California, Arizona and Nevada propose water-saving plan for Colorado River | Colorado river crisis
The states of California, Arizona and Nevada have proposed voluntary water-saving measures for the next three years to buy time as negotiations remain deadlocked over the future of dwindling reservoirs filled by the Colorado River.
The Colorado River supplies water to some 40 million people in the American West. But the two huge reservoirs filled by the river, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are both at historic low levels, after continued overdepletion associated with reduced snowpack and warming from climate change.
The seven states with legal rights to Colorado River water have so far failed to agree on how to share the pain of losing access to the dwindling resource.
The Lower Basin States’ plan would save 3.2 million acre-feet of water through voluntary reductions through 2028. The plan also envisions saving an additional 700,000 acre-feet through conservation measures and infrastructure improvements, as well as the creation of a conservation pool to ensure the federal government meets its trust obligations to Arizona tribes.
“With this proposal, the Lower Basin is proposing concrete steps to stabilize water supplies along the Colorado River,” JB Hamby, chairman of the Colorado River Board of California, wrote in a statement. “We are proposing measurable additional water contributions to the system. Without this, the system will continue to decline.”
The proposed plan still requires approval from state water agencies and the Arizona Legislature, as well as cooperation from the federal government. The states said the plan was “structured as a unified whole” that should be implemented or rejected in its entirety, rather than piecemeal.
The seven states with legal rights to Colorado River water remain locked in an impasse over how to distribute drastic reductions in water use.
The northern basin states of New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming have tried to shift most of the burden to the southern basin states, arguing that they draw the most water from the nation’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell. The southern basin states countered that all states should bear some responsibility.
Pressure on Colorado River water is expected to increase after several Western states experienced record temperatures this winter. As of April 1, the snowpack in the upper Colorado River basin was 23 percent of the historic median, according to the New York Times.
In addition to the seven states that have legal rights to Colorado River water, dozens of tribes also have water rights, although many of these rights remain unquantified and difficult to access.
