More water cuts as the US adjusts to the climate crisis
The fear-inducing climate change stories are coming with more frequency and intensity, and the predictions about what will happen are dire. Here are three CNN stories published in just the last few days: The government is also, for the first time, trying to do something major about climate change. President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed into law Democrats plan to spend hundreds of billions to transition the country more quickly away from fossil fuels and move the US toward carbon neutrality. See whats in the package. But the big lesson from this summer should be that we dont have to wait for the effects of climate change. Theyre happening now with floods, wildfires and the drying out of the Western US. The Colorado River supplies water to 40 million people in the West. And on Tuesday, the federal government announced fresh cuts. Starting in January, the river will operate in whats known as a Tier 2 shortage condition for the first time, since Lake Meads water level is projected to be below 1,050 feet above sea level at that point. That means two states Arizona and Nevada as well as Mexico will face deeper cuts in how much water they can use from the Colorado River. California, however, will so far avoid cuts to water it receives from the Colorado River. Lake Mead has been around 1,040 feet this summer, just 27% of its capacity. Read the full report from CNNs Ella Nilsen and Rachel Ramirez. The Western water situation could ultimately affect all Americans since those states and the water they need fuel a multibillion dollar agriculture industry that feeds the country with access to green vegetables in the winter months, among other things. On a hill in Boulder City, Nevada, overlooking whats left of Lake Mead, CNNs chief climate correspondent Bill Weir talked about the coming water cuts. He pointed Tuesday to a so-called bathtub ring that shows where the lake used to reach. He showed a marina, moved a quarter mile from its former spot to follow the receding water line. The lake has fallen from 95% full to a little more than a quarter full, he told CNNs Alex Marquardt, illustrating the effects of two decades of nearly uninterrupted drought. Lower basin areas those to the South and West such as Nevada, Arizona and the country of Mexico will have to cut the most under the Tier 2 designation. Seven states agreed to share water as part of the Colorado River Compact signed 100 years ago: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. It was written after one of the wettest years ever, so all this water was over-allocated to the lower basin states, Weir said. As a result, there has been this tension with Colorado, Wyoming, Utah the upper basin states where all that snowpack has been diminishing. That was the water table for the Western United States, and now its gone. The agreement has been updated periodically, most recently in 2019. But negotiations for more drastic cuts in the face of accelerating climate-change-driven-drought have not progressed. The federal government said Tuesday it will work with the rivers stakeholders to come up with a plan. Nilsen and Ramirez laid out some stats. In Nevada, non-functional turf is banned and people are being paid to remove lawns to help reduce water usage. Weir said that movement will have to make its way to Southern California, where residents have been asked to cut back but not stop watering lawns. Californias Gov. Gavin Newsom last week announced a new water strategy that includes capturing and storing rainwater as well as desalinating ocean water. CNNs Rene Marsh has previously reported about how communities in Arizona are being pitted against each other by the cuts, and investment firms are trading in water rights. But there are complaints that agricultural producers are not being asked to sacrifice as much. You have to have a contribution from the sector that uses 80% of the water, John Entsminger, the general manager for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, told Nilsen and Ramirez. Thats not law, politics, its just math, he said. What to do with agribusiness is a key part of the interstate talks, according to reports, with proposals to pay farmers to let lands lie fallow. As water is cut, it could impact the fertile valleys that provide the country with tomatoes and greens. Last year, CNN published a must-see interactive on how the water crisis will affect the countrys supply of vegetables. Theres a ton of ideas, even some wild ones, Weir said Tuesday. People say you should pipe water from the Mississippi or drag glaciers down from Alaska and melt them and use the water. Theyve been having these conversations for 100 years down here, but ultimately this is a slow-motion, man-made disaster in real time, he said, pointing to the skeletal lake behind him.