Jack Foley
Director, former chairman, Metropolitan Water District

Water from the Colorado River is essential to meet the growing need of seven states and the Republic of Mexico. The Colorado provides water to 25 million people and irrigates over a million acres of fertile farmland. Yet when the waters of the Colorado River were divided in the Colorado River Compact of 1922, the negotiators did not know they had over-allocated the river by about 1.5 million acre-feet. This fact has made it increasingly challenging for water managers to meet growing water demands as the southwest population explodes.

California met the challenge of reduced water supplies with the development and implementation of the California Plan, which reduced its use of surplus water. Key components of the plan include the Quantification Settlement Agreement, the implementation of Metropolitan’s plan with the Palo Verde Irrigation District, and Metropolitan’s investment in a diverse water portfolio. In 2003, when drought conditions ended the availability of surplus water much sooner than anticipated, Metropolitan weathered the cutback by taking aggressive water management actions, including developing storage in Diamond Valley Lake, increased water conservation awareness campaigns, and adopting new operational procedures to enable it to deliver additional State Water Project supplies.

Now the Colorado River basin states must work together to develop new management tools as the gap between demands and supplies grows. This past year, the states came together to develop an historic agreement, to be accepted by the Secretary of Interior, to help stretch our Colorado River resources. This agreement is a first step, but it paves the way for cooperative water management programs to move forward. It identifies the process where states like Nevada continue to grow without harming other states. Only when the states work cooperatively to manage our water resources will the Colorado River be able to meet future demands.

David S. Wilson, Jr.
General Manager,
Central Arizona Project >>

Bob Johnson
Commissioner,
Bureau of Reclamation >>

Jeff Kightlinger
General Manager, Metropolitan Water District >>