California faces West water revolt

A day of reckoning is close for Southern California, and Utah could help play the part of the Grim Reaper.

Come Jan. 1, the upper Colorado River states, including Utah, will start closing the spigot to hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of Colorado River water that residents of San Diego and Los Angeles have been lapping up for the past 20 years. Water that never did belong to them.

"Starting next year, we (Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming) will deliver to California the 4.4 million acre-feet of water required under the compact agreement," said Larry Anderson, director of the Utah Division of Water Resources.

The problem for Southern California is that 4.4 million is 800,000 less than the 5.2 million per year the state is currently soaking up. And because California farmers have most of the state's share of Colorado River water locked up by contract, the decision by Utah and the other states means 800,000 acre-feet less water going to homes and businesses.

According to the Department of Interior, which manages massive dams on the Colorado River like Hoover and Glen Canyon, that is enough water for 1.6 million California households.

Anderson says the decision to play hardball with California is the consequence of the actions of a single California water district in the Imperial Valley that unraveled a complicated agreement by seven states and Mexico.

And, Anderson added, if the Imperial Valley holds firm, it could signal the opening shot in the biggest water war the West has ever seen. It will certainly be the focus of meetings Monday of the Colorado River Water Users Association in Las Vegas, where Secretary of Interior Gale Norton is expected to address the issue.

Last Monday, the Imperial Valley water district, which uses 3.2 million acre-feet of water, or more than twice what the entire state of Utah is entitled to, voted 3-2 to reject the settlement agreement that called for some California agriculture water to be diverted via aqueduct to metropolitan Southern California.

Imperial Valley opponents likened the deal to selling their birthright.

"We don't want to be a dust bowl," said local resident Valerie Lee, according to Associated Press accounts of the meeting. "What makes this a decent place to live are the farms. Without them, we're just a dusty border town."

The Imperial Valley is the nation's largest irrigation project, turning a desert into rich farmlands that produce about $1 billion a year in cattle and crops.