Federal Plan Cuts 1.25 Million Acre-Feet From Colorado River Use in California, Nevada and Arizona
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will require California, Nevada and Arizona to cut water use by 1.25 million acre-feet per year for the next two years as part of a drought response for the Colorado River basin.
The Bureau of Reclamation announced on Friday that California, Nevada and Arizona must collectively reduce water withdrawals from the Colorado River by 1.25 million acre-feet each year for the 2027-2028 period. The cuts, which could be deepened if conditions worsen, are part of a federal plan aimed at addressing the prolonged drought that has strained the river’s supply.
Arizona will face the largest reductions, while the upstream states of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico are not subject to cuts at this time. Under a separate U.S.–Mexico treaty, Mexico’s intake will be lowered by 250,000 acre-feet.
"We've been in this 26-year prolonged drought period," said Andrea Travnicek, the Interior Department's assistant secretary for water and science. "We continue to see a prolonged drought in our future. So continuing to work together as a whole within the basin is going to be extremely important."
The Colorado River supplies water to an estimated 35-40 million people. Current water-allocation rules expire in October, and the seven basin states have not reached a long-term agreement on sharing the resource. Record-low snowpack last winter and decades of overuse have driven Lake Mead and Lake Powell to their lowest levels in nearly seven decades, threatening hydroelectric generation at the Hoover Dam.
Arizona officials thanked California and Nevada for cooperating on the cuts. "For 2027 and 2028, the reductions that are now memorialized here will provide substantial stability for folks," said Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources.
California's chief Colorado River negotiator, JB Hamby, described the plan as offering "some badly needed near-term certainty" but called it a temporary bridge rather than a permanent solution. Nevada officials expressed support for the collaborative approach and reiterated a preference for a seven-state consensus.
In southern Nevada, Great Basin Water Network senior adviser Kyle Roerink noted that the water-cut measures could slow real-estate development in the Las Vegas area, reflecting the basin’s dire hydrological outlook.