There’s a new plan on the table for managing the Colorado River after more than a year of deadlocked negotiations. Arizona, California and Nevada are proposing to cut back on the amount of water they receive from major reservoirs through 2028, propping up shrinking water reserves while states talk about a long-term solution.
The proposal, which was announced Friday evening, would see those states leave 700,000 to 1 million acre-feet of water in the Colorado River system, helping protect against dropping levels at the nation’s two largest reservoirs — Lake Powell and Lake Mead.
An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to fill one acre of land to a height of one foot. One acre-foot generally provides enough water for one to two households for a year.
The newly-announced water conservation measures would add on to earlier proposed cutbacks. State leaders say total cuts would add up to more than 3.2 million acre-feet of water through 2028. They framed the plan as a “bridge” while talks continue.
Tom Buschatzke, Arizona’s top water negotiator, was unavailable for comment, but was quoted in a written statement from the Arizona Department of Water Resources.
“This proposal reflects the creativity and commitment of water users across the Lower
Basin who continue to step forward with solutions that support the river,”
Buschatzke wrote. “We have shown that collaborative, voluntary efforts and reductions that are certain can produce meaningful water savings.”
John Entsminger (from left), JB Hamby, and Tom Buschatzke sit on a panel at the Colorado River Water Users Association annual meeting in Las Vegas on Dec. 14, 2023. The water negotiators from Nevada, California and Arizona, respectively, are now proposing that their states take new water cutbacks to protect major reservoirs and buy time for another round of talks about sharing the Colorado River.
It is not yet clear which particular cities, towns, or farms would use less water to make the cutbacks possible These voluntary reductions are likely a way for states to make cutbacks on their own terms. Prior to this new plan, the federal government proposed massive, mandatory cuts to the Central Arizona Project, which supplies the Phoenix and Tucson areas.
The agency’s leaders petitioned against that plan, calling its cutbacks “devastating.”
This proposal may save Arizona from the worst of those cuts while still protecting infrastructure and water reserves at Powell and Mead.
Now, CAP leaders are backing the new plan, calling it a “welcome lifeline and cause for hope.”
The need for a new water management plan — even a short term one — became much more urgent in the past few months as the realities of a historically dry winter began to set in. Prior to the announcement of this plan, projections for Lake Powell showed water levels dipping critically low as soon as this summer, threatening the ability to generate hydropower at Glen Canyon Dam and potentially jeopardizing the ability to send water from the reservoir to the Colorado River on the other side.
The new proposal would need federal approval before moving forward.
It appears designed to steer states away from a legal battle. Arizona, California and Nevada have long been at odds with their upstream counterparts of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico. With negotiations at a standstill and reservoirs dropping, states were on course for big lawsuits. These cutbacks could be enough to stabilize the Colorado River and its reservoirs long enough to avoid those lawsuits.
The Lower Basin states pitched their new water-saving plan as a way to buy time for a new round of negotiations aimed at forging a longer-term deal. Those talks may go differently than previous iterations after Upper Basin states called for a mediator to join the discussions and help policymakers bridge their divides.
“The Lower Basin states recognize the Upper Basin’s call for mediation and are open to that process,” Arizona, California and Nevada leaders said in a press release.
