| The Mighty Colorado
It was almost 1,500 years ago when humans tapped the Colorado River for the first time. Since then, its waters have been claimed, reclaimed, divided, and subdivided many times. In fact, every drop of the average five trillion gallons of water annually flowing along its banks is accounted for.
The Colorado is often described as the most controversial and regulated river in the country. Given its importance to the entire Southwest, it is not surprising that there was—and still is—controversy over how to share this major river. Perhaps more surprising is the multitude of agreements have been crafted and have endured over the years.
Because of the tremendous water needs and desire for flood control, the development of large water diversion projects (including dams and hydropower plants) on the Colorado has always involved barter and compromise.
When the first projects were built in the early 1900s, the atmosphere was one of a developing country anxious to build an economy in a sparsely settled region. Due to the increasing influences of urbanization, Native Americans, and environmental protection needs, the era of large water project development has come to an end.
This change is readily evident. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has shifted from dam–building to resource management: advocating conservation and reuse; facilitating better use of existing water project infrastructure and water supplies; resolving water quality problems; and environmental protection and restoration.
People throughout the Southwestern U.S. depend on the Colorado’s water for a wide variety of uses including drinking water, crop irrigation, electricity, industrial uses, and recreation. Water from the river plays an integral part in keeping over 3.5 million acres of farmland in production and the thirsts of 25 million people quenched. In essence, the water allows cities and farms to achieve the impossible by creating thriving economies where there otherwise would be none.
Seven western states, the federal government, the Republic of Mexico, and dozens of Native American tribes share rights to the water that flows 1,450 miles from Wyoming down to the Sea of Cortez, in the Gulf of California, Baja Mexico.
Water is delivered over the Continental Divide to supply the City of Denver. Its flows are diverted in Utah to the Salt Lake Valley, in New Mexico to the Rio Grande Basin, in Wyoming to serve Cheyenne, and in California to the southern coastal plain and irrigation districts. More water is exported from the Colorado’s 250,000 square–mile basin than from any other river basin in the United States.
Though Colorado River water has been heavily sought after for decades, there are legal limits as to how much water each party can take from the river. While river flows can be erratic, an extensive system of reservoirs has kept the water supply relatively stable over the past 50 years. Consumption, however, has continued to increase. Read about the first–of–its kind conservation program addressing these issues on the lower Colorado River: click here.
California Biodiversity News: Volume 9, Number 1 |
Without water, the vast deserts and arid plains in all seven basin states could not be developed—the land that could benefit from water for irrigation far exceeds available yields of the Colorado River. Some of the states ultimately could make full use of most of the water in the Colorado River by themselves if they were not obligated to share that water. For example, in Arizona the available land resources exceed water resources by at least one hundredfold.