The Bureau of Reclamation released its much-anticipated plan for managing the dwindling water within the Colorado River. The plan allows for Upper Basin states to voluntarily cut 200,000 acre-feet of water from their use, while Lower Basin states could see their usage cut by 3 million acre feet, through 2036.
The plan is likely to be met with fierce opposition from Lower Basin states, although it’s unclear if they have an avenue to protest Reclamation’s decisions. Under this new plan, the Bureau can change releases from Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the two largest reservoirs on the Colorado River, to account for changing hydrology from year to year.
“This framework provides the flexibility to respond to changing hydrologic conditions while preserving the opportunity for the Basin States to continue working toward durable, consensus-based solutions,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a press release.
California will use roughly 12% less water, while Arizona will use 31% less, and Nevada will cut its use by 28%, as part of this plan.
The Crisis
The Colorado River provides water and power to more than 40 million people throughout the West, and is one of the most important sources of water for farming and ranching in the region. Due to the decades-long megadrought, and increasingly warm winters, the Colorado is overextended and its flows are just a fraction of what it once was.
Water in the Colorado is governed by the Colorado River Compact, an agreement made in the 1920’s that carved up the water among Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and California. However, the Compact was agreed upon during a period of extreme precipitation, and likely overestimated how much water the river could consistently provide on a year-to-year basis.
From 2020-2024, for example, the Colorado only produced 13.1 million acre feet of water, compared to the 17.5 million acre feet used to craft the Compact in 1922.
As long as increased development and decreasing precipitation remain in the region, further cuts and fights over the Colorado River are virtually guaranteed. The river also provides power generation for significant portions of the West, as well.
No Solutions
The current plan from Reclamation only concerns how to carve up an increasingly smaller pie. There aren’t any concrete plans to restore more water to the Colorado, as of yet. States are voluntarily taking on water conservation measures on their own, but without significant climate change or the disappearance of ranching and farming in the region, there’s likely little to be done. Agriculture accounts for roughly 52% of total water usage in the Colorado River Basin.
Adding to the complexity of conserving water is that water rights in the Upper Basin states, particularly in Wyoming, pre-date the Compact. Upper Basin states have a stronger, older claim to water that is unlikely to be changed in any setting.