Study: Colorado River has $1.4 trillion economic impact on region

WASHINGTON — Without water from the Colorado River, Arizona’s gross state product would drop by more than $185 billion in a year and the state would lose more than 2 million jobs, a new report claims.

The first-ever study, released Thursday by Protect the Flows, estimated the Colorado’s economic impact on the six states and seven Southern California counties that draw water from the river at $1.4 trillion a year.

A total of 16 million jobs in the region rely on the direct, indirect and induced economic benefits that the river brings, the report said. Those jobs ranged from recreation and agriculture, which depend directly on the river, to employment in industries that are less directly reliant, like health care, manufacturing and biotech.

The report tried to put the overall regional impact of the river in perspective by noting that it would equal one-twelfth of the nation’s gross domestic product – or three times the retail sales of Walmart in 2012.

“I think what this shows us is just how critical having a healthy river is to Arizona’s overall economy,” said Garrick Taylor, a spokesman for the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which was not involved in the study.

The study was commissioned by Protect the Flows, a coalition of businesses in the region that rely on the river. It was produced by the L. William Seidman Research Institute at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business.

The report looked at the gross state product, employment and labor income of the region: the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, and the Southern California counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Imperial, Riverside, San Diego, San Bernardino and Ventura.