The Rundown
- State Department announces deal with Mexico on predictable Rio Grande water deliveries.
- Army Corps publishes final environmental review for Line 5 oil pipeline tunnel, in the Great Lakes region.
- The Interior Department’s deadline for the seven Colorado River states to agree on water cuts is the end of this week but no deal is expected.
- The House passes a bill to accelerate domestic production of critical minerals.
- NOAA forecasters discuss the dismal water supply outlook in the upper Colorado River, where total snow cover is currently the lowest in a quarter century.
- EPA extends deadlines for installing groundwater monitoring systems at certain coal ash pits.
- Federal energy regulators begin an environmental review of a natural gas pipeline from New Mexico to Texas.
And lastly, a Senate committee discusses water system cybersecurity.
“Water and wastewater systems across our nation are already grappling with how to prioritize limited resources while meeting federal and state requirements under the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act. Costly requirements can distract from the core mission of providing safe, reliable and affordable services to the American people. In addressing these cyber challenges, we must strike the right balance between the role of federal agencies and empowering local utilities to address their challenges and improve their cybersecurity at their own facilities.” – Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) at a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on water system cybersecurity. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) noted that investing in reliability and security is “not an either or.” A witness, Scott Simonton of the Marshall University Institute for Cybersecurity, recommended targeted assistance to small utilities that are short on staffing and money.
By the Numbers
68: Percent of monitoring stations in the western states that measured snow-water equivalent in the bottom 20 percent of the historical record. The “snow drought” is most acute in Colorado, where snowpack is at record low levels.
News Briefs
Rio Grande Water Deliveries
The State Department announced an agreement with Mexico to provide more reliable and predictable water deliveries to the Rio Grande, a river they share. These deliveries are required under a 1944 treaty, but Mexico fell behind in the previous five-year delivery period.
In a press release, the State Department said that Mexico agreed to deliver a minimum of 350,000 acre-feet per year in this five-year cycle. That is the average amount required annually under the treaty.
According to the release, Mexico also agreed to a “detailed plan” to repay its deficit from the previous cycle.
A State Department spokesperson declined Circle of Blue’s request for more specifics on the plan.
Line 5
The Army Corps of Engineers published the final environmental review of a proposed 3.9-mile tunnel for a controversial oil pipeline.
The pipeline is called Line 5, which runs 645 miles across the Great Lakes region. Line 5 sits on the lakebed at the Straits of Mackinac, where Enbridge, the Canadian company that owns the pipeline, wants to bore a tunnel to house its replacement, which would be less exposed to strikes from boat anchors. Michigan’s Democratic leadership has attempted to shut down the pipeline.
The Army Corps review focused on impacts from tunnel construction, spoils disposal, and decommissioning the existing dual pipelines. It did not consider climate impacts.
In context: Federal Judge: Michigan Has No Authority to Shut Down Line 5
Critical Minerals
The House passed the Critical Minerals Dominance Act, a bill that codifies parts of President Trump’s executive orders to speed up mining approvals on federally managed public lands.
The bill authorizes mapping of mineral deposits, identifying and approving priority projects, and an assessment of regulations that impede mining.
Studies and Reports
Colorado River Water Supply Forecast
The Colorado River water forecast, which already was abysmal, worsened significantly since the beginning of the year.
Total snow cover in the river’s upper basin, which provides most of its water, is the lowest in at least the last 25 years, according to the February outlook from the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center, a division of NOAA. Snow-water equivalent, a measure of water held as snow, is 47 percent of average in the watersheds above Lake Powell, also a record low.
Meager snow is due in part to a dry January. Precipitation was between 50 and 75 percent of the 30-year average for the month. But it’s also attributable to a warm winter – record heat across the basin in December – in which moisture arrived as rain inside of snow. A wet October, which stoked hopes, has given way to a dry winter.
This translates into a dreadful outlook for Lake Powell. The runoff forecast for the key April-July period is just 38 percent of average, a decrease of 21 percentage points from the beginning of January. This is the midpoint forecast in a range of possible futures.
The terrible hydrology adds pressure on the basin’s leaders as they negotiate difficult water cuts.
Slides from the forecast center’s presentation are here.
On the Radar
Colorado River Deadline
Two months ago, the Interior Department gave the seven Colorado River basin states a February 14 deadline to agree on how to cut their water use from the shrinking river. The deadline is widely expected to be missed.
A gathering of governors in D.C. at the end of January did not result in any breakthroughs. Still, the parties will continue to negotiate. Both the upper and lower basins want the other to sacrifice more.
EPA Extends Coal Ash Deadlines
The EPA extended the deadline for power companies to install groundwater monitoring systems at coal ash waste pits that are no longer in operation. These pits leak toxic heavy metals found in coal waste.
The agency pushed back the deadline, established during the Biden era, from May 2028 to February 2031.
Initial annual monitoring reports are now due by January 31, 2032, a year later than the original rule.
New Mexico Natural Gas Pipeline
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is starting an environmental review of the proposed Forza project, a 36-mile natural gas pipeline from Lea County, New Mexico, to Winkler County, Texas.
Federal Water Tap is a weekly digest spotting trends in U.S. government water policy. To get more water news, follow Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.
