A monthly members-only column by Alan Dulaney
Sometimes government actions work as intended, and sometimes they don’t. In the arena of water politics, especially in a time of extended drought, miscalculated moves can have unforeseen and undesirable consequences. Surface water in the Southwest is a case in point.
The Colorado River Compact was finalized in 1922, although Arizona did not ratify it for several years due to their position that California had too much water allocated to it, and Arizona had too little. A century ago, flows in the Colorado River were optimistically estimated to be 15 million acre feet (maf) per year. The Compact established the division between Upper Basin and Lower Basin states, and each got 7.5 maf. No one could imagine long-term declines in these volumes, although short-term droughts could be envisioned. And no one saw increases in demand on the scale that became obvious late in the 20th Century, particularly in the Lower Basin.
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