Feds pushing crackdown on wells tapping into Colorado River water

by Shaun McKinnon - Jul. 29, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Hundreds of people who illegally pump water from wells along the lower Colorado River could face a tough choice soon: Pay to acquire rights to the water or turn the spigot off.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees the river in Arizona, Nevada and California, has proposed new rules that target the well owners, who drain as much as 5 billion gallons of water a year from the Colorado.

Most of the well owners are private citizens who have drilled their wells too close to the river. Instead of pumping groundwater, to which landowners have a right, they are drawing water from the river's subsurface flow. Well owners must get approval to siphon water from the river's surface or subsurface.

To comply with the new procedures, well owners can seek an individual water right, join an existing water district or become a customer of a city or other provider with rights to Colorado River water. They could continue to pump water from the well but only within the limits of the water right or provider.

Well owners who can't acquire water rights can't continue to use their wells.

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