And nearly two-thirds of that water goes toward crops that feed cattle.
By Hillel Aron, Courthouse News
The 1,450-mile-long Colorado River runs through four states — it brushes past Arizona — and 11 national parks. It provides drinking water for 40 million people, irrigates 5.5 million acres of farmland and produces 12 billion kilowatt hours of electricity every year. It has been called “American’s Nile” and one of “the most controlled, controversial and litigated rivers in the world.”
Every drop gets used. That is to say, the river doesn’t actually make it to its delta, the gulf of California, where it once emptied out into the sea. All the water from the Colorado River is accounted for, by either humans or the surrounding environment.
In fact, the river is over-consumed by about 20%, meaning water usage in the Colorado River basin is draining the major reservoirs of Lake Mead and Lake Powell.
And the amount of water sent down the river every year is shrinking. During the last two decades, the river produced 10% less water on average than it did in the last century. That supply is expected to dwindle even further, thanks to droughts resulting from climate change.
“Remarkably, no one until now has been able to compile a full accounting of where all the water goes,” said Brian Richter, the President of Sustainable Waters, a nonprofit water education service.
Richter and his colleagues have done just that, in a paper published Thursday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. The resulting water budget yielded some surprising revelations.
More than half of all Colorado River water — 52% — goes toward agriculture. And nearly two-thirds of that water is used for crops fed to cattle: mostly alfalfa, which alone accounts for 27% of the river’s water. Other grass hay makes up 6%.
In other words: A third of the Colorado river is used to produce beef, milk and cheese.
“The production of alfalfa is increasing,” Richter said. “It seems to be driven primarily by the increased consumption of cheese. Dairies are expanding in the western United States, and they need alfalfa.”
No other crops come close. Wheat accounts for 6% of the water; cotton, 3%.
“We’re not going to be able to produce the same crops in the same amounts in the future,” says Richter. “We’re already over-consuming the Colorado River by about 20%. In the future, agriculture is going to have to change fairly substantially.”
Which is to say: Some farms will need to start growing different, less water-intensive crops. And some farms will probably have to shut down.
“We have to be really smart about helping farmers make that transition. helping them financially,” says Richter. “Shifting to different crops is going to require different farming equipment, and in many cases, different irrigation equipment.”
One positive for the river is that cities and industries (including all direct human usage of water, like drinking and showering) have cut their water usage by about 18% in the last two decades, even as the population being served by the river has increased by about 24%.
“Cities are doing a miraculous job,” says Richter. “We need to see a commensurate reduction in the use of water in agriculture.”
The Colorado River is facing a crucial juncture. Negotiations are currently underway between the federal government, the seven Colorado River basin states (Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California) and Mexico over water rights. A number of agreements are set to expire in 2026. Some of those current agreements are based on trigger points: once reservoir levels reach a certain point, water districts must cut back on water consumption.
“It’s a reactive approach,” says Richter. “There needs to be a lot more emphasis on planning for the future.”
