An Innovative Conservation Fund for the Colorado River

The four largest cities that get their drinking water from the Colorado River are gearing up to pilot an innovative conservation scheme that pays farmers, industries and municipalities to reduce their use of the river's water.

The main aim of the new initiative is to keep the levels of Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the giant reservoirs behind Hoover Dam and Glen Canyon Dam, high enough to delay or avoid the declaration of a water shortage, which would trigger potentially costly reductions in water deliveries.

Called the Colorado River System Conservation Program,the fund would be seeded to the tune of $11 million— $3 million from the federal Bureau of Reclamation and $2 million each from the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA, which includes Las Vegas), the Central Arizona Water Conservation District (which includes Phoenix), the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (which includes Los Angeles), and Denver Water.

Of the four, Las Vegas is most at risk from Colorado River shortages, and therefore has the most to gain from the program's success.

The city gets about 90 percent of its water from Lake Mead. By mid-April, the lake's level was only 48 feet above the city's uppermost intake pipe. And with researchers at the University of California-San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography projecting that there is a 50 percent chance that by 2036 Lake Mead could drop to "dead pool," Las Vegas is pursuing multiple options to secure its water future.

At a special session on April 17, the SNWA's board approved the $2 million contribution to the new conservation fund.

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Taxonomy

• Conservation
• River Basin management
• Groundwater Recharge