Water Dole Is About to Dry Up

California has been living on the water dole for years, taking far more from the Colorado River than the state is entitled to under the complex laws, agreements and court decrees that make up the Law of the River, which governs the use of the Colorado’s water.

But that situation has got to end, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has told the agricultural and urban agencies in Southern California that draw on the Colorado. Unless California settles a spate of intramural disputes and develops a plan for living within its water means, Babbitt said, he may have to impose cuts himself.

The last thing any of the parties wants is to have the federal government dictating water policy to California. But Babbitt is not just making threats. He also has proposed a framework for a conservation plan that will enable California to adjust over time to the realities of current-day supply and demand.

Under the Law of the River, which dates to the Colorado River Compact of 1922, California is entitled to 4.4 million acre-feet of the Colorado’s water each year. But this year’s usage is expected to exceed 5.2 million acre-feet, with most of the surplus coming to the urban Los Angeles Basin.

This has been possible historically because the amount of water available in the Colorado has exceeded demand. But as other states in the river basin grow, they are taking ever-larger shares of their own Colorado entitlements. In the process, the surplus diminishes, and ultimately it will disappear, even without drought.

Babbitt has proposed ways of improving management of the river and allowing states to accommodate changing urban and agricultural needs and demands. One of these is “water marketing,” to enable the giant desert irrigation districts that consume the bulk of California’s Colorado water to lease supplies to urban agencies on a long-term basis. There should be enough water to go around, Babbitt said, but “we must insist on prudent, non-wasteful use.” There should be no argument with that goal.

There’s some irony in the fact that Babbitt is a former governor of Arizona, California’s historic foe in Colorado River wars. As governor, Babbitt personally forged one of the nation’s most far-reaching water plans and became intimately familiar with problems involving the Colorado. Now, Babbitt is providing welcome and needed leadership in the settlement of California’s own water wars.