Salazar announces Colorado River inventory

PHOENIX — A $1.5 million infusion of federal money will pay for an inventory of the Colorado River's water supply and demands.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar made the announcement of the new water assessment at a meeting Wednesday of water leaders from Utah, California, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado — the primary users of the river's water.

"You can't manage a resource that you don't measure," Salazar said. "The WaterSMART initiative is all about measuring our water supplies and how we use them. This water census will provide crucial information to water managers to improve our efforts to wisely balance competing demands."

Called the Colorado River Basin Geographic Focus Study, the inventory will be conducted by scientific experts within the U.S. Geological Survey.

The study will be conducted over a three-year period and is intended to provide a platform on how much water is needed to support ecosystems amid significant competition over water resources.

Salazar said the study is part of an ongoing effort outlined in the WaterSMART Secretarial Order signed in February of this year, adding that the last comprehensive assessment of water availability in the country was in 1978.

The USGS WaterSMART initiative will produce a water census for the nation, a new and ongoing appraisal for water availability that links both water quality and quantity. It will track changes in flow, use and storage of water, as well as develop models and predictive tools to guide decisions.

A relatively new area of science evaluates how much water needs to be left in the streams to support important ecological values. This initiative includes a significant research and assessment effort to help wildlife managers characterize the flow needs for aquatic species and their habitat.

The USGS WaterSMART Colorado River Basin Geographic Focus Study will complement the River Basin Supply and Demand grant awarded for the Colorado Basin by the Bureau of Reclamation in 2010. It is one of three such studies on major river basins across the nation planned to begin this year.

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