A Water Crisis in the West
Three-year drought presents an opportunity for reform
Posted: 04-Aug-2009; Updated: 11-Aug-2009
EDF is helping find ways for California to provide water to its cities, farms and rivers. View full-size version of this graphic.
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In California’s famed Central Valley, desperate almond growers are cutting down prize groves. Along the coast, fishing communities are in similar distress, with the salmon season closed for a record second straight year, at an estimated loss of $279 million, due to low river levels among other factors. And across the Golden State’s cities, water is being strictly rationed.
California is not alone. Throughout the West, a severe three-year drought has revived old battles among cities, farmers and conservationists over dwindling supplies of water. In response, EDF is launching projects that will bring Western water management into the 21st century. The need for reform is urgent.
Transforming how the West views water
In many parts of the West, water has long been managed by the courts, through lawsuits among users. The drought has upended this jerry-rigged system. “We’re in a perfect storm,” says Laura Harnish, California regional director for EDF. "Drought, climate change and the collapse of entire ecosystems. No one can claim the status quo is working."
Perhaps the only good thing about the crisis is that it has forced everyone to look afresh at how they use, and misuse, water. For example, one of the country’s largest agricultural organizations, representing nearly half of the West’s farmers, recently called Harnish to ask for EDF’s help on finding a comprehensive water solution for California.
“The drought has pulled people into a conversation,” says Harnish. “We all need to stop pointing fingers and resorting to short-term fixes.”
Water is too cheap and supply is limited
The problem with water in the West is not just that supply is limited, but that it is too cheap. This, for example, has encouraged farmers to irrigate low-profit crops in desert environments even as populations grow.
EDF has long argued for market-based solutions to such unsustainable practices. The critical first step is to assure that rivers and deltas and the fish that depend on them have enough water. As farmers and urban districts make the necessary adjustments, innovations in water conservation will take root.
This is already beginning to happen in California, where EDF is encouraging, through legislation and policy changes, the buying and selling of water by hundreds of farmers.
Saving some water for ecosystems
Recently EDF helped win sweeping changes to the way water is managed in the Colorado River.
In the Colorado River Delta, where jaguars once roamed, the mighty Colorado River has been reduced to a trickle, its flow siphoned off by seven western states and Mexico. State by state, EDF is working on the creation of environmental water rights to ensure that ecosystem needs are met.
Recently we helped win sweeping changes to the way water is managed in the Colorado River — the most significant change since the Colorado River Compact was signed in 1922. EDF scientist Jennifer Pitt helped shape a plan that paves the way for the United States and Mexico to protect the Colorado River Delta. In recognition, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar presented a Partners in Conservation award to EDF as one of the diverse groups that helped craft the plan.
In Texas, EDF helped lead a first in-the-nation effort for a law that will result in standards guaranteeing all Texas rivers and bays enough freshwater to reImain ecologically healthy. The law will allow seasonal floods and low flows — which is what rivers need to stay healthy and sustain migratory birds and other wildlife. “Finally, we’ll have a bottom-up process that can be replicated across the nation,” says Mary Kelly, director of our Land, Water and Wildlife program.
An alternative to selling out: Landowner tax credit
One of the greatest impediments to fixing the West’s water woes is Gold Rush-era “use it or lose it” water rights that have dried up rivers and killed wildlife. This year EDF helped pass legislation in Colorado that for the first time provides an income tax credit for landowners who donate their water to protect rivers and streams. “This law gives Colorado’s farmers and ranchers an alternative to selling their rights to water developers, who export the water to suburban areas,” says EDF Rocky Mountain director Dan Grossman.
Our work is being aided by a new generation of Western water managers who seek to supply water without killing the river. Says Kelly: “My dream is that 20 years from now, agriculture and cities will be thriving and you’ll be able to float the Colorado River all the way to the Gulf of California, enjoying a huge profusion of birds along the way.”
Read other stories from the Summer 2009 Solutions newsletter [PDF].
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