Feds favor Lower Basin water cuts as part of short-term plan to stabilize Colorado River reservoirs
The Bureau of Reclamation announced Wednesday that Colorado River conditions have improved, so a Lower Basin proposal to cut water use by 3 million acre-feet should stave off a water crisis for the next few years.
Federal, state and tribal officials have put several plans into action since 2000 to respond to drought and water supply insecurity in the West. But those plans have fallen short: By 2022, water storage dropped to near-crisis levels in the basin’s two most important reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell. A Reclamation analysis released Wednesday said that wet conditions in 2023 and states’ conservation efforts reduced the chances that water supplies will plummet to critical lows, at least through 2026 when a new set of rules will be finalized for the two reservoirs.
Reclamation’s analysis moved a short-term planning process a step forward by designating the plan to cut water in Arizona, California and Nevada — which form the Colorado River’s Lower Basin — as its proposed action plan out of four alternatives. The proposal does not obligate Colorado to cut water use.