Arizona, California and Nevada act on Colorado River Water Shortage
Arizona, California and Nevada announced a temporary plan this month to save up to 1 million acre-feet of water as the colorado river water shortage deepens across the West. The proposal would run through 2028 and adds to cuts the three states and Mexico have already announced.
Tom Buschatzke, Arizona’s lead negotiator, said earlier this week, "We have kind of a crisis situation that this past winter has created," and "We need to do everything we can, and that’s what our plan does, to find a short-term fix."
Buschatzke and Lake Powell
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it will release more water and earlier than usual into Lake Powell, one of the two biggest reservoirs on the Colorado River and in the country. The plan from Arizona, California and Nevada still needs approval from federal officials and state lawmakers before it can take effect.
The proposed savings would bring the three states and Mexico to 3.2 million acre-feet of total proposed savings. That volume is about enough water to serve more than 25 million people a year, a measure that shows how much supply is being pulled into the current round of negotiations.
Colorado River negotiations
The river supports 40 million people across seven U.S. states, two Mexican states and Native American tribes. Farmers rely on it to irrigate millions of acres, and 155 utilities depend on it for hydropower. Some of the rules that govern the water-sharing agreement expire this year.
Negotiations among the states have mostly broken down, and about four months have passed since they last had substantive talks. The Upper Basin states of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico have suggested a mediator is needed, while Nevada and Arizona would take about one-third less water than they are entitled to annually from Lake Mead under the proposal.
Kevin Moran on the river
Kevin Moran of the Environmental Defense Fund said, "The Colorado River is tanking" and "We are at the 11th hour in needing to have strong and collaborative solutions to protect the health of the river." His warning matches the stakes in the current plan: the states are trying to lock in cuts now while the last round of rules is nearing expiration.
For readers who depend on the river, the practical issue is whether the new cutbacks will be approved quickly enough to shape the next set of water-sharing rules. The agreement now sits with federal officials and state lawmakers, and the size of the proposed reductions shows how little margin is left in the system.
