Make Sure to Water your Grass every day this Summer

[Da WCC Hopar!]

but how did da car thing work?

[Suga Foot]

we just couldn't wash our cars at home.  It was only for a few weeks.  It was a couple years ago when we had major wildfires.

[Sikotic™]

Southern California  is facing a decrease in the water supply provided by the Colorado River -- one of the most controversial and heavily regulated rivers in the world. Allocation of the lower  Colorado  has been fought over for decades and involved interstate compacts, a U.S. Supreme Court decision, a treaty with  Mexico  and federal and state legislation. The lower  Colorado  's flow is divided between  Arizona  ,  California  ,  Nevada  , several American Indian tribes and  Mexico  . As other states in the  Colorado  basin have increased their use of the river’s water, and drought has gripped the region, pressure has mounted on  California  to cut back its chronic overuse.

The six California water agencies that receive Colorado River water have continually used about 800,000 acre-feet more than their combined annual 4.4 million acre-feet share of Colorado River water. The water districts are IID, Palo Verde Irrigation District, MWD, which built the 242-mile long Colorado River Aqueduct that transports up to 1.2 million acre-feet of flow to its users, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, SDCWA and Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD).

Citing growing demand from other states along the river, the Interior Department warned California for several years that it could not continue to overdraw its annual allotment of Colorado River water. In response to Interior’s warnings, California drafted a Water Use Plan for the Colorado River (known colloquially as the “4.4 Plan”) to reduce its consumption of the Colorado River back to its 4.4 million acre-feet apportionment. The plan relied heavily on water conservation in the agricultural sector and water transfers to the urban sector. Under the proposed plan, up to 800,000 acre-feet of water would be conserved via dry-year fallowing agreements, canal seepage recovery, groundwater banking, conjunctive use and desalination of drainage water, and an American Indian water rights dispute would be settled within the state (16,000 acre-feet to the San Luis Rey Indian tribe located near San Diego).

After nearly a decade of contentious negotiations, the southern California water agencies, federal officials and state representatives reached a landmark accord in late 2003 on a new division of Colorado River water known as the QSA. The agreement defines, or quantifies, each agency’s rights to water from the river, a process that allows for water transfers among them. The biggest such transfer, and a linchpin of the 4.4 Plan, is one between IID and San Diego of up to 200,000 acre-feet annually (possibly 300,000 after the tenth year). Imperial Valley farmers served by IID signed up in late 2003 to fallow land (take land out of production) or conserve irrigation water to free up water for the transfer.

The QSA and the 4.4 Plan may mark a turning point in California water annals. Successful implementation of the two will require unprecedented cooperation among historically antagonistic southern California water agencies to trim back excess Colorado River water use. Cutting usage back to 4.4 million acre-feet per year by 2016 is likely to require creative solutions that will include conservation, water transfers and land fallowing. If the agriculture-to-urban water transfer is successful, however, it could prove to be a model for transfers elsewhere in California and the West.

A key issue in the QSA negotiations was the fate of the Salton Sea, which is sustained mainly by irrigation runoff from Imperial Valley and Coachella Valley farms. As the negotiations proceeded, some feared that land fallowing or conservation could decrease the amount of water flowing to the sea, causing it to shrink and become saltier. Water agencies involved in the talks feared they could be held legally liable if the Salton Sea environment deteriorated. A 40-mile-long inland lake, the Salton Sea already is 25 percent saltier than the Pacific Ocean, yet provides vital habitat for some 400 bird species.

QSA negotiators came up with a creative way to fund Salton Sea restoration efforts and ease concerns about legal liability. State legislation enacted in 2003 puts the legal liability for protecting the Salton Sea environment on the state of California . It also provides a creative funding mechanism to pay for Salton Sea restoration under which IID will sell surplus Colorado River water to the state for $175 per acre-foot, which in turn will sell it to MWD for $250 per acre-foot. The “profit” realized on the sale will be used to fund Salton Sea restoration work.

Restoration plans that currently appear to have the most support call for diking off the sea to shrink its size by about half and treating water flowing into the sea from the New and Alamo rivers to reduce salts. Supporters of these plans believe they would gradually improve water quality of the Salton Sea and preserve the habitat that is vital to the sea’s fishery and bird populations. Tests to determine the feasibility of shrinking the sea began in late 2003. Cost estimates for restoring the sea range from $500 million to $3.5 billion, according to federal estimates.

If nothing is done to offset the sea’s increasing salinity, scientists estimate the sea will reach the 50,000-ppm to 60,000-ppm threshold in 12 to 20 years. The sea now receives about 1.3 million acre-feet of inflow, of which about 1 million acre-feet comes from agricultural drainage. It is estimated the water transfers in the QSA between IID and SDCWA and IID and CVWD could reduce inflow from IID farms by up to 700,000 acre-feet.

Because the sea’s evaporation rate is now equal to present inflow, this reduction would accelerate the sea’s rising salinity. With the transfers, scientists believe the Salton Sea would reach the 50,000-ppm to 60,000-ppm threshold at least 10 years earlier than predicted, maybe even sooner. The sea would also shrink in size, leaving many people who now have lakefront property several hundred yards from the shoreline.

 

Cali can buy the Colorado river if they want to.