U.S. Water News Online
WASHINGTON -- The drought that has gripped the West for the last several years is expected to ease some in the coming year, although Bush administration officials warned that water wars will continue.
Much of New Mexico and parts of Montana and Idaho are forecast to continue suffering from a severe drought, according to projections from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
But the long-term drought has left reservoirs in Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Oregon with less than half their normal reserve, and it could take as many as 20 years of normal precipitation to replenish the supply.
Even in normal conditions, many areas will continue to be plagued by fights over water because of competing demands and rapid growth in the area, Bennett Raley, the Interior Department's assistant secretary for water and science, told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
``Unlike the past century, when water crises were intense but typically occurred in drought years and only affected resources and economies of local and regional importance, water supply-related crises in this century will affect economies and resources of national and international importance unless we take action now,'' Raley said.
Raley said supply problems are expected to be particularly acute in the Klamath River Basin in northern California and southern Oregon, and in New Mexico's Middle Rio Grande Basin.
In recent years, water in the Klamath River was diverted from farms to protect endangered fish in the river. Last year, in the Middle Rio Grande Basin a federal judge forced water to be diverted from farms to protect the endangered silvery minnow further downstream.
``I don't even know where to begin to discuss the vast challenges facing states like mine,'' said New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici, chairman of the Senate committee. ``Water continues to be the backbone of the economy and we all seem to be really walking in place, while the problems seem to be all around us, wondering what we can do.''
To try to avert future crises, Interior Secretary Gale Norton has started an initiative, Water 2025, seeking to prevent water conflicts through a series of conservation incentives, water purchases, planning collaboration and technology.
But Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., challenged the Bush administration's commitment to Western water issues, noting it proposed cutting $25 million from the Bureau of Reclamation conservation and technology programs while adding $11.6 million to the Water 2025 program.
Domenici said more needs to be done to develop new sources of water, including research to remove salt and minerals from water to make it useable and other purification methods.
And both Bingaman and Domenici questioned the administration's plan to cut funding for the Middle Rio Grande project from $32 million this year to $18 million in the coming budget year.
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