Wyoming Republican congresswoman Harriet Hageman blasted California for supposedly failing to upgrade its water infrastructure, leaving it too dependent on Wyoming and other Upper Colorado River Basin states.
“California has essentially the same water infrastructure in place today, with 40 million people, that they had in the 1960s with 16 million people,” Hageman said Thursday during an appearance on the Cowboy State Daily Show with Jake Nichols.
California could reduce its demand for river water through desalination technology, or removing salt from Pacific Ocean water, she said, adding that desalination has been used effectively for water supplies in Israel.
However, California’s leadership has failed promote the technology, she said.
“But again, their leadership is such a failure, they want to spend their money on stupid things such as the climate change and global warming and social justice issues rather than actually providing water to their citizens,” said Hageman, a lawyer with a background in water and natural resources litigation.
Building Tensions
Hagman’s comments came as tensions continue to build over the future of water use along the Colorado River. Part of the river’s headwaters are in Wyoming with the Green River and Little Snake River.
Wyoming is also one of the four Upper Basin states bound by a 123-year-old water compact that also includes Colorado, Utah and New Mexico.
The main point of contention is between the Upper Basin and the Lower Basin states: California, Nevada and Arizona.
The Upper Basin states claim that the Lower Basin is taking too much water. The Lower Basin states claim that the Upper Basin states haven’t done enough to improve the efficiency of their agricultural irrigation and other water uses to allow more of the Colorado to flow downriver.
The seven states missed a deadline last week to at least draw up a preliminary agreement over water management going forward.
They have until mid-February to reach a final agreement or face possible intervention from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The states and the Department of Interior reached a series of agreements for water use operations, starting in 2007. But those agreements all expire in 2026, meaning a new operations plan must be drawn up.
Water rights for the states, Native American tribes along the river and Mexico were designated under the 1922 Colorado River Compact.
‘Build More Dams’
Hageman said that the 1922 compact might have to be revisited.
Even so, that still doesn’t relieve the Lower Basin states from their duty to upgrade their infrastructure and lower their demands on the Upper Basin, she said.
"We have to work through the issues on the compact, I'm not suggesting otherwise,” she said. "We still need to deal with that. We need to protect Wyoming's interests.
“But at the same time, if you're going to provide a long-term solution to address water shortages in Arizona and California, they both need to develop additional sources. They need to build dams."
Is It Really California’s Fault?
A Colorado water use expert said he questions the effectiveness of states pointing fingers at each other. He also said that while desalination might help, it likely isn’t a large-scale solution.
“Everyone looks at everyone else’s water use and can see waste,” Doug Kenney told Cowboy State Daily.
“It’s not a helpful argument to try to decide whose water use is more legitimate,” added Kenney.
He’s the director of the Western Water Policy Program and senior fellow at the Getches-Wilkinson Center at the University of Colorado Law School.
It’s tough to make generalized statements about infrastructure along the Colorado River because the quality of it varies in all places, he said.
Moreover, the Lower Basin states have shown improvement in water use over the years, Kenney added.
“By and large, the cities have done a very good job, over time, improving their infrastructure,” he said. "The big cities in the Lower Basin use about the same amount of water as they did 30 or 50 years ago,” he said.
Desalinization has a place, but it can’t fully replace river water, particularly for agricultural uses, Kenney said.
“It’s technically feasible. The problem there is it’s unbelievably expensive,” and trying to apply it to agriculture could make food prices skyrocket, he said.
Desalinization in California could provide a “back-up water supply for high-value urban and industrial uses,” he said.
‘Parkways, Lawns And Golf Courses’
Everybody along the Colorado River might have to make some tough choices in the coming years, former Wyoming Gov. Jim Geringer told Cowboy State Daily.
He dealt with the Colorado River controversy and other water-use issues during his tenure from 1995 to 2003.
In the Lower Basin, there seems to be too much emphasis on aesthetic and recreational use of water, rather than meeting vital needs, Geringer said.
“What’s the purpose of watering parkways and lawns and golf courses in Phoenix and California? How does that compare to human need?” he said.
Alfalfa crops to feed cattle on massive dairies in Arizona also demand huge amounts of water, he said.
Jen Lamb, the Wyoming representative for the Nature Conservancy, told Cowboy State Daily that Wyoming can’t do much to control water use in other states.
Improvements can be made to streamline water use here, she said, and money is available for that.
“The state is working on a grant to improve irrigation infrastructure in Wyoming,” she said.
Low-Economic Value Agriculture
In terms of sheer economic value, agriculture in the Lower Basin might outweigh Upper Basin agriculture, Kenney said.
The Upper Basin can’t compete with the massive crops of fruits, vegetables and the like grown in the Lower Basin, he said.
“The Lower Basin is just the place where you can grow crops at higher yields, and higher-value crops,” Kenney said.
Some tough decisions might have to be made in terms of “buying out” some lower-yield Upper Basin water rights and transferring them to the Lower Basin, he said.
That would mean taking some Upper Basin agriculture land out of production.
“And, of course, that comes with some major social implications,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
