HB 1177 made it through the Colorado Senate Agriculture committee this week, according to the Rocky Mountain News [April 16, 2005, "Utilities, W. Slope back plan to hold water roundtables"]. From the article, "Front Range water utilities and the Western Slope stepped forward this week to back a proposal that would create public roundtables for negotiating water deals. House Bill 1177, already approved by the House, won unanimous approval from the Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy Committee."
Here's an editorial from the Denver Post asking the Interior Department (and Gail Norton) to hold back releases from Lake Powell to Lake Meade in an effort to bank upper Colorado River Basin water in this very wet year for the lower basin [April 16, 2005, "Save Lake Mead water for now"]. From the opinion piece, "Heavy rains and snows struck California, Arizona and Nevada this winter - after years of intense drought. One of the Colorado River's two biggest reservoirs, Lake Mead, now is about two-thirds full - far higher than its managers predicted just months ago. Mead, located near Las Vegas where Nevada and Arizona touch, supplies water to Las Vegas, San Diego, suburban Los Angeles, Phoenix and Tucson and thousands of farms. But snowfall was uneven in the upper basin states of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico. So while runoff will be slightly higher than normal into the river's other great reservoir, Lake Powell, that lake on the Arizona-Utah border remains shockingly low, at just one-third its usual level. In normal years, the U.S. Interior Department sends water from Powell to Mead. But this year's disparate reservoir levels led Interior officials to consider releasing less than the 8.23 million acre-feet of water usually delivered from Powell to Mead. An interstate pact obligates the upper basin to give the lower basin 75 million acre-feet of water every 10 years, but in the past decade the upper basin actually delivered 100 million acre-feet. So Interior legally could put the lower basin on a water diet. A decision is expected May 1. Lower basin states argue they should get their usual 8.23 million acre-feet because by year's end Powell is expected to be 48 percent full while Mead is forecast to be 58 percent full."
Category: Colorado Water.
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