Tangle - The Colorado river water fight.

Starting point is 00:00:00 Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca.

Starting point is 00:01:00 From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle podcast, a place where you get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking without all that hysterical nonsense you find everywhere else. I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and on today's episode, we're going to be talking about the Colorado River fight. This was one of the most requested news topics in our survey of readers last week, so we want to get to it. Before we jump in, a couple things. First of all, still sick, so apologize a little bit for my Before we jump in, a couple of things. First of all, still sick, so apologize a little bit for my nasally sounding voice. I'm just kicking this cold. Secondly, I want to give you a heads up that we are off on Monday. It is President's Day. We observe bank holidays, so there will be no podcast on Monday. But we are releasing a special Friday edition tomorrow in the newsletter about East Palestine, Ohio. If you want to receive that newsletter, I encourage you to go to readtangle.com and become a member. You'll get it straight to

Starting point is 00:02:10 your inbox. All right, with that out of the way, we'll jump in, as always, with our quick hits. First up, the Justice Department said it won't bring charges against Representative Matt Gaetz, the Republican from Florida, in a sex trafficking inquiry. Number two, the United States is in danger of being unable to meet its financial obligations as early as July if the debt limit isn't raised, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Number three, a gunman who killed 10 people in a Buffalo, New York grocery store in May was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He was convicted of a racially motivated mass murder. Number four, China imposed sanctions on Lockheed Martin and Raytheon for supplying

Starting point is 00:02:56 weapons to Taiwan. Number five, on Thursday, a Georgia judge is expected to release the grand jury findings from the investigation into former President Trump's alleged election interference. Stretching from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of California, the Colorado River gives fresh water to people across seven states. But drought, climate change, and a growing population has shrunk the river's water flow to its lowest levels ever. Seven states, including Arizona, were given a deadline by the federal government to come up with a plan on how to cut back more water. Now, six of the seven states using Colorado River water, including Arizona, did submit a letter and propose a model to the Department of Interior. Missing the signature from California, the states failed to meet today's deadline.

Starting point is 00:03:52 Deadpool, to most people, that's a Marvel movie antihero. But when it comes to Lake Mead, Deadpool means we've hit the bottom of the basin. the patient. In late January, the seven states that rely on the Colorado River for water failed to strike a water sharing deal by the federally mandated deadline. Because the states were unable to come to an agreement, the Biden administration, led by the Federal Bureau of Reclamation, may have to intervene and impose regional water cuts at a time when the states involved continued to battle droughts and low reservoirs. Along with parts of Mexico, there are seven states that rely on the Colorado River. Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. Water is distributed to those states based on the Colorado River Compact, signed in 1922, and the allocations are largely based on

Starting point is 00:04:42 the rate of precipitation and each state's water usage at that time. Today, the distribution of what each state uses looks drastically different than it did back then, as does the region's hydrology. More than 40 million people get their water from the Colorado River, including 30 tribes. Along with populations soaring in several of the states that rely on it for water, regional agriculture has soared too and now accounts for about 80% of the river's water usage. The impacts of climate change on the Southwest have compounded the strain, with the year 2000 to 2018

Starting point is 00:05:14 marking one of the driest periods ever in the region. Last year, the Bureau of Reclamation, which manages water and related resources, asked the seven states in the compact to reduce their use of the river by 2 million to 4 million acre-feet per year, which is about 20% to 40% of the river's flow in any given year. An acre-foot is how much water it takes to cover an acre one foot deep, or about 326,000 gallons. For context, a single California home uses one-half to one acre foot of water every

Starting point is 00:05:45 year on average, so this would be the rough equivalent of two to four million households not using any water at all for a single year. In January, all seven states except California submitted a plan to make cuts. California rejected the state's plan, instead arguing that it had senior water rights and proposing cuts that mainly targeted states who had fewer legal rights to the water. While California only gets 15% of its water from the Colorado River, about one-third of all the water for Southern California's 23 million residents comes from the river. Central to all this urgency are Lake Powell and Lake Mead, two man-made lakes at the center of the Colorado River. Both were created by erecting dams, and the lakes are used as drinking water reservoirs. Both lakes have been at dangerously

Starting point is 00:06:29 low levels for years, but they are now approaching their minimum power generating levels, at which point their dams will be unable to provide hydroelectricity. Soon after, they will be at risk of becoming dead pools, reservoirs whose water levels are too low to enter discharge channels and release their water downstream. In that scenario, downstream states like California, Arizona, and Nevada would lose their main drinking and irrigation water, which would be a crisis unlike any the states have ever faced. While scientists can't predict when exactly the river will fail to minimally fill the lakes, there are legitimate forecasts that it could happen as soon as 2025. The story of the Colorado River water dispute is extremely complex, touching on agriculture, population growth, climate change, legal water rights, states' rights, a litany of

Starting point is 00:07:16 Supreme Court rulings, and much more. Thanks to a 1963 court ruling, the federal government now has the power to adjudicate water conflicts, though it typically tries to give that power back to the states, as it has done here. With several deadlines having passed, though, the threat of an ever-retreating river and the possibility of dead pools looming, the Interior Department appears poised to step in and mandate a settlement. Because this story does not have any traditional left-right lines, there are a lot of different arguments out there. Today, we are just going to share some opinions from across the spectrum on what to do next. I encourage you to listen to them all in full. First up, in the Los Angeles Times, Michael Hiltzik wrote about California's position and what it'll actually take to resolve this conflict.

Starting point is 00:08:16 Over the last century, California has fought fiercely to preserve its legally sanctioned right to 4.4 million acre-feet of Colorado River water per year, Hiltzik wrote. California's voracious appetite for Colorado River water was not necessarily an unreasonable concern in 1922. Although only 6,000 of the 244,000 square miles of the Colorado River watershed are in California, the state was by far the most thoroughly developed of the seven states, accounting for 415,000 of the 587,000 irrigated acres in the river basin north of the Mexican border. Nor is it unreasonable even now. California's population of 39 million is still nearly twice that of the other six states combined.

Starting point is 00:08:58 The impasse has resulted from California issuing its own restructuring proposal while the other six states agreed among themselves on a framework for negotiating reapportionment, he added. California's plan would minimize its losses in the renegotiation while imposing more stringent reductions on Arizona and Nevada, he said. Is there a solution to the conflict over the Colorado? Yes, but at this time it's confounded by history and politics. California and Arizona agriculture will have to be remade to accommodate new irrigation technologies and to shift to less thirsty crops. Urbanites will have to step up their conservation and recycling efforts. The states will have to recognize their shared interests in fairly distributing a shrinking

Starting point is 00:09:40 resource. And federal officials will have to work toward a settlement that every interest group finds acceptable. Wish them luck. The Washington Post broke down some of the potential solutions. Most stakeholders along the river agree that drastic cuts in water are urgently needed, the board said. Agreeing to cuts while critical is only the first step. Communities, including cities and suburbs across the Southwest, will then have to undertake the difficult process of reimagining their water use. Some localities have already managed to dramatically reduce their reliance on water. Las Vegas has been a standout, banning ornamental turf, limiting water deliveries

Starting point is 00:10:15 to golf courses, and reducing swimming pool sizes. This comes after decades of effective advertising to get households to voluntarily reduce their water use. Local authorities have also invested heavily in water recycling. Approximately 99% of indoor water in the Southern Nevada Water Authority's service area is recycled, meaning that even the resorts on Las Vegas Strip waste very little water. Cities can also make existing infrastructure more efficient. That could involve reducing leakage in pipes by auditing water loss and setting up controls to reduce the drain. States could also establish high-efficiency standards for plumbing products so they require less water pressure. But urban areas account for only a fraction of the Colorado River's use, they said. Approximately 80% of its water goes into

Starting point is 00:10:59 agriculture. Though farms and ranches have come a long way in the past two decades, there's plenty of room to make these systems more efficient. For a start, federal, state, and local authorities can incentivize farmers to adopt more sustainable irrigation practices. This could involve switching from flood irrigation to sprinklers and drip, adding pump-back systems to reuse water, and lining canals with materials that reduce drainage. In Newsweek, Catherine Jacobs wrote about the underlying management systems of the river and the need to focus more on them, not just the mega drought. We need to consider structural alternatives to the allocation system that are phased in to avoid significant economic disruptions, Jacobs said. One such alternative, which could insert more

Starting point is 00:11:39 flexibility into the allocation system, is setting minimum firm allocations that would be available even during the lowest flow periods for states, tribes, the environment, and Mexico while setting up a market system for the water supplies in excess of that minimum over time. Existing large water right holders, such as agriculture, could be compensated for gradually reducing their withdrawals from their current levels, which now exceeds 70% of the total water use. This approach has the advantage of providing guaranteed minimum water supplies to the environment, which currently has no rights at all in this system, and to tribes, including phased investment in infrastructure. The two big reservoirs, Mead and Powell, could be used to store water for the banking system, along with the substantial in-state investments in underground

Starting point is 00:12:23 storage and groundwater aquifers, an approach already used at scale in Arizona and California, she said. This transition won't be easy or cheap, and most likely would require a new governance system, such as Commissioner to manage the river, as opposed to the current compact-based interstate negotiating system overseen by highly constrained federal authorities. This new approach would require permanent reductions in some uses, but the certainty and flexibility of such a system would avoid the high costs of the ongoing crisis management approach and the associated potential litigation. Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a

Starting point is 00:13:09 witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages 6 months and older,

Starting point is 00:13:43 and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca. During a recent spate of floods, Wall Street Journal editorial board criticized California for not being better prepared to recycle the water. California's political leaders are obsessed with climate, so why don't they prepare for droughts or deluges? One problem is the state's lack of investment in public works, especially storage and flood control. Drought has recurred throughout California's history, punctuated by wet winters like this one, the board said. Two seven-year droughts that started in the late 1920s and 1940s spurred the construction of a

Starting point is 00:14:24 massive system of canals, dams, and 1940s spurred the construction of a massive system of canals, dams, and reservoirs, but few water projects have been built since the birth of the modern environmental movement in the 1970s. Species protections for salmon and the three-inch smelt limit how much water can be pumped south through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, which receives runoff from rivers in the north and the Sierra Mountains. The amount of water surging into the delta on Friday could have filled a reservoir the size of Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy almost every 24 hours, it added. Instead, nearly 95% of the delta's storm water this year is flushed into the Pacific Ocean. Such waste occurs whenever there's a deluge and is why some reservoirs south of the delta remain low despite the storms. Former Governor Jerry Brown wanted to build massive tunnels under the Delta that can

Starting point is 00:15:09 export more water to farmers in the fertile Central Valley and cities in Southern California, but environmentalists oppose this idea as they do expanding water storage. More reservoirs are desperately needed in the north to capture melting snowpack that would otherwise drain into the Pacific or overflow riverbanks. Reservoirs store runoff and help prevent flooding. Most reservoirs in the north are now above historical average levels, so they may have to release water this spring to avoid overflowing. In National Review, Edward Ring said water conservation alone cannot be the answer. To manage water scarcity, according to the prevailing wisdom among bureaucrats and environmentalist activists, water must be used more efficiently. But for the most part, this has already been done, he said. For example, at the same time that annual water

Starting point is 00:15:55 use from the lower Colorado has been relatively stable at 15 MAF per year, the population in Las Vegas has grown from 1.3 million to 2.9 million, the population of Phoenix has gone from 2.9 million to 4.7 million, and the population of Tucson has grown from 723,000 to just over 1 million, he wrote. As the supply of water from the Colorado River dwindles, farm acreage will inevitably shrink, but simply accepting a drastic and permanent cutback in farm acreage in places such as Arizona and California's Imperial Valley ignores many negative consequences. As we have just seen this winter, as well as in the late fall of 2021, even during multi-year droughts, tens of millions of acre feet rain down onto California via atmospheric rivers,

Starting point is 00:16:40 but most of the water immediately drains into the ocean, he said. Despite all this potential, investments to increase California's water supply have been incremental at best, but this can change, and if it did, not only Californians but the entire Southwest would benefit. Imagine how much easier it would be to balance the Colorado River supply deficit if Californians were no longer transporting 5 MAF per year out of the lower basin to serve Imperial Valley agriculture in Southern California cities. Desalination is another option, but it is roughly twice as expensive as the wastewater recycling. Alright, that is it for some of the opinions on this issue, which brings us to my take.

Starting point is 00:17:27 So, most of all, I just want to say I find this entire ordeal terrifying. Folks in the media love to make small things big. Perhaps we just indulged in that ourselves this past week with coverage of spy balloons and UFOs. But water, water is essential. It is scarce, and it appears to be quickly disappearing in the southwest. While the dreaded dead pool is not going to happen this month, that is cold comfort in the short-term outlook. Reversing what has already transpired over a century of mismanagement is going to take not just water cuts, but infrastructure builds, agricultural reforms, and new ways of thinking about how we grow food, store and transport water, and how best to harness floods for our benefit. This is not the kind of thing that happens overnight, yet an overnight solution appears to be what we need. Much like

Starting point is 00:18:15 when I write about potential solutions to reducing our carbon emissions, I think an all-of-the-above approach is the right answer. In this case, though, there is an order of priorities that seems necessary. Yes, we want California to be better prepared to catch and recycle massive melt and rainwaters, but that takes more infrastructure and investment, which will take years to build, building that has started in some places and needs to accelerate elsewhere. In the interim, difficult water cuts must be made right away. The Biden administration should move to force these cuts since the states were unable to come to an agreement on their own.

Starting point is 00:18:48 In some ways, the details of the administration's proposal almost don't matter. Either the Bureau of Reclamation will force the states into cuts, or the states will be so unhappy with the proposal they'll be forced to work together to agree on a path forward amongst themselves. But the sooner that proposal is made and adopted, the sooner the water cuts can happen. Obviously, when 80% of the river's usage is agriculture, we can't ignore the necessity to reform that sector. Farmers and ranchers are already using far less water than they did 20 years ago, but they have to keep improving. Farmers are still pumping far more water than we can naturally replenish, which creates a huge strain on the ecosystem. The Washington Post editorial board's suggestions about how to reduce waste, like pump-back systems, moving to sprinklers and drips,

Starting point is 00:19:32 and lining canals with material that reduce drainage, are all great ideas with huge upsides and relatively low costs. The region needs water reform, and it needs to start now. The first domino to fall has to be a new water allotment, which apparently has to come from the feds. And the sooner that happens, the sooner everyone else can start planning and acting. All right, that is it for my take. We are skipping today's reader question. As always, if you want to write to us, please do that at Isaac, I-S-A-A-C, at readtangle.com. Today, we are featuring our Blind Spot Report, a once-a-week edition where we feature the Blind Spot Report from our partners over at Ground News, which is an app that tells you the bias of news coverage and what stories people on each side are missing. This week,

Starting point is 00:20:20 the right's blind spot was a story about how Ron DeSantis wanted to ban guns at an event, but didn't want to be blamed for the prohibition. The left's blind spot this week was a story about a batch of documents with the names of Jeffrey Epstein's associates, which is going to be made public in short order. All right, next up is our under the radar section. The overdose reversing drug Naloxone, commonly known as Narcan, should be made available over the counter, according to U.S. health advisors. The panel of Food and Drug Administration, or the FDA, voted unanimously in favor of the change after a day of presentations and discussions about whether untrained people could administer the nasal spray. The vote, though not binding,

Starting point is 00:21:05 is expected to make the drug more widely available, a possibility that could help stem the number of overdose deaths in America. More than 100,000 people die each year from opioid overdoses in the United States. The Associated Press has the story about Narcan becoming more available. There is a link to it in today's episode description. There is a link to it in today's episode description. All right, next up is our numbers section. The estimated total of river flow in acre feet that the drafters of the Colorado River Compact expected in 1922 was 17.5 million. Since then, the river's average acre feet flow each year has been less than 15 million. In July of 1983,

Starting point is 00:21:46 Lake Mead's water level in feet was 1,225, its highest ever. The water level in feet of Lake Mead last year was 1,044 feet, its lowest ever. The water level at which the Hoover Dam would no longer be able to generate hydroelectric power from the lake is 950. The dead pool water level, at which point no water would be able to pass the dam at all, is 895. All right, and last but not least, our have a nice day section. To celebrate his 60th birthday, Michael Jordan just donated $10 million to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the largest ever donation in the organization's 43-year history. Jordan, considered by many to be the greatest basketball player of all time,

Starting point is 00:22:30 first supported the Make-A-Wish Foundation in 1989 and is now the owner of the Charlotte Hornets. For the past 34 years, it's been an honor to partner with Make-A-Wish and help bring a smile and happiness to so many kids, Jordan said in a news release. Witnessing their strength and resilience during such a tough time in their lives has truly been an inspiration. I can't think of a better birthday gift than seeing others join me in supporting Make-A-Wish so that every child can experience the magic of having their wish come true. ESPN has the story and there's a link to it in today's episode description. All right, everybody, that is it for today's podcast. If you want to hear from us before Tuesday, you need to become a Tangle subscriber. Go to retangle.com and grab a membership.

Starting point is 00:23:09 We're dropping a story on East Palestine, Ohio tomorrow in the newsletter. The podcast will be back on Tuesday after we take Monday off for President's Day. Hope you have a great weekend and some of you can get Monday off as well. Have a good one. Peace. Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited by Zosia Warpea. Our script is edited by Sean Brady, Ari Weitzman, and Bailey Saul. Shout out to our interns, Audrey Moorhead and Watkins Kelly, and our social media manager, Matt Galenovikova, who created our podcast logo. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet75. For more from Tangle, check out our website at www.tangle.com.

Starting point is 00:24:25 We'll see you next time. becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluSilvax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. Thank you.

Tangle - The Colorado river water fight.

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