Colorado River Water

Regarding the controversy on Colorado River water ("Water Deal Talks to Resume," Dec. 12): If both cities and the agriculture industry acted more logically and practically, the water problems would be much less severe. San Diego, Las Vegas and Phoenix all sport luxurious hotels with huge multiple pools, artificial rivers, lagoons and lakes and are surrounded by water- intensive tropical landscaping. If these establishments would design their surroundings with respect for their arid or semiarid regions, many more acre-feet of water would be available for food production, drinking and bathing.

River deltas are among the most biologically productive ecosystems on Earth, and for millions of years the delta of the Colorado River was no exception. After a 1,450-mile journey from its headwaters in the Rocky Mountains south into Mexico, the Colorado sustained verdant marshes teeming with life before emptying into the aquatic Eden of the upper Gulf of California. In 1922, the great naturalist Aldo Leopold canoed through the delta, which he described as "a milk and honey wilderness" and a land of "a hundred green lagoons.

Las Vegas was a blip on the population charts when seven Western states began divvying up the riches of the Colorado River. The Colorado River Compact was crafted in 1922 when agriculture dominated politics and the economy, and this tiny rail stop had 4,859 residents. The compact allocated 15 million acre-feet of water annually to the seven states. California won the lion's share, 4.4 million acre-feet, followed by Colorado with 3.9 million, Arizona 2.8 million, Utah 1.

Out in the desert, the wind never quits. Over its howling one day recently, Roy Howard strained to make himself heard as he explained why its usual accompaniment, the rush of water and the rumble of enormous industrial pumps, had fallen silent. We were at the Metropolitan Water District's Julian Hinds Pumping Plant, situated at the edge of Joshua Tree National Park and about 20 miles north of the Salton Sea. Hinds is one of five pumping plants on the Colorado River Aqueduct. And it's the last point on the 242-mile journey of Colorado River water from Lake Havasu on the California-Arizona border where pumping is needed.

Now as a trickle but soon as a torrent, Arizona is finally taking its share of the Colorado River, and the impact will be felt from here to the Pacific beaches. The Central Arizona Project, a $3.5-billion aqueduct, tunnel and pumping system designed to carry water from Lake Havasu on the Colorado south through the desert and over mountains to Phoenix and Tucson, has been operating since early this year. By 1992, 1.6 million acre-feet of water--enough to cover 1.

The federal government Thursday ushered in a new era of shortage on the Colorado River, adopting a blueprint for how it will tighten the spigot on the West's most important water source. The guidelines, more than two years in the making, come in the eighth year of the worst drought in the century-long historic record of the Colorado River, which supplies water to 25 million people and 1 million acres of farmland.

Drought-stressed Southern California water managers got some rare uplifting news Friday as the federal government announced that it would permit the Metropolitan Water District to take more than its annual share of water from the Colorado River. At the same time, state officials said copious rain and snowfall from March storms will enable them to increase water deliveries to the MWD and other municipal customers by mid-April.

In a blow to the historic dominance of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California over regional water matters, a judge Tuesday rejected the mega-agency's concept of what is fair compensation for use of its Colorado River Aqueduct.

Setting aside years of acrimony and accusations, negotiators for Southern California's warring water agencies reached an agreement early Wednesday designed to ensure that the state will have enough water to meet soaring future needs. "We have reached closure on all core issues," said David Hayes, acting deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. "We're very excited."

River deltas are among the most biologically productive ecosystems on Earth, and for millions of years the delta of the Colorado River was no exception. After a 1,450-mile journey from its headwaters in the Rocky Mountains south into Mexico, the Colorado sustained verdant marshes teeming with life before emptying into the aquatic Eden of the upper Gulf of California. In 1922, the great naturalist Aldo Leopold canoed through the delta, which he described as "a milk and honey wilderness" and a land of "a hundred green lagoons.

Over the last five years, the Salton Sea's shoreline has been steadily receding into the desert, creating a "bathtub ring" of exposed lake bed around the 360-square-mile body of murky water that straddles Imperial and Riverside counties. Once, it was one of the most productive fisheries and wildlife habitats in the state, but the shrinking Salton Sea has hit hard times. Along with imperiling the fish that live in the hyper-saline water and the migratory birds that stop along their annual journey, the shrinkage exposes a pesticide-laden lake bed that could contribute to the dust storms that have given the region some of the dirtiest air in California.

The aqueduct stretched across the desert like an endless blue freight train, carrying its cargo of Colorado River water to a concrete building at the base of a craggy-faced mountain. Inside the plant, adorned with the seal of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a set of massive pumps hoisted the water 441 feet high, disgorging it into a tunnel and the final leg of its journey from the Arizona border to a Riverside County reservoir. The Julian Hinds Pumping Plant is one of the hydraulic hearts of California's vast water supply system, built early in the last century to push water from where it is to where it isn't, no matter how many hundreds of miles of desert, mountains and valleys are in the way. Defying geography on such a grand scale takes energy.

Dead these hundred years, Mark Twain would wholly understand the dispute between the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Imperial Irrigation District over water flowing into the Salton Sea. In the West, Twain is famously reported to have quipped, whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting. In the world of water, Metropolitan and Imperial are behemoths, for different reasons. When these two clash, as they have done repeatedly in recent decades, other water agencies in the West fret and wait for the fallout.

A state judge has overturned a celebrated 2003 deal governing the state's use of Colorado River water supplies, a ruling that could tilt the equation for how Southern California's farms and cities share the scarce resource. The Superior Court decision, released Thursday, sets in motion an appeals process as well as efforts to salvage the landmark pact. "It is not the end," said Dennis Cushman, assistant general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority, a major beneficiary of the deal.

A state judge appears poised to throw out a landmark pact involving California's use of Colorado River water. If upheld, Thursday's tentative ruling by a Sacramento County Superior Court judge would unravel a complex 2003 agreement that put the state on a timetable to reduce its reliance on the Colorado River. Brokered by federal, state and regional officials, the deal also established a program of farm-to-city water sales that are playing a growing role in Southern California's water supply.

People who say that nothing's harder to get rid of than a bad penny must never have met Keith Brackpool. The British-born promoter, who has spent the last dozen years pushing a scheme to pump water to Southern California from beneath 35,000 acres his Cadiz Inc. owns in the Mojave Desert, just won't go away.

A water board in Imperial County -- California's biggest user of Colorado River water -- requested a preliminary injunction Monday to keep U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton from cutting the region's share of water. The request was made as representatives for Imperial and other water boards met in Sacramento to try to salvage a crucial Colorado River water deal. The state's failure to sign that deal by Dec.

Out in the desert, the wind never quits. Over its howling one day recently, Roy Howard strained to make himself heard as he explained why its usual accompaniment, the rush of water and the rumble of enormous industrial pumps, had fallen silent. We were at the Metropolitan Water District's Julian Hinds Pumping Plant, situated at the edge of Joshua Tree National Park and about 20 miles north of the Salton Sea. Hinds is one of five pumping plants on the Colorado River Aqueduct. And it's the last point on the 242-mile journey of Colorado River water from Lake Havasu on the California-Arizona border where pumping is needed.

The Colorado River Delta was once a watery labyrinth of willow thickets, mesquite and cottonwood, bigger than the state of Rhode Island and teeming with bird and animal life. Today it is a barren expanse of salt-stained mudflats where the river used to meet the sea south of Yuma. About 90% of the delta's wetlands and natural habitat dried up over the last half century, as water from the Colorado was captured in reservoirs and diverted to farms and cities from Las Vegas to Mexicali.