BOISE, Idaho -- A $33 billion infrastructure plan for the Northwest developed by Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, continues to shake up the region.

While the potential removal of four dams on the lower Snake River has garnered attention, other parts of the proposal are equally important for the Northwest's future.

Justin Hayes, executive director of the Idaho Conservation League, said the plan includes the creation of voluntary watershed partnerships to bring together agriculture interests, communities and conservationists.

"There'd be $3 billion dollars to spend across the region to help address the widespread problem of agricultural pollution getting into rivers and causing water quality problems," Hayes noted.

Simpson's infrastructure proposal aims to bring back salmon while also investing in communities and clean energy, and addressing the needs of the agriculture industry in the Northwest.

Hayes contended the growing number of dairy operations, especially in southern Idaho, has led to water quality issues.

Simpson's plan would invest $400 million in each state for manure management in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

Hayes explained devices called methane digesters are key to the plan, managing the waste better and creating energy.

"It also ensures that we lessen the climate change impact that dairies have, so harvesting that methane and using it to make electricity," Hayes explained. "That's a win-win here for the environment and for dairies. Helps us address climate change and it helps us clean up our water."

Hayes added the proposal could be a game changer and would provide the resources for people to work together.

"Simpson's proposal shatters the status quo," Hayes observed. "It invites people into a dialogue at a scale where all of the interests that people have been concerned about can be benefitted."

The plan could be included in a massive infrastructure package the Biden administration is putting together.

Part of the deal Wyoming struck for sending its water down the Colorado River was that state residents would be able to tap electricity generated at Glen Canyon Dam. But that arrangement is becoming less tenable as water levels at Lake Powell required for hydro-power production continue to drop.

Sinjin Eberle, southwest communications director with the group American Rivers, explained in order to be able to generate electricity, Lake Powell can drop no lower than 3,490 feet.

"Figuring out how we're going to manage this system in the face of a much smaller river is what everybody in the Colorado River Basin, whether you are in Wyoming or California, need to be concerned about," Eberle said.

Glen Canyon Dam currently generates energy for nearly 6-million households in Wyoming, Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. Lake Powell water levels dropped to their lowest point since 1967 last summer, reaching 3,533 feet, and some warn the lake could dip below levels necessary for power generation as early as this spring, and have proposed demolishing the dam to help restore the Colorado River's health and long-term viability.

If Lake Powell drops below Dead Power to Dead Pool status at 3,370 feet, water would no longer be able to flow through the dam to lower basin states. This year's higher-than-average snow pack may provide short-term relief, but Eberle said it could take years of above-average precipitation to reverse decades of drought across the region, and added the challenges facing Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam are multi-faceted.

"Water-supply issues from a lingering 23-year drought, with impacts from climate change continuing to exacerbate those drought conditions," Eberle said. "And then (we have) some of the fastest growing areas of the country demanding more water."

When the Colorado River Compact was first negotiated in 1922, there were just 475,000 people living in the seven-state basin. Then-Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover projected that population could swell to two million people over time. But there are now at least 40-million people across the basin that depend on water from the river, Eberle said.

"This framework that was built in 1922 has lasted 100 years, but is also trying to support a system that is many, many times larger than the wildest imaginations of the framers when they built this compact," he said.

A coalition of conservation groups is giving Colorado's revised state water plan a thumbs-up for its increased focus on protecting Colorado's rivers, watershed health, and accessibility for all residents regardless of their ZIP code.

Matt Rice, southwest regional senior director for American Rivers, said the new plan highlights an urgent need to address the impacts of climate change on Colorado's water resources, and lays out a play book for advancing projects, policies and programs to build resilience.

"There's a lot of emphasis put on watershed health," Rice said. "How do we support our forests so they produce more and better water, so they mitigate the impacts of catastrophic wildfire and protect habitat?"

Rice noted the plan's focus on water conservation as a starting point is essential for meeting the state's water needs. This year's higher than average snow pack is not expected to reverse a 23-year drought. Nor is it expected to end warmer summers, slow the evaporation rate or stall earlier water runoff that 40-million people living in the Colorado River Basin states depend on.

The now-official Colorado Water Plan builds on the first iteration created in 2015, which saw about 30,000 people participate. Rice said for the first time ever, policy makers called out the importance of river flows for the environment and outdoor recreation. He added state investments in the plan would help tap hundreds of millions of federal dollars for local water projects statewide.

"We worked hard as a coalition to make sure that the projects that funded environmental benefits, recreational projects, had adequate funding," Rice said. "One of the challenges in the first water plan was that there was about a $3 billion funding gap."

About 70% of water flowing through the Colorado River originates in Colorado, and Rice said the state's new plan recognizes the multiple benefits of keeping rivers healthy by keeping them clean, full and flowing.

"River-based recreation, whether that's boating or fishing, is a huge economic driver for rural Colorado. Eighteen billion dollars a year, and that's significant," he said.

As New Mexico recovers from its worst wildfire in history, lawmakers are considering a proposal to create the "Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund" to invest in land and water conservation programs.

Senate Bill 9 would leverage hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money for all 33 counties and tribal communities. If passed by the legislature, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has said the fund would prioritize spending to protect communities from wildfire, flood and drought and safeguard water supplies among other things.

Cyndi Tuell, director of the Western Watersheds Project, explained some of the challenges facing the state.

"You had these areas that were burned by wildfire that were already damaged from years of drought," Tuell pointed out. "The fires created a lot of flooding and the flooding is now creating a lot of additional issues where it's harder for native vegetation to take hold."

The 2022 Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire was the most destructive in state history. It occurred after the U.S. Forest Service lost control of a prescribed burn.

The Western Watersheds Project leads the effort to highlight the climate impacts of public land livestock grazing and the need to end or curtail the practice with the restoration of wolves and other threatened or endangered wildlife. Wildfires, which have intensified with climate change, can litter the ground with debris, which can contaminate drinking-water supplies after a heavy rain.

Tuell noted it is often unsafe to picnic in areas where livestock grazing is dominant because E. coli can be present in nearby streams.

"Where you have an area that's completely degraded -- the vegetation is grazed down to nearly nothing, the riparian areas are trampled or filled with cow pies -- you don't really want to go there and enjoy yourself or recreate with your family," Tuell contended.

Beginning with an initial investment of $50 million, the "Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund" would make annual disbursements beginning in fiscal year 2024. The program should include land and water conservation, forest and watershed health, outdoor recreation and infrastructure, agriculture and working lands, historic preservation, and wildlife species protection.


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