Waterkeeper Alliance Southwest Threats Assessment
Est. 2015
Produced by Waterkeeper Alliance Affiliate Coordinator Bart Mihailovich and Waterkeeper Alliance intern Lydia Bleifuss
Outline:
- Purpose
- History of water in the Southwest
- How Water Quantity and Water Quality intersect
- Climate change and water in the U.S. Southwest
- Colorado River threats & Colorado River Connected
- Other water threats in the U.S. Southwest
- Emerging water threats in the U.S. Southwest
- WKAs “Hot Spots” in U.S. Southwest
- References and Biographies
Southwest US defined: For the purpose of this report and our efforts to grow Waterkeepers and Affiliates in the Southwest, we’re using a hybrid definition of the US Southwest; the Colorado River basin states; Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada and Utah, plus traditionally defined core Southwest states, Texas and New Mexico.
I. Purpose
To explore water issues in the greater Southwestern region of the United States, this report tells the story and background of this arid region, and provides examples of threatened waterways. This report identifies existing and emerging waterway challenges in the Southwest U.S.; which in turn is allowing Waterkeeper Alliance to tell the water story of this extremely important region, and helping our support and advocacy teams establish priorities for a new regional network of Waterkeeper organizations and Affiliate partners.
II. History of water in the Southwest
Colorado River Compact:
The Colorado River Compact divided the Colorado River Basin into the Upper and Lower Basins. The division point is Lees Ferry, a point in the mainstem of the Colorado River about 30 river miles south of the Utah-Arizona boundary, just downstream of Glen Canyon Dam.
The “Upper Basin” includes those parts of the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming within and from which waters naturally drain into the Colorado River system above Lees Ferry, and all parts of these States that are not part of the river’s drainage system but may benefit from water diverted from the system above Lees Ferry.
The “Lower Basin” includes those parts of the states of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah within and from which waters naturally drain into the Colorado River system below Lees Ferry, and all parts of these States that are not part of the river’s drainage system but may benefit from water diverted from the system below Lees Ferry.
The Colorado River Compact apportioned to each basin the use of 7,500,000 acre-feet of water per year from the Colorado River system in perpetuity.
Colorado River basin states apportionment:
On October 11, 1948, the Upper Basin States entered into the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact, which apportioned use of the Upper Basin waters among them. The compact permits Arizona to use 50,000 acre-feet of water annually from the upper Colorado River system, and apportioned the remaining water to the Upper Basin States in the following percentages: Colorado, 51.75 percent; New Mexico, 11.25 percent; Utah, 23 percent; and Wyoming, 14 percent.
The Lower Basin States of Arizona, California, and Nevada were not able to reach agreement on their apportionments. So in 1952, Arizona filed suit in the United States Supreme Court to determine how the waters of the Lower Basin should be divided. In October 1964, the Court issued a decree that of the first 7,500,000 acre-feet of mainstem water in the Lower Basin, California is entitled to 4,400,000 acre-feet, Arizona 2,800,000 acre-feet, and Nevada, 300,000 acre-feet.
The Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1928 designated the U.S. Secretary of the Interior as lower basin “water master” responsible for distributing all Colorado River water below Hoover Dam. Major water users on the Colorado River must contract for water with the U.S. Secretary of Interior for annual deliveries. The United States has contracted with the States of Arizona and Nevada and with various agencies in Arizona and California for the delivery of Colorado River water. These contracts make delivery of the water contingent upon its availability for use in the respective States under the Colorado River Compact and the Boulder Canyon Project Act.
U.S. and Mexico Treaty:
The United States and Mexico entered into a treaty on February 3, 1944, which guarantees Mexico 1,500,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water annually. This entitlement is subject to increase or decrease under circumstances provided for in the treaty.
(US Bureau of Reclamation)
III. How Water Quantity and Water Quality intersect
Water quantity and quality are intrinsically related, but the health and longevity of this relationship has been jeopardized in the Southwest. Both quality and quantity are absolutely fundamental for the health of any water system. The ecosystem services rivers provide and the life they support would be dismantled if such health were diminished. Unfortunately, this is the case in many waters of the Southwestern United States.
Water quality is generally better in the headwaters of rivers, as it has been exposed to minimal inputs, and rainfall entering the system has collected less potentially harmful debris, chemical and other (Naiman 1998). While there are necessary nutrients and sediments that enter watersheds along their courses, the rapid encroachment of human activities in the Southwest has gone far beyond what would ideally be added to these now threatened waters. Currently, as threatened watersheds grow and build momentum, countless inputs are added to their systems, diminishing the biological, chemical, physical, and aesthetic quality of the water.
Although water quantity increases as runoff and tributaries connect, enhanced flow has not been able to compensate or effectively dilute the amounts of various pollutants that are often added to rivers. These inputs are also usually difficult to track as they often do not originate from a specific point source, let alone a legally permitted source. Additionally, the overall decrease in natural flows, both due to growing climate variations and non adaptive allocation management, has also reduced the ability for such flows to dilute harmful pollutants (Naiman 1998). Such limitations have drastically jeopardized waters in the Southwest as many have become prominent examples of intense drought patterns. The ability for these rivers to perform their natural and vital functions continues to be diminished. In some instances contamination in addition to quantity decline has had such destructive consequences that recovery is deemed improbable.
For example, the Yampa River, which begins in Colorado and is a tributary of the Green River, has experienced severe ecological damages due to drought conditions. The spring floodings that the Yampa has historically experienced are necessary to distribute sediments and crucial nutrients which creates habitat for both aquatic and terrestrial species, in addition to other benefits. While this cycle has already been jeopardized by climate variations, due to Colorado’s growing population and water demand, the Yampa’s flow is being heavily considered for diversions and basin transfers, which would further cripple the river’s ecological health.
Ultimately, water quality has historically been managed separately from water quantity. This is a fundamental problem as the two are interrelated. Water management systems must take both factors into account when adapting to increasingly unreliable flows, population growth, industrial inputs, agricultural runoff, recreation uses, and others.
IV. Climate change and water in the U.S. SW
Waters of the Southwestern United States have become some of the most prominent examples of severe climate change implications. While the U.S. has experienced difficult dynamics in regards to arid land management, the mitigation of exponentially growing ecological problems due to increasing climate variations has put immense strain water management systems. While some systems have legitimately made efforts to adapt to fluctuating water flows, others have unfortunately allowed for the continued over allocation of watersheds while droughts take hold. In terms of water management, climate change has created a new platform for instability, ecological, political, economic, and otherwise. Such issues are at the forefront in the Southwest.
Growing variations in snowpack have had some of the most detrimental impacts upon Southwestern river flows. Although the globe is receiving more precipitation overall, less has been falling in the Southwestern U.S., leading to insufficient snowpacks (EPA 2015). Additionally, what precipitation does fall in the winter months might not necessarily be solid ice, allowing the water to move through watershed systems all too quickly. Furthermore, increasingly arid landscapes are emitting more dust and debris, which mixes in with the snowpack. The amplified ability for such sediments to attract solar heat allows the snow to melt much more quickly than what has been historically anticipated by watersheds. Snowpack has also melted earlier each year as average Southwestern temperatures rise, shortening the overall seasons’ flow (EPA 2015). Finally, vegetation which requires snowpack melt, demands more of it due to general decline in rainfall, thus further decreasing the amount of water which eventually enters the rivers.
Rising global temperatures, means a general increase in evaporation. This has become an issue for the already declining major water reservoirs of the Southwest, many of which reside on rivers included in this threats assessment (Seager 2012). Lake Mead for example, an enormous reservoir created from the Colorado River by the Hoover Dam, hit record lows this past year. As natural flows have no longer been able to refill these reservoirs, rising evaporation rates have displayed an even more drastic water quantity decline.
Allocation adaptation to these new melting and evaporating patterns is necessary, however, currently inflexible management systems and growing demand in the driest region of the U.S. continue to place these watersheds and all that they support in jeopardy. Eventually, such climate variations will place these waters in such ecological crisis, that both the social and economic health of the Southwest will also be threatened. The main challenge is to legitimately begin to restore these waters before such a crisis point is reached. Globally, drier climates have historically been more cooperative in terms of water management. That being said, the increase of climate change impacts demands renewed initiatives across state lines to adapt and protect Southwestern waters.
V. Colorado River threats and Colorado River Connected
There is no river in the southwestern United States more important than the Colorado River. The Colorado River originates in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, and is the source of drinking water for millions of people in cities including Las Vegas, Tucson, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Diego. In fact some 35 million people and thousands of species and natural communities rely upon it.
However, the river is threatened by unprecedented dirty energy development, voracious water diversions, and climate change. Some of this has already been mentioned or will be mentioned again later in this report.
Dirty energy:
A cavalcade of dirty energy projects in Colorado headwaters are polluting streams and watershed lands and creating a legacy of clean-up costs and habitat headaches for decades to come.
Water diversions:
Massive quantities of new Colorado River water diversions are being proposed in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming that will reduce water availability for both people in the lower basin and fish and wildlife species across the West.
Climate change:
Although climate change is increasing the frequency of droughts and reducing Colorado River water flows, many headwater communities are ignoring this problem and even exacerbating these impacts through their business-as-usual policies.
Climate scientists have acknowledged for decades that the Southwest will suffer more than many areas of the U.S. as a changing climate lowers snowpack and increases temperatures. In recent years, the Southwest has been gripped by a significant drought, although most residents of California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico are not aware of proposed water diversions upstream that are being pursued alongside an increase in pollution generating energy development from tar sands, fracking, and oil shale.
As a result of these threats and the looming outlook, in October 2014, Waterkeeper Alliance and allies launched Colorado River Connected to inform and engage communities in California, Nevada, Arizona, and other western states about threats posed to the Colorado River and their water supply.
Colorado River Connected is working to engage and activate residents living in downstream urban areas to raise a collective, basinwide voice to prevent devastating projects that will further drain and pollute the Colorado Basin.
Colorado River Connected aims to bring the citizens of the basin together to speak with a unified voice for communities who rely on Colorado River water, and to push back against states like Utah and Colorado that are only looking at the Colorado River for continued development and dirty energy projects. Colorado River Connected will press for changes in water management and seek policies that acknowledge and address these threats for the good of residents and the Colorado River Watershed.
VI. Other water threats in the U.S. Southwest
Waters of the Southwest have been experiencing drastic changes due to human extractions and inputs, and while ecological adaptation is necessary for survival, these rivers have been pushed to detrimental limits. One of the most extensive threats to rivers in the Southwest and a true inhibitor of conservation is the price paid for water, which is virtually nothing. It is debated whether or not water should be treated as an economic commodity, but when considering continued over allocation, it becomes clear that its value must be held to a more monetarily realistic standard. Water is our most valuable resource, without it humanity would not survive, yet what we pay for it does not reflect its immense value. This fundamental conflict has largely allowed for the continued inefficient use of water, which continues today despite the growing public awareness. Even with a more realistic public perception of unsustainable water use, without direct consequences demand will continue to dry the waters of the Southwest.
Many areas of the Southwest are extremely overpopulated relative to their natural water capacity. Water transfers, diversions, and storage infrastructures have been a prominent part of the landscape of this region since the 1850’s. While rights to the water running through these rivers were legally claimed under the Prior Appropriation Doctrine, which was adopted in 1872, at this time, demands did not go far beyond small scale uses relative to the then abundant and uninterrupted supplies of the Colorado, Green, and Rio Grande Rivers, to name a few. Allocation demands skyrocketed as both people and industry moved west. Unfortunately, state and even more local water management systems have not adapted the extent of such rapid growth.
Most prominently, agricultural demands have far exceeded any other in the Southwest. Approximately 80% of water consumed in these states goes to agriculture. While cities such as San Diego, Los Angeles, and Phoenix have all implemented some sort of urban water use reduction policies, these reductions have minimal impacts in comparison to continued irrigation demands. While new and more efficient watering technologies do exist, these irrigation practices have not been enforced to the needed level.
However, well established threats to these rivers goes far beyond flow extractions and alterations. Pollutants from agriculture, livestock, industry, mining, energy production, and many other sources have been entering these rivers for decades. While legislation such as the Clean Water Act, established in 1948, has promoted the protection and restoration of waters in the Southwest, loopholes are often exploited, especially in terms of the general exclusion of the agricultural industry from the act. Furthermore, due to over allocation and virtually continuous contamination in many of the threatened waters, weakened riparian zones have allowed for the invasion of species which have in some cases drastically altered their ecologies.
Additionally, state specific water management systems in the Southwest have displayed a history of permitting more politically powerful consumers, such as hydropower and agriculture, to heavily influence distribution. These distribution tactics have continued to be exponentially misaligned with water quantity standards to preserve the ecological health of Southwestern waters. Furthermore, lack of cohesive policies between states has allowed for insufficient monitoring of many rivers, which has largely influenced this current list of threatened waters. In general, there is a need to shift from the management of supply, which allows demand to dictate water allocation, toward management of demand itself. This is a difficult transition to make, and requires cooperation from actors both within and outside of the water sector.
VII. Emerging water threats in the U.S. Southwest
While the Southwest has a plethora of endangered waters, those included here are about to experience immense ecological degradation with little protection if strategies are not implemented to combat emerging threats. While these waters are already undergoing sustained doubt impacts, in addition to degradation from pollutants, there are growing problems that jeopardize eventual legitimate rehabilitation.
Hydraulic fracking has exploded in the Southwest, and the vast majority of water used in this process is taken from surface water resources. As this water is processed with a variety of chemicals required for fracking, virtually turning it into toxic waste, the used water cannot re-enter the watershed from which it came, let alone any natural water system (Ridlington 2013).
Colorado, Texas, Utah, New Mexico, and California are all experiencing major growth of the fracking industry, which is difficult to combat as energy corporations are such politically and economically powerful actors. Since 2012, Texas has drilled 13,540 new fracking wells; Colorado drilled 1,896, Utah 765, and New Mexico 482 (Ridlington 2013). All of these states, especially Texas, are using millions of gallons of water per year to conduct the fracking process, and the new wells indicate that usage will only drastically increase. Furthermore, with this rapid well development, sequential processing, and storage needs, the various infrastructures required greatly increase the probability of wastewater spills and other disastrous impacts. While historically agriculture has had the biggest demands of surface water resources, this industry must now compete with energy corporations. This dynamic is stressing water management systems, which are already attempting to cope with continued drought, to a level never reached before.
Another emerging dilemma is the relationship between groundwater and surface water. While these intricate interactions between sources are not widely understood, the maintenance of healthy exchanges has been largely dismantled as aquifers, both confined and not, are being drained. This drainage has been often legally permitted in the past, but growing water scarcity has emphasized illegal extractions as well. While this issues is most prominently depicted in California, the drastic lowering of aquifer levels is impacting surface water throughout the Southwest. In Texas, the San Antonio River has experienced drastically decreased flows due to overuse of ground sources, specifically Edwards Aquifer.
Furthermore, brutal realizations of previous mismanagement of mining and other wastes have come to surface. Residual pollution from the Animus River spill travels down to the San Juan River, which runs through Utah, and eventually other connected waterways. This situation emphasizes that while a mistake in one area may be damaging, further impacts are hard to avoid due to the nature of water, rivers in particular, as containment of such disasters is difficult.
As waters have been forced to adapt to drought conditions and contamination, the ecology of each is also changing. This is becoming a problem for many native species of flora and fauna, both aquatic and terrestrial. The Verde River in Arizona is displaying such drastic ecosystem changes as the river flow diminishes. This raises an important issue of the preservation of not only the quality and quantity of water, but also the existence of already endangered species which rely upon the health of these resources. Additionally, water scarcity increases alongside population growth, as there is a continuously increasing demand for available water. This promotes the creation of more infrastructure to support the transport of surface water. The Gila River, like many of these rivers, is under threat of such infrastructure – including pipelines, diversions, and storage.
While only a few of the countless threats are mentioned here, it should be clear what great challenges lie ahead for water resources in this arid region. Although daunting, cooperation both within and outside of the water sector must be applied to both small scale and larger issues. Each of these threatened waters of the Southwest has their own story and personality to be protected. While these waters have supported invasive anthropogenic activities for decades, their ability to endure continuing rapid development is gone. It is now time to restore the resources which westward expansion relied upon, and still requires, and find ways to maintain their ecological health in an increasingly thirsty region.
VIII. Waterkeeper Alliance “Hot Spots” in the U.S Southwest
The Waterkeeper Alliance Hot Spot Analysis is a web- and Google Maps/Earth-based tool that identifies and displays threatened waterways around the world that currently do not have Waterkeeper organizations (WKO) or Affiliates on those waterbodies. Waterkeeper Alliance support staff uses the Hot Spot Analysis to identify and prioritize efforts to recruit and develop new Waterkeeper and Affiliate programs around the world. The geographic and visual story includes what these waterways are threatened from or by, and what groups (prospective Waterkeepers and Affiliates) are on the ground working to solve the problems on said waterways and/or in these communities.
The Waterkeeper Alliance Hot Spot Analysis looks at water quality problems or challenges around the world. Of the nearly 200 currently identified Hot Spots around the world, 15 are in the Southwest U.S. By clicking on the marker on each Hot Spot, you can learn more about the threatened waterway, about who is working in the watershed, and see where Waterkeeper Alliance is at with communicating with that prospect – a potential new Waterkeeper Affiliate or Waterkeeper Organization.
Here is a guide to better understand the Hot Spot Analysis.
The colored markers represent the aforementioned “challenges”, which are again listed below. Challenge is the threat or advocacy campaign that the hot spot falls under.
RED: Climate Change (ocean acidification, drought, water scarcity, etc)
PURPLE: Clean and Safe Energy (coal, fracking, dam removal,etc)
YELLOW: Pure Farms, Pure Waters (ag pollution, factory farms, etc)
WHITE: Water Pollution (outdated water management, stormwater, industrial, etc)
References
United State Bureau of Reclamation http://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/faqs/riverfaq.html
“Changing Rain and Snow Patterns.” Changing Rain and Show Patterns. EPA, 2015.
Naiman, Robert J., and Robert E. Bilby. River Ecology and Management: Lessons from the
Pacific Coastal Ecoregion. New York: Springer, 1998. Print.
Ridlington, Elizabeth, and Rumpler, John. “Fracking by the Numbers.” Environment America
Research & Policy Center. 2013, Web. Www.environmentamerica.org.
Seager, Richard, Mingfang Ting, Cuihua Li, Naomi Naik, Ben Cook, Jennifer Nakamura, and
Haibo Liu. “Projections of Declining Surface-Water Availability for the Southwestern United States.” Nature Climate Change 3 (2012): 482-86. Www.nature.com. Nature, 23 Dec. 2012. Web.
Thomas C. Peterson, Richard R. Heim Jr., Robert Hirsch, Dale P. Kaiser, Harold Brooks, Noah S. Diffenbaugh, Randall M. Dole, Jason P. Giovannettone, Kristen Guirguis, Thomas R. Karl, Richard W. Katz, Kenneth Kunkel, Dennis Lettenmaier, Gregory J. McCabe, Christopher J. Paciorek, Karen R. Ryberg, Siegfried Schubert, Viviane B. S. Silva, Brooke C. Stewart, Aldo V. Vecchia, Gabriele Villarini, Russell S. Vose, John Walsh, Michael Wehner, David Wolock, Klaus Wolter, Connie A. Woodhouse, and Donald Wuebbles, 2013: Monitoring and Understanding Changes in Heat Waves, Cold Waves, Floods, and Droughts in the United States: State of Knowledge. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 94, 821–834. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00066.1
Lydia Bleifuss Biography
Lydia Bleifuss is a senior Environmental Studies major at Lewis & Clark College. She mainly grew up in Wausau, Wisconsin, but has been living between Portland, Oregon and Buena Vista, Colorado for the past four years. Lydia’s self-developed concentration within the Environmental Studies major addresses surface water conflicts in newly industrialized countries. However, transboundary basin water management has become an increasingly prominent focus of hers, in addition to the various implications of large hydro projects. Her interests have most recently aligned with water dilemmas in the Southwestern United States, China, Northern India, Argentina, and Chile. Lydia was raised in a truly outdoor minded family, and has been a raft guide for several years. She mainly runs rivers in Colorado, but has also had opportunities in Arizona and Oregon. The incredible experiences Lydia has been fortunate enough to have through this work, have amplified her passion for watershed conservation both in the areas she loves and the places she has yet to explore.
Bart Mihailovich Biography
Bart joined Waterkeeper Alliance in 2014 as the Affiliate Coordinator to help build the Affiliate Program and continue the growth of the Waterkeeper movement across the globe. Prior to joining Waterkeeper, Bart spent four years as the Spokane Riverkeeper in Spokane, Washington, working to protect and defend the Spokane River watershed. As Spokane Riverkeeper, Bart served some time on the Waterkeeper Council, and was instrumental in the founding of the regional entity, Waterkeepers Washington. Under Bart’s watch, Spokane Riverkeeper established itself as a major force for change for clean water in both the states of Washington and Idaho, and became a major player in the international fight over coal and oil exporting. In Bart’s tenure, Spokane Riverkeeper was behind the largest environmental settlement in Spokane history, groundbreaking state legislation that banned phosphorus dish detergent and lawn fertilizers, and a paradigm shift in the way local communities think about their freshwater resources.
Born and raised in Butte, Montana, Bart has always been around rivers, and from a young age cultivated a sense of ecological and social justice in relation to clean water. Bart holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Eastern Washington University. In 2011, Bart was recognized for his outstanding public service contributions with a Peirone Award, given by the Pacific Northwest Inlander. In 2013 he was recognized by both the Spokane Businesses Catalyst Magazine and by Eastern Washington University in their respective “20 under 40” lists. And in 2014 he was awarded the Inspirational Young Alumnus Award from his alma mater, Eastern Washington University.