Arizona’s tribal, rural communities will bear the brunt as Colorado River plan fails to stabilize

The federal framework for the Colorado River doesn’t provide enough certainty for lower basin states, according to Sarah Porter, director of the Arizona State University Kyl Center for Water Policy.

She told a SciLine webinar on Thursday that the final environmental impact statement, or FEIS, is focused on protecting water infrastructure and the ability to produce hydropower.

However, she said it doesn’t resolve conflict between the upper and lower basins.

“It doesn’t achieve the things the basin really needs at this point,” Porter said. “It doesn’t place the basin on a path to stabilizing the system at all. It really sort of tells how we’ll manage things when they get really bad, as they are right now.”

She expects legal challenges from the lower basin about the administrative process the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation used to establish cuts.

Porter also expects what’s known as a compact call to compel the upper basin to meet its obligations of sending water downriver as spelled out in the 1922 Colorado River Compact.

In the meantime, lower basin cities will work to mitigate the cuts through conservation and investments in water reclamation.

“Those cities are making massive investments in advanced water purification to treat reclaimed water to potable [standards] to reduce reliance on annual deliveries of Colorado River water,” Porter said.

She believes disruptive impacts will fall on tribal and rural communities in the lower basin, especially when it comes to agriculture.

“We’ll all notice that winter vegetables are harder to come by because the Imperial Irrigation District, the Palo Verde Irrigation District and Yuma County are the places where the nation’s winter vegetables are grown,” Porter said. “We probably won’t be eating as many salads because that’s where all the winter lettuce … it’s all grown in Yuma.”

She believes the FEIS has created less consensus among the seven basin states because the lower basin is on the hook for 3 million acre-feet of water cuts, while the upper basin remains untouched.

“We really need to figure out a way collectively to be reducing demand in the Colorado River by at least 3 million acre-feet out of the 15 million and that probably can’t all fall on the lower basin. The lower basin didn’t agree to be junior to the upper basin,” Porter said.

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