The Rundown

• The Bureau of Reclamation report determines next year’s water charges and reductions for the lower The Colorado River.
• The completion of an environmental assessment by Reclamation paves the way for Payments to California farmers not to take water from the Colorado River.
• FEMA extends the application deadline for Grants for reconstruction after disasters.
• The USDA wants to involve the public in how private funds should be used for its land and water conservation programs.
• This week, federal advisory groups are meeting on the topic Mississippi And Glen Canyon Dam.

And finally, an EPA report finds that state and federal agencies have failed to address drinking water crises in Jackson, Mississippi.

“Specifically, state assessors did not consistently document deficiencies, escalate common deficiencies, or notify Jackson of significant deficiencies. As a result, EPA did not have a full understanding of the extent of management and operational problems in Jackson’s system. (Mississippi State Department of Health’s) oversight failures obscured Jackson’s longstanding challenges, allowed problems to grow over time, and contributed to the system’s ultimate failure.” – Excerpt from a report by EPA’s Office of Inspector General on agency missteps that led to drinking water system outages in Jackson, Mississippi, in February 2021 (freezing weather) and August 2022 (flooding).

During these events, some residents of the state capital went without tap water for days or weeks. Boil water advisories have been issued on and off over the years. The report alleges that the Mississippi Department of Health, which is responsible for enforcing federal drinking water regulations, failed to notice the problems at the Jackson water utility and that the EPA, in its oversight role, did not intervene until the problems were out of control.

According to the report, the EPA did not become aware of Jackson’s water problems until it sent an inspection team in 2020, whose members saw T-shirts and coffee mugs around town that read “Welcome to Boil Water Alert Mississippi.”

In numbers

7,321: Water main breaks in Jackson, Mississippi, in the five years from 2017 to 2021. According to the EPA Inspector General’s report, it was an “exorbitant amount” and nearly four times the industry benchmark for acceptable performance.

Short messages

Water shortages on the Colorado River remain
Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will again face mandatory cuts to their Colorado River water allocations in 2025 due to ongoing water shortages in the lower Colorado River.

The declaration of the Level 1 deficiency is the result of a Bureau of Reclamation report released last week. The so-called 24-month study, which is updated monthly, projects reservoir water levels up to that point in the future. The August study determines how much water the basin’s major reservoirs, Mead and Powell, will release over the next year. Lake Powell will release 7.48 million acre-feet, meaning states in the lower basin will have to conserve water to prevent Lake Mead’s water levels from dropping.

The shortage determination is based on Lake Mead’s projected water level as of Jan. 1. The 1,062-foot forecast represents a reduction from the Stage 1 shortage, which hits Arizona the hardest. Lake Mead is currently 33 percent full, or two-thirds empty.

Private funds for public sector nature conservation programs
The Sustains Act, a law passed last year, allows the U.S. Department of Agriculture to accept private funds for its land and water conservation programs. The department wants to know how it will implement this new authority.

Questions the Department raises in its request include: Should USDA raise funds and how? Which programs should be prioritized? And perhaps most importantly, how can conflicts of interest be avoided?

Leave comments about www.regulations.gov using docket number NRCS-2024-0014. Comments are due by September 16.

Studies and reports

Payments to farmers for water from the Colorado River
The Bureau of Reclamation found “no significant impacts” from a proposed water conservation plan for the Colorado River, paving the way for some California farmers to make money by leaving water in Lake Mead.

The plan calls for the Imperial Irrigation District, which has the largest rights to the river, to leave up to 700,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mead through 2026, a reduction from the 900,000 acre-feet proposed in the draft.

Funding for the plan will come from the $4 billion set aside in the Inflation Reduction Act, a federal climate bill that also includes money for drought relief. Under a one-year conservation agreement, IID and its farmers have been awarded $777 per acre-foot in 2023. The Desert Sun has more details on possible payment structures for the new agreement.

More water would keep Lake Mead’s water level higher than usual. But that has its drawbacks. Runoff from the IID fields ends up in the Salton Sea. Less water in the fields means less runoff into the sea, which is already shrinking and releasing toxic dust and chemicals onto the lake floor.

Reclamation’s assessment states that the conservation plan will “accelerate” the drawdown of the Salton Sea. However, the assessment claims that the trend will eventually return to baseline and that air quality problems will be addressed by existing plans.

On the radar

FEMA gives disaster areas more time to apply for grants
FEMA has passed a rule extending the deadline to apply for disaster reconstruction funds.

The agency will accept applications for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program for 15 months after the disaster is declared, up from 12 months previously.

The new regulation also provides for extensions of up to 240 days.

The hazard reduction program is designed to prepare communities for the consequences of the last natural disaster as they rebuild.

Meeting at Glen Canyon Dam
The group that advises the federal government on issues related to the operation of the Glen Canyon Dam will hold a public meeting on August 21 and 22.

The following will be discussed: the three-year work plan, federal environmental assessments for the operation of the dam after the current regulations expire in 2026 and

Links to the live stream and dial-in details can be found in the agenda above.

Meeting at the Mississippi
The Mississippi River Commission, a body of appointed officials that makes recommendations for river policy, will hold four public meetings this week to address river management concerns and provide updates on infrastructure projects.

The meetings will take place in Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Federal Water Tap is a weekly overview of trends in U.S. water policy. For more water news, visit consequences Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.

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