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Ron,
I can only see one possibility of having water there again ...take somebody elses'.
An example is an ongoing struggle for water rights here in ND. The Missouri River snowmelt water comes out of Montana after it has passed through the Ft. Peck Dam. It passes through the Garrison Dam in ND on to the Oahe Dam in SD. The Missouri River provides a fantastic recreation area in each dam reservoir it passes through plus water for city and agricultural supply. Normally enough water is released to create adequate navigation depth all the way down to New Orleans via the Mississippi. Barge shipping downstream counts on that each year. There is normally plenty of water to go around. Unless there is not much snowmelt several years in a row.
During years of low snowmelt, the reservoirs cannot hold their own and still release enough water for navigation downstream. Docks and boatramps end up a mile from the receding shoreline and shallowwater fish reproduction suffers. Because of this, a fight periodically ensues over how much water should be retained for upstream recreation vs released for downstream navigation. The US Army Corps of Engineers is caught in the middle since they are charged with balancing federal allocation.
It is quite possible that Yuma sees the all-important border ruckus as an opportunity to gain restoration of water rights by reducing levels taken from upstream. That would be an interesting fight.
One might assume water robbery would also be conveniently left out of news releases to downplay it early on. Sometimes there is almost more astute news left in what is not openly said, if you know what I mean.
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