My Turn: Water crisis averted on the Colorado River? Not so fast

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the agency tasked with managing water and power in the West, issued its annual projections for water levels at Lake Mead for the next two years. The report confirmed that no Lower Basin water shortage, and the mandatory cutbacks that come with that, will be imposed next year.

This is very good news, in part the result of a wet winter. But it also shows the tremendous progress that has been made on water conservation by water agencies and water users in the region.

We should use this brief reprieve to reflect on how we achieved our past successes, assess the current situation, and then redouble our efforts to improve how we use, manage and share our limited supply of Colorado River water.

The stakes are high at Lake Mead

The progress thus far on protecting Lake Mead has followed the same course of past successes in Arizona water management. Growing up and working for years here in Arizona, I learned about leaders who made farsighted decisions and investments to plan for a secure water future. The Salt River Project. The Central Arizona Project. The 1980 Groundwater Management Act. The Arizona Water Banking Authority.

To put these pillars of desert water management in place, our leaders acknowledged reality, took a long-term perspective, collaborated, compromised and took bold action. Perhaps the defining test of this generation’s water leadership will be our ability to work together to ensure the health of the Colorado River system, most starkly measured by the elevation at Lake Mead.

A growing number of people in the region and across the nation are taking notice because the stakes are obviously very high.

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It is important to acknowledge the reality that notwithstanding the current reprieve, the long-term challenge we face in the region hasn’t changed. The Colorado River — the source of 40 percent of Arizona’s water supplies and cornerstone of Western livelihoods — is suffering the effects of a 17-year drought. Communities in the Colorado River basin remain vulnerable to future shortages.

The water level at Lake Mead is likely to hover close to the trigger levels for a shortage over the next few years, and its storage capacity remains below 40 percent despite additional conservation and increased deliveries from the Upper Basin.

Demand for water still outstrips supply

Drought, rising temperatures and population growth exacerbate a fundamental problem on the Colorado River — demand for its water outstrips supply. We must continue to find new ways to use less water, not only for the health of the Colorado River system, but for the benefit of the communities, economies, wildlife and livelihoods that depend on it.

Arizona water stakeholders — meaning all of us — need to encourage and support the work of state governments and the Department of the Interior to complete their drought contingency plans and to develop water conservation tools and programs that can address the basin’s water supply risks on an ongoing basis.

Efforts such as the System Conservation Pilot Program, which compensates those who voluntarily reduce their water use in both the Upper and Lower basins, have helped to raise Lake Mead’s elevation.

Arizona has been at the cutting edge in developing new conservation agreements. A recent agreement with the Gila River Indian Community to leave a major portion of the community’s Colorado River water in Lake Mead showed that broad partnerships provide benefits to the entire basin. It also proved that diverse stakeholder groups can rally around a shared interest in water security to create truly innovative solutions.

We're using less water, but work remains

Even as populations continue to grow across the Southwest, we have seen that we can significantly reduce water use and continue to thrive. In fact, the Bureau of Reclamation recently forecasted that Colorado River water consumption in California, Nevada and Arizona in 2017 will be at its lowest since 1992. It is possible — and in fact necessary — to get by with less water.

Even though we have avoided a shortage declaration for 2018, the work is far from over. While the current conservation efforts have been crucial, many of them are still in early stages, and a strong demand exists for more. We need our water leaders and elected officials to continue these efforts so that they can be scaled up and achieve the level of conservation that can hold off shortage and promote flexible water management for people and the environment.

SPECIAL REPORT:As the river runs dry

Arizonans can take a moment to thank local, water agency, state and federal leaders for the conservation programs that helped us avoid a shortage declaration. And we can also urge those leaders to stay on the course of collaboration, innovation and conservation so that we don’t have to make drastic changes that could disrupt our economy and damage our way of life.

Working with the other basin states, federal agencies and Mexico, we in Arizona have an opportunity to write this generation’s chapter as a story of smart regional water stewardship. When it comes to ensuring the health of the river system that sustains us and continuing to improve how we use, manage and share water, we truly are all in this together.

Kevin Moran is senior director of the Environmental Defense Fund’s Colorado River Program, directing strategy and operations in the seven Colorado River Basin states – Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.