How to "fix" the western water problem

Fix might be overstating it. BUT, there are presently ways to easily combat the water shortage in the lower Colorado River Basin and the California water system. The lower Colorado supplies water to Nevada, Arizona, California and sometimes Mexico (when there is any left over).

The solution to both areas is to change water usage patterns. This requires EXTREMELY LITTLE CHANGE on consumer's parts.  If you look at the usage figures in California and Arizona the vast majority goes to agricultural uses. The lower Colorado basin also loses a ton of water to evaporation, but there is little we can do about that.

In the California system (which includes some Colorado river water, but mainly California water supplies from local mountains, you see the same huge percentage use of agriculture (see graph at bottom).

So, how do we fix this with the smallest impact on people? And let us assume that Climate Change will not be reversed any time soon. So how to proceed?

1. Price water more effectively. Right now consumers pay $1.30 for a gallon of water (link) in major metro areas (San Fransisco, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Jose, etc.). Farms pay an average of $0.0002 per gallon (or $70 per 325,851 gallons) (link). Farms pay 6,200 times LESS for water than urban areas do.
   The more you move towards fair pricing (where agriculture still gets a massive discount) the more you will move agriculture towards water saving measures like the ones below.
1. Use drip irrigation where it makes sense - already in use in CA for almond trees and grapes.
2. Stop growing very thirsty crops in CA and AZ that could be grown easily elsewhere. Growing water dependent crops elsewhere would be an easy decision - if water was priced correctly. Examples: rice (in a desert!), alfalfa and other feed crops for animal use.
3. People will stop / reduce watering lawns at $1.30 a gallon and move to indigenous plantings, xeriscape (already required for new builds in the Palm Springs area and Tucson), or fake grass (used in rich areas). But some zoning may have to change to allow this.

That's it. That is actually all you have to do. Price water slightly more than presently for agriculture.  If we moved 50% of possible agriculture to drip and moved crops that demand a LOT of water out of the region, there would be enough water for people in Nevada, Arizona and California.

Right now, Arizona uses 70% of its water allotment for agriculture. The top agricultural crop commodities in Arizona are lettuce, cotton and hay (link). Lettuce production represents 14% of the state's total farm receipts. Cotton and hay should not be growing the desert as they can be more easily and cheaper grown in other places (if water wasn't essentially free in Arizona).

To do this effectively we may have to provide funds or loans to move to drip irrigation. But the pay off - even if taxpayers pay for it all, will result in massive more amounts of water available. But that would be a great investment.