Arizona, California and Nevada this month unveiled a plan to save up to 1 million acre-feet of Colorado River water through 2028, a short-term push meant to keep the system from sliding deeper into crisis as federal officials prepare for a year of hard deadlines.
The proposal would mean Nevada and Arizona taking about one-third less water than they are entitled to annually from Lake Mead, one of the two biggest reservoirs on the Colorado River and in the country. The states’ plan, together with earlier cuts announced by those states and Mexico, would bring the total proposed savings to 3.2 million acre-feet, enough water for more than 25 million people for a year.
Tom Buschatzke, Arizona’s top water negotiator, said earlier this week that “we have kind of a crisis situation that this past winter has created” and that “we need to do everything we can, and that’s what our plan does, to find a short-term fix.” The plan still needs approval from federal officials and state lawmakers before it can take effect.
The Colorado River is the backbone of water use across the U.S. West, serving 40 million people in seven U.S. states, two Mexican states and Native American tribes. Farmers rely on it to irrigate millions of acres, and some 155 utilities depend on the river for hydropower. The rules that govern the water-sharing agreement expire this year, and the negotiations meant to replace them have mostly broken down.
That breakdown is why the latest proposal matters now. About four months have passed since the states held substantive talks, and the Upper Basin states of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico have suggested a mediator is needed. At the same time, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it will release more water and earlier than usual into Lake Powell, another of the river’s giant reservoirs, as federal planners move ahead in case the states fail to settle on their own.
Kevin Moran, with a conservation group tracking the negotiations, said “the Colorado River is tanking” and added that “we are at the 11th hour in needing to have strong and collaborative solutions to protect the health of the river.” The latest proposal is not a full settlement, but it is the clearest sign yet that the lower basin states are trying to buy time before the current rules expire and the river runs into another round of federal intervention.
