BEYOND THE SIGNING What the Drought Contingency Plan means for the Colorado River Basin
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his year, the seven U.S. states that rely upon water from the Colorado River developed yet another agreement about how to share the river’s waters, this time in the face of prolonged drought and climate change. On April 16, 2019, President Donald Trump signed into law the act authorizing the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) to execute and implement the Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan (DCP) through 2026. By that time, DOI and the basin states will likely have developed another new plan for operating the Colorado River.
A lot has changed since the Colorado River Compact first divvied up the river’s waters in 1922. Today, more than 40 million people in two countries rely upon the Colorado River, which originates on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains in northern Colorado, and is fed by major tributaries like the Green, Gunnison and San Juan rivers. Cities from Denver to San Diego, though geographically outside of the natural river basin, divert water from the river for drinking and industry, and farmers irrigate 5.5 million acres of everything from alfalfa to melons. The Colorado River Basin is also now more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the twentieth century average—with “hotter” droughts
BY LAURA PASKUS Courtesy U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
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