot more to shrink this imbalance in 2023, the lakes are done.
Presuming we have another runoff year like this one (which is probable, given that similar dry weather conditions are forecast), we’d need to conserve an additional 2.5 million acre-feet next year, simply to keep Lake Mead and Lake Powell from plunging any lower.
And if we fail to do so, the amount we’d need to conserve in 2024 goes up exponentially to stabilize the lakes at those same minimal levels.
In other words, if we think we can volunteer 600,000, maybe a million acre-feet next year to buy time until we can get our ducks in a row on larger amounts, we’ve already lost. Because the price only goes up from here.
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