Colorado River’s biggest user inks massive conservation agreement with federal government

Southern California’s Imperial Irrigation District — the Colorado River’s biggest user — has signed off on a deal with the federal government that will leave sizable volumes of water in the basin’s largest reservoir.

The board of directors for the district, which serves the Imperial Valley and part of the Coachella Valley, agreed Monday to leave up to 700,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mead through 2026.

In return, the federal Bureau of Reclamation said it would provide funding for these conservation efforts — for up to 300,000 acre-feet per year from 2024 through 2026. 

Despite its location toward the end of the Colorado River’s path, the Imperial Water District has some of the most senior and legally protected rights to the waterway’s resources.

The district’s annual Colorado River allocation is 3.1 million acre-feet — a significant chunk of the entire 7.5 million acre-foot share of the Lower Basin states of California, Arizona and Nevada.

The Upper Basin — Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico — also has a 7.5 million acre-foot annual entitlement, while Mexico receives 1.5 million acre-feet each year. 

JB Hamby, vice chair and Colorado River commissioner for California, in a statement stressed that the district had “cleared enormous hurdles to make this deal happen.”

“There is no excuse for inaction anywhere along the river,” Hamby added.

The conservation agreement materialized as Colorado River Basin states scramble to come up with a unified long-term plan for the waterway’s future — as current, temporary conservation agreements are set to expire at the end of 2026. 

Meanwhile, officials in the four Upper Basin states are currently negotiating a new deal with the federal government that could provide credit to protect against future potential cutbacks, in exchange for conserving water, The Colorado Sun reported.

As far as the Imperial Irrigation District agreement is concerned, the related conservation programs will include an expansion of the region’s existing on-farm efficiency conservation initiative, as well as the idling of certain water-intensive crop cultivation.

Hamby emphasized the importance of the deal, calling upon other districts to follow suit as the region prepares itself “for a drier future in the Colorado River basin.”