Agreement reached on Colorado River water reductions

The governors of California, Nevada and Arizona announced an agreement to cut Colorado River water use to prevent a crisis at the country’s largest reservoirs.

The plan developed by Arizona’s Katie Hobbs, California’s Gavin Newsom and Nevada’s Joe Lombardo would conserve 3 million acre-feet over the next three years with the aim of protecting the Colorado River system — and the Lake Mead and Lake Powell reservoirs — from failing.

One acre-foot equals about 326,000 gallons, or enough water to cover an acre of land, about the size of a football field, one foot deep, according to the Water Education Foundation. The Colorado River Compact of 2022 allocated 7.5 million acre-feet to the three lower basin states annually.

The Colorado River supplies water to 40 million people across the West and its reservoirs have hit record lows in recent years.

“The Lower Basin Plan is the product of months of tireless work by our water managers to develop an agreement that stabilizes the Colorado River system through 2026,” Hobbs said.

The Department of Interior had published a draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement in April threatening to impose restrictions of its own if the states didn’t reach a consensus on cuts.

S&P Global Ratings said in a report in late April that the federal government’s draft document wasn’t likely to trigger significant rating changes, but it could spur the seven states that use the waterway to reach a consensus on additional supply cuts and the future of the watershed, which appears to be the case.

“This historic partnership between California and other Lower Basin states will help maintain critical water supply for millions of Americans as we work together to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Colorado River System for decades to come,” Newsom said.

The federal government has encouraged the states dependent on the river to modify user agreements and more heavily restrict offtakes as conditions have grown increasingly dire on the river system in recent years.

Federal water officials emphasized when they released the draft SEIS at Lake Mead in mid-April that they wanted the states to reach a consensus on steeper cuts to water use because any action taken by the federal government is likely to invoke litigation from water users.

The Department said Monday it will withdraw the version released in April, so it can fully analyze the effects of the lower basin agreement’s adherence to federal environmental policies and include the proposal as an action alternative. The plan agreed to by the lower basin states still must be finalized after a federal environmental review.

“I commend our partners in the seven Basin states who have demonstrated leadership and unity of purpose in developing this consensus-based approach to achieve the substantial water conservation necessary to sustain the Colorado River System through 2026,” Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau said. “Reclamation’s SEIS process succeeded in facilitating this agreement, and we will carry forward the consensus proposal by analyzing it under the SEIS.”

The decision will push up the comment period on the SEIS, originally ending May 30, to later this year.

The four states that make up the river’s upper basin — Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico — said they supported reviewing the new plan.