Millions of federal dollars heading straight to future water solutions, adding more protections to Lake Mead - Fox 5 Las Vegas

Millions of federal dollars heading straight to future water solutions, adding more protections to Lake Mead

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - Drought has gripped the West for 20 years now, with the Colorado River feeling much of the strain. This summer, the seven states that comprise the Colorado River Basin reached a deal on how much water not to use over the next two years.

FOX5 got the chance to discuss the plan for what comes afterward with one of the people advising President Joe Biden on the path forward.

The world is getting warmer - and the West in recent years, particularly feeling the heat. High temperatures lead to low waters in the Colorado River. A recent agreement protects the flow for another two years, but what happens after that? “When it comes to drought, what that means is, water users stepping up to boost efficiency, making sure our infrastructure readies itself to catch more of the water when it rains, adapting to new precipitation patterns, and making sure there is less water is lost throughout the system as a whole.”

That’s easier said than done - and it takes time - something the river doesn’t have a lot of. Ali Zaidi is President Joe Biden’s national climate adviser. He tells FOX5 the White House is investing in solutions. “Across the seven Basin states, agriculture users are tapping into incentives, billions of dollars of them, through the inflation reduction act to help reduce their demand in a time of need.”

The White House has invested millions in water projects through key legislation, like the Infrastructure Act.

That includes $281 million for recycling systems like the one we use here in Southern Nevada.

It allows us to reuse nearly half of the water allocated, but it’s not enough.

“We know that across the West, and in particular across the seven Basin states, different communities, different states, use different amounts of water, some of those reasons are intrinsic, but some of them depend on varying levels of efficiency.” But, Zaidi says, even operating at the peak of efficiency is not enough on its own. “There’s no one, single, silver bullet technology to get this done, whether it’s efficiency or sensors or improving catchment, or it’s deploying technologies like

desal, we have to do all of it. Over the long run, we have to build infrastructure that’s adapted to this new reality. We’ve got to invest in our farmers and our ranchers, so they can be as productive as they want to be, but more efficient with their consumption of the resources that are finite.”

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