For the past year, Living Rivers has been working to stop the Bureau of Reclamation (BuRec) from destroying the most functional piece of Colorado River delta habitat, the Cienega de Santa Clara. BuRec is preparing to submit a report to Congress that recommends the diversion of Cienega water to BuRec’s Yuma Desalting Plant. Public input is needed now to help influence this report before it is finalized, as well as letters to Congress once it is submitted.
This rich 14,000-acre biosphere reserve in Mexico receives the only constant flows in the entire two-million-acre delta region. As such, it provides critical habitat for a number of endangered species, and especially for waterfowl traveling the Pacific Flyway between Alaska and South America. The Cienega and 90 percent of the surrounding delta region was destroyed when water diversions from the Colorado River by the United States and Mexico began taking every drop. The Cienega has been revitalized, however, as a result of irrigation drainage from southwestern Arizona that has been diverted into Mexico. BuRec now wishes to capture all this drainage water, and divert it through its mothballed desalting plant in Yuma, Arizona.
BuRec’s motive is to add an additional 108,000 acre-feet of water back into the Colorado River, so that a similar amount could be used by farmers upstream. Finally completed in 1992 at a cost of $253 million, the Yuma Desalting Plant was slated to treat irrigation drainage water and to ensure that water delivered to Mexico met agreed upon water quality standards. However, given the plant’s operation costs of $36 million annually, it has been more economical to obtain the 108,000 acre-feet of water from California, and allow the drainage water to flow on down to the Cienega. Starting up the plant will have the reverse effect—an ecological disaster for the Cienega, and an unnecessary economic burden for US taxpayers.
On March 7, Living Rivers, Defenders of Wildlife, Pacific Institute, Sierra Club, Environmental Defense and Southwest Rivers jointly submitted a critique of BuRec’s most recent draft report to Congress. Among the most blatant omissions were hardly any reference to the Cienega and the ecological impacts associated with the loss of its only water source. There was also no mention of the federally listed endangered species that would be affected by taking this water, including the Yuma clapper rail, desert pupfish and black rail.
To improve the economic picture, BuRec overestimated the desalting plant’s output, causing the average price per acre-foot of water produced to be 33 percent lower than what would actually occur. A similar error was made in calculating the plant’s primary operating costs: electricity. BuRec used a price of $32 per megawatt hour, when the actual price is $44. BuRec hopes that such faulty analysis will not be questioned by Congress, nor that Congress will ask for alternative methods of achieving the required water quality standards.
In fact, the draft report did not address long-term alternatives at all. Living Rivers’ analysis reveals that water rights could be purchased or leased from Arizona irrigators at a cost of 75 to 85 percent less than the cost of desalting the drainage water via the Yuma plant. By not relying on the operation of the plant, it can be permanently decommissioned, saving tax payers an additional $5.1 million annually.
Please join Living Rivers in demanding that a more thorough economic and alternatives analysis be undertaken by BuRec before they submit their report to Congress. Write to: Robert Johnson, Regional Director; Lower Colorado River Region, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; PO Box 61470; Boulder City, NV 89006-1470; Fax: (702) 293-8614; Email: BJohnson@lc.usbr.gov.
