Federal Water Tap, August 19: Water Shortage Status Remains on Lower Colorado River

The Rundown

• Bureau of Reclamation report determines next year’s water releases – and cuts – for the lower Colorado River.
• Reclamation’s completion of an environmental review paves the way for payments to California farmers not to take Colorado River water.
• FEMA extends the application period for post-disaster rebuilding grants.
• USDA wants public input on how private funds should be used for its land and water conservation programs.
• Federal advisory groups hold meetings this week regarding the Mississippi River and Glen Canyon Dam.

And lastly, an EPA watchdog report finds state and federal agency failures that led to drinking water crises in Jackson, Mississippi.

“Specifically, the state surveyors did not consistently document deficiencies, escalate frequent deficiencies, or notify Jackson of significant deficiencies. As a result, the EPA did not have a comprehensive understanding of the extent of the management and operational issues at Jackson’s system. The [Mississippi State Department of Health] oversight failures obscured Jackson’s long-standing challenges, allowed issues to compound over time, and contributed to the system’s eventual failure.” – Excerpt from a report by the EPA Office of Inspector General about agency missteps that resulted in failures of the drinking water system in Jackson, Mississippi in February 2021 (freezing weather) and August 2022 (flooding).

During those events, some residents of the state capital went days or weeks without tap water. Across the years, boil-water advisories have occurred frequently. The report asserts that the Mississippi State Department of Health, which has authority to enforce federal drinking water rules, failed to notice problems at the Jackson water provider and that the EPA, in its oversight role, did not intervene until the problems were out of hand.

As the report states, EPA did not understand Jackson’s water problems until it sent an inspection team in 2020, whose members saw T-shirts and coffee mugs in the city emblazoned with “Welcome to Boil Water Alert Mississippi.”

By the Numbers

7,321: Water line breaks in Jackson, Mississippi, in the five years from 2017 to 2021. It was an “exorbitant amount,” according to the EPA Office of Inspector General report, and nearly four times above the industry benchmark for acceptable performance.

News Briefs

Colorado River Shortage Status Remains
Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico will again see mandatory cuts to their Colorado River allocations in 2025 as the lower Colorado River remains in a shortage condition.

The Tier 1 shortage declaration is a result of a Bureau of Reclamation report published last week. The so-called 24-month study, which is updated monthly, projects reservoir levels that far into the future. The August study determines how much water the basin’s big reservoirs, Mead and Powell, will release in the next year. Lake Powell will release 7.48 million acre-feet, which means the lower basin states must conserve to keep Lake Mead from dropping.

The shortage determination is based on the projected January 1 elevation of Lake Mead. The 1,062-ft projection means Tier 1 shortage reductions that fall heaviest on Arizona. Lake Mead is currently 33 percent full, or two-thirds empty.

Private Funds for Public Agency Conservation Programs
The Sustains Act, a law passed last year, allows the U.S. Department of Agriculture to accept private funds for its land and water conservation programs. The department wants to know how it should implement this new power.

Among the questions the department poses in its request: Should USDA solicit funds and how? What programs should it prioritize? Perhaps most importantly: How to prevent conflicts of interest?

Submit comments via www.regulations.gov using docket number NRCS-2024-0014. Comments are due September 16.

Studies and Reports

Colorado River Water Payments to Farmers
The Bureau of Reclamation found “no significant impact” for a proposed Colorado River water conservation plan, paving the way for some California farmers to earn money by leaving water in Lake Mead.

The plan is for Imperial Irrigation District, which has the largest rights to the river, to leave as much as 700,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mead through 2026. This is down from a draft proposal of 900,000 acre-feet.

Funding for the plan comes from the $4 billion set aside in the Inflation Reduction Act, a federal climate bill that included money for drought response. A one-year conservation agreement paid IID and its farmers $777 per acre-foot in 2023. The Desert Sun has more details on potential payment structures for the new deal.

So more water will keep Lake Mead higher than otherwise. But there are drawbacks. Runoff from IID fields reaches the Salton Sea. Less water on fields means less runoff into the sea, which is already shrinking and exposing toxic dust and chemicals on the lake bed.

Reclamation’s assessment notes that the conservation plan will “accelerate the lowering” of the Salton Sea. But the assessment claims the trend would eventually return to baseline conditions and air quality problems will be addressed by existing plans.

On the Radar

FEMA Gives Disaster Areas More Time for Grant Applications
FEMA finalized a rule that extends the time period to apply for post-disaster rebuilding funds.

The agency will accept applications for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program for 15 months after a disaster declaration. The previous deadline was 12 months.

The new rule will also allow extensions for up to 240 days.

The hazard mitigation program is meant to strengthen communities against natural hazards when they rebuild from the last one.

Glen Canyon Dam Meeting
The group that advises the federal government on operations at Glen Canyon Dam will hold a public meeting on August 21 and 22.

To be discussed: the three-year work plan, federal environmental reviews for operating the dam after current rules expire in 2026, and

Links to the livestream and dial-in details are listed at the top of the agenda.

Mississippi River Meetings
The Mississippi River Commission, a body of appointed officials that recommends river-related policy, will hold four public meetings this week to hear concerns about managing the river and provide updates on infrastructure projects.

The meetings will be held in Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

Federal Water Tap is a weekly digest spotting trends in U.S. government water policy. To get more water news, follow Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.

Brett Walton

Brett writes about agriculture, energy, infrastructure, and the politics and economics of water in the United States. He also writes the Federal Water Tap, Circle of Blue’s weekly digest of U.S. government water news. He is the winner of two Society of Environmental Journalists reporting awards, one of the top honors in American environmental journalism: first place for explanatory reporting for a series on septic system pollution in the United States(2016) and third place for beat reporting in a small market (2014). He received the Sierra Club’s Distinguished Service Award in 2018. Brett lives in Seattle, where he hikes the mountains and bakes pies. Contact Brett Walton