The river that runs through downtown Pagosa Springs — the San Juan River — is part of a fairly massive 246,000 square-mile river system that includes the mighty Colorado River, as well as the Green River, the Yampa River, the Gunnison River, the Virgin River, the Gila River — and many other tributaries. To put 246,000 square miles into perspective, the entire continental US measures 3.1 million square miles, so the Colorado River Basin occupies about 8% of the US (not including Alaska or Hawaii, or territories.)
That particular 8% includes many of the nation’s most desolate desert landscapes, and the amount of precipitation is laughable in some parts of the Basin. According to the Colorado River Basin Climate and Hydrology Executive Summary from April 2020 (which you can download here), about 85% of the water that flows down the Colorado towards the Gulf of California comes from high mountains that occupy just the 15% of the Basin area. The summary also states that 92% of Colorado River water comes from the Upper Basin states: Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
Much of the water consumption takes place in Lower Basin state: California, Nevada, and Arizona. Like, more than half the consumption?
The map above shows, in pale yellow, the areas of the Basin occupied by “federally recognized tribes”. In other words, Indian Reservations. The Native Americans living in the American Southwest could be said to have the first claim on the Colorado River, considering that they lived within the Basin for millennia prior to the arrival of the Spanish and Anglos.
But other organized groups also have laid claim to the water. The mining industry, for one. Towns and cities, for another. Recreational users. Environmentalists. The hydropower industry. But by far the biggest consumer of Colorado River water, in 2020, is the agriculture industry. Even here in Archuleta Country — not exactly a thriving agricultural wonderland — the US Geological Survey estimates that ranching and farming diverts about 94% of the total water used in the community.
Back in 2014, the University of Arizona published a 54-page study, The Economic Importance of the Colorado River to the Basin Region. The authors are listed as Professor Tim James, Dr. Anthony Evans, Eva Madly, and Cary Kelly. You can download the 5-page Executive Summary here. The full study is available here.
The report (as far as I could find) did not reveal who, exactly, had funded the research. It’s been my experience that a study’s funding source often has an effect on which particular facts are claimed in the report.
The study’s conclusions were based on a rather ridiculous concept; namely, that the Colorado River Basin spent one entire year with no available water. None at all. But… if such a crazy thing were to happen… what would be the effect on the seven states that depend upon the Colorado River? The authors calculated the one-year economic losses at $1.4 trillion, and the job losses at 16 million.
A fanciful academic exercise, perhaps. But it seems — based on what little study I’ve done on the subject — the world of water resources and water planning is rife with fantasies.
Over the past two decades, we’ve witnessed an ever-increasing number of alarming news stories about how climate change is affecting the amount of water available in the Colorado River Basin — and in other nearby river basins. We’re hearing, for example, about the plight of the farmers over in the San Luis Valley, an 8,000-square-mile expanse of farmland speckled with potato, alfalfa, barley and quinoa fields on the other side of Wolf Creek Pass, in the Rio Grande River Basin. The main irrigated crop is alfalfa, used to feed livestock. Some critics contend livestock is an ineffective way to use scarce water.
From an article by Rhett Turner on the Colorado College website, from 2018:
Colorado’s San Luis Valley faces a water crisis that threatens survival of thousands of residents due to over-use and over-development of a marginal supply.
Over the past 100 years, insurance companies subsidized the development of the San Luis Valley by offering coverage to farmers. Those companies helped promote this arid, desolate part of the United States as an agricultural paradise. Producing under the hard conditions here has always required heavy irrigation. And downriver users in New Mexico, Texas and Mexico demand that some water be left in the Rio Grande River. So farmers here are obligated to put some of the water they divert for irrigation back into the river.
That hasn’t always happened due to over use and drought. Yet farmers want to uphold their tradition in the San Luis Valley, a tradition that relies on pumping underground water from aquifers to irrigate crops.
Now 550,000 acres in the valley are being irrigated. But the valley probably can support only support about 400,000 acres, Rio Grande Water Conservation District Manager Cleave Simpson said during a recent meeting at his office in Alamosa. There may have to be a 20 percent decrease in agricultural land to restore aquifer levels Simpson said. If the aquifer levels don’t return to normal levels by 2030, the state government might issue cease and desist orders to stop wells in the valley from over pumping, he said. Farmers around wells could be driven out of business.
That was in November, 2018. Here’s an article from 2019, on the Water Education Colorado website:
…something almost unholy is in the works here in the San Luis Valley.
A well-connected metro Denver water developer, backed by former Colorado Governor Bill Owens, Front Range real estate interests, and absentee ranchers who themselves control huge amounts of water here, is proposing to export millions of gallons of water out of this drought-stricken, scrappy place for delivery to fast-growing Douglas County. Sean Tonner, who once served as deputy chief of staff for Owens, is leading the group, which has proposed spending $118 million to acquire water from the farmers here. That sum includes a $50 million community fund to help bolster the poverty-stricken region.
Here’s an excerpt from August 30, 2020, as reported by Bruce Finley in the Denver Post about Governor Jared Polis’ recent visit to the San Luis Valley:
The sun beat down, baking Colorado’s bone-dry, cracking San Luis Valley, where farmers for eight years have been trying to save their depleted underground water but are falling behind. They’re fighting to survive at an epicenter of the West’s worsening water squeeze amid a 20-year shift to aridity…
And Governor Jared Polis was listening now, as a group of farmers sat around a patio shaking their heads, frowning, frustration etched on their faces — down by 150,000 acre-feet of water below their aquifer-pumping target as the driest months begin.
“We’re about as lean as we possibly can be. We’ve re-nozzled our sprinklers. Our pumping is as efficient as it possibly can be. We’re trying different crops,” said Tyler Mitchell, who had cut his water use by 30% after installing soil moisture sensors and shifting from barley to quinoa. “But, at the end of the day, we have too many businesses that are trying to stay in business. I don’t know how we can reduce pumping more than we already have…”
We will note, here, that underground aquifers are the very best method Mother Nature has developed, for storing vast quantities of fresh water for long periods of time. But even excellent storage can be abused, as we are seeing in the San Luis Valley.
Perhaps the worst way to store water is in a man-made lake?