With the Colorado River’s giant reservoirs declining toward critically low levels, negotiators for California, Arizona and Nevada announced a new water-saving plan for the next two years.
Representatives of the three states said in a written statement late Friday that their plan aims to “stabilize the Colorado River through 2028.” It will require larger cuts in water use than they had offered previously in talks with other states and the federal government.
“We’re putting forward additional measurable water contributions for the system,” said JB Hamby, the chairman of California’s Colorado River Board. “Without that, the system will continue to decline.”
The three states’ negotiators said their plan identifies more than 3.2 million acre-feet of water cutbacks through 2028, building on their previous proposal.
Representatives of the three states negotiated the short-term deal after they deadlocked in talks with four other states on a long-term plan for sharing the river’s diminishing water.
Lake Mead, the country’s largest reservoir near Las Vegas, is now 31% full.
And upstream on the Arizona-Utah border, Lake Powell is just 24% full. In the coming year, the reservoir could decline to a point where water can no longer pass through intakes to generate hydroelectric power.
The Colorado River provides water for about 35 million people and 5 million acres of farmland, from the Rocky Mountains to northern Mexico. The water was originally divided among the states in 1922 under an agreement called the Colorado River Compact.
The river flow has shrunk dramatically since 2000, and research has shown that global warming is intensifying the dry conditions.
This year, the snowpack in the upper portion of the river’s watershed in the Rocky Mountains measures just 22% of average, the smallest on record. That will translate into very little runoff reaching the river’s depleted reservoirs this year.
In a letter to Interior Department officials, the states’ top negotiators said they came up with the three-state plan because “quick and decisive action is urgently required.”
“We hope these actions can provide additional time to develop a longer-term approach involving actions to achieve reductions in use by all seven states,” they said.
They said Arizona agreed to the largest cuts in water usage, 760,000 acre-feet per year, while California agreed to 440,000 acre-feet, and Nevada will take 50,000 acre-feet less. For comparison, the city of Los Angeles uses nearly 500,000 acre-feet per year.
They have yet to announce details of how the water cuts will be apportioned between the region’s farms and cities.
Over the last five years, cities across Southern California have received nearly one-fourth of their water from the Colorado River. In California’s Imperial Valley, farms depend entirely on the Colorado River.
Shivaji Deshmukh, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, said it’s unfortunate that all seven states have not been able to reach an agreement.
He said the three states’ plan “aims to address the historically dry conditions in the near term.” At the same time, he said there is still hope “an agreement can be reached in the next year among the seven states for broad conservation programs.”
“We must recognize that the river is changing,” Deshmukh said, “and the only way we can ensure the communities, businesses and ecosystems across the Southwest have the water they need in the decades to come is by all seven states working together.”
