US presents plan to share water from drought-stricken Colorado River

The US government has proposed 10-year guidelines for sharing the drought-stricken Colorado River, providing flexibility to operate its two largest reservoirs based on changing conditions.

The U.S. ​government announced on Friday proposed guidelines ‌for ​sharing the drought-stricken Colorado River, which provides water to one in 10 Americans, irrigates land producing 15% of U.S. food ‌output and generates power for 6 million people in seven states. Those seven states — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, California and Nevada, known as the basin states — were unable to agree ‌on how to share the waters after over three years of talks to ‌replace a plan that expires this year.

So the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation intervened with a 10-year proposal through 2036 designed to provide flexibility to operate the river's two largest energy-producing reservoirs — Lake Powell and Lake ⁠Mead — ​based on the ⁠river's changing conditions, according to a final environmental impact statement released by the agency. "This framework provides the flexibility ⁠to respond to changing hydrologic conditions while preserving the opportunity for the Basin States to continue working ​toward durable, consensus-based solutions," Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in a statement.

The ⁠plan sets limits on how the river would be operated, and calls for annual releases from Lake ⁠Powell ​of between 5 million and 12 million acre-feet, compared with previous average annual releases of around 7.5 million acre-feet. The framework also envisages water shortages of up to ⁠3 million acre-feet per year in the three Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada. ⁠The Lower Basin ⁠states had presented a short-term proposal on May 1 for annual water cuts of 1.6 million acre-feet per year through 2028.