US proposes deep Colorado River water cuts for Arizona, California, Nevada

The US government has proposed a 10-year plan to manage the drought-stricken Colorado River, involving deep water cuts for Arizona, California, and Nevada during dry years.

The U.S. government proposed deep cuts to water supply for Arizona, California and Nevada during dry years in a new plan released on Friday to manage the drought-stricken Colorado River.

Lawsuits from states could challenge the federal intervention and could mean more years of uncertainty ‌for a river that 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 water after over three years of talks to replace a plan that expires this ‌year. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation intervened with a 10-year proposal to prevent the collapse of the river's two largest energy-producing reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, according to a final environmental impact ‌statement released by the agency. The drought has pitted farmers against suburbs and data centers, with agriculture consuming about 70% of Colorado River water. After the smallest winter snowpack on record, the two largest U.S. reservoirs are at their lowest levels since 1957 and near the point where their hydroelectric power plants stop functioning. The plan sets limits on how the 1,450-mile-long (2,330-km) river, the fifth-longest in the U.S., would be operated, and envisages water shortages of up to 3 million acre-feet per year in ⁠river supplies ​to the three Lower Basin states, about a ⁠40% reduction from current levels.

'NATURAL DISASTER' That is nearly twice the 1.6 million acre-feet per year, 21% reduction in supplies through 2028 that the Lower Basin states envisaged in a May 1 proposal. In a statement, the Arizona Department of Water ⁠Resources called the Bureau of Reclamation plan "unacceptable" and noted it did not require cuts by the four Upper Basin states.

"Such reductions would devastate Arizona’s water users and its economy," the Arizona statement said. Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs said ​she hoped federal guidelines for 2027 and 2028, expected to be released soon, would be consistent with the May 1 plan and spare her state from "draconian water cutbacks."

Upper Basin states ⁠have refused to take mandatory cuts, with Utah saying it already faces a 50% supply reduction from the drought. "We get cuts from mother nature every year," Utah negotiator Gene Shawcroft said on a video call to discuss Reclamation's plan. He applauded what ⁠he ​called the agency's efforts to develop a system based on "what water is available, not what water is demanded."

The bureau said drought conditions over the past 25 years, combined with expectations of continued dry conditions, had made developing future operating guidelines “particularly challenging.” The United Nations has said the basin's plight is part of a global trend of regions living beyond their water means, rivers losing their ability ⁠to return to historical, “normal” conditions, leading to what the agency calls “water bankruptcy.” The West's water battle has become particularly bitter with the region caught in its worst drought in at least 1,200 ⁠years, according to a 2022 study by the University ⁠of California, Los Angeles.

The bureau's cuts are expected to hit Arizona the hardest. The Phoenix metropolitan area and Tucson, with a combined population of nearly 6 million, rely heavily on Colorado River water. "This does not look good for Arizona," said Sharon Megdal, director of the University of Arizona Water ‌Resources Research Center, of Reclamation's plan. "This ‌does suggest that legal action may be taken."