Arizona joins Nevada’s legal fight over Colorado River cuts
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Arizona filed to intervene in Nevada’s lawsuit challenging the Interior Department’s plan to slash Colorado River deliveries to Lower Basin states, warning that the policy could intensify pressure on communities already facing water insecurity.
Arizona announced Friday that it will intervene in Nevada's federal lawsuit contesting the Interior Department's new operating framework for the Colorado River. The state argues the plan would cut water deliveries to the Lower Basin—Arizona, California and Nevada—by about 20 percent over the next two years and could impose deeper reductions, shifting the burden of a federal policy dispute onto residents, farms and local economies that depend on the river.
"Like Nevada, Arizona believes the federal government’s new operating framework ignores basic elements of the law of the river and could result in cuts that would devastate Arizona's economy," said Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources.
Buschatzke warned that the steepest cuts permitted by the plan could "effectively dry up" the Central Arizona Project, a major water conveyance system serving much of the state. The Interior Department has not responded to a request for comment.