Trump Administration Draws Up 10-Year Plan To Impose Colorado River Water Cuts

The Trump administration told Western state leaders it is drawing up a 10-year plan to impose Colorado River water cuts as Lake Mead and Lake Powell continue to drop, with news of the preliminary plan surfacing Wednesday during a meeting in Phoenix.

Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, said federal officials informed state water managers they are developing a “10-year framework” with specific rules requiring water reductions that would be reassessed every two years.

Arizona Daily Star

Buschatzke said the plan would allow for mandatory cutbacks of up to 3 million acre-feet per year in California, Arizona and Nevada, as much as 40% of their combined allotments.

The Los Angeles Times reported that negotiators for California, Arizona and Nevada offered to use roughly 1.6 million acre-feet less annually over the next two years, and that the federal plan is meant to govern water sharing for 2027 and 2028 before new rounds of negotiations.

The same reporting said the Colorado River provides for about 35 million people and 5 million acres of farmland from the Rocky Mountains to northern Mexico, with farms using about three-fourths of the river’s water.

Arizona water officials said Arizona, Nevada and California would still have to take massive cuts under a new preliminary plan devised by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, with Reclamation requiring the three Lower Basin states to give up a total of up to 3 million acre-feet annually if needed to keep Lakes Mead and Powell from falling to dangerously low levels.

The Arizona Daily Star reported that, as the preliminary plan stands, the Upper Basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming wouldn’t take any mandatory water supply reductions, and that the plan would cover 10 years rather than 20.

Arizona Daily Star

In a separate account, azcentral and The Arizona Republic said the federal government intends to model the potential effects of a 3 million acre-foot annual reduction to what the three Lower Basin states could pull from Lake Mead, a worst-case scenario that would slash 40% from what the century-old Colorado River Compact promised.

Patrick Adams, senior water policy adviser to Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, told The Arizona Republic that “That is alarming,” while also saying modeling that amount doesn’t mean the feds would enforce such a huge reduction.

azcentral and The Arizona Republic added that the Lower Basin’s proposal would instead take two years—2027 and 2028—to cut at least 3.2 million acre-feet in use by the three states that draw water downstream from Lake Mead.

The Spokesman-Review reported that the Bureau of Reclamation has said it will announce its decision sometime in the summer, after it identified “preliminary elements of a preferred alternative” and initiated consultations with states, tribes and Mexico.

“Feds seek short-term fixes on Colorado River, leaving Arizona in limbo - The U”

azcentral and The Arizona Republic

Peter Soeth, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Reclamation, said the approach is “designed to provide stability while allowing flexibility” to incorporate any additional recommendations the states agree on.

The Arizona Daily Star said the bureau’s new alternative would make it clear it intended to make “maximum use” of upstream reservoirs by releasing water from them to prop up Lake Powell when necessary, to the limits allowed legally.

In its reporting on the stakes for Arizona, azcentral and The Arizona Republic said the shortage-sharing guidelines that covered the last 20 years expire this fall and that the shift to 10-year “framework” negotiations could leave Arizona “in a room negotiating for the next 10 years.”

The Los Angeles Times reported that California’s lead negotiator JB Hamby welcomed the federal government’s plan to intervene, saying “I think it is a smart approach,” and describing it as better than making assumptions to set long-term rules and “being locked into them for decades.”