The White House proposed cuts to the water allotments for a group of states that draw from the Colorado River after negotiations between the states stalemated.
The Colorado River provides water for 40 million Americans across seven states for business, agriculture, and drinking. A two-decades-long drought has strained the river near its breaking point, and officials in the seven states have negotiated for months to cut water allotments to avoid a worst-case scenario.
The negotiations have come to naught so far and the river’s two reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, are at risk of dead pooling, the level at which the river will stop flowing and cause millions of Americans to lose water. Before that happens, millions of Americans that rely on hydropower from the Glen Canyon and Hoover dams could be cut off if the water level dips below the benchmark at which the dams’ hydropower plants can run.
The Department of the Interior on Tuesday proposed even cuts of the water allotments of each state, which would override the legal precedent set under a framework of laws known as the “law of the river” that has governed Colorado River usage for about a century, according to The New York Times.
Tommy Beaudreau, the deputy secretary for the Interior Department, said the departure from legal precedent, which in the past has given seniority water rights priority, is warranted considering the changing science around climate. He said the impact of climate change on the river was not considered when the allotments were originally portioned out.
The government’s authority only allowed it to impose cuts on the so-called lower basin states of Arizona, California, and Nevada because of their position downriver. The upper-basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming draw their water before it is stored in lakes Powell and Mead.
The lower-basin states use the greater share of the water from the Colorado River. The upper-basin states have already cut their usage along with the river’s decreasing flow.
Negotiators from Arizona and Nevada have signaled approval of the government’s plan, though Nevada specified that an agreement worked out between the states would be best. California has not yet made a statement on the government’s plan. California holds the majority of seniority water rights under the current legal framework, and negotiators have pushed for a plan that takes that into account.
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The cuts that the Colorado River states must make, any way they come out, will be unprecedented. The Colorado River is a major source of water for several major cities. Los Angeles gets about half of its water from the Colorado; Las Vegas draws about 90% of its water from the river. The Bureau of Reclamation has asked the states to work out an agreement that would reduce Colorado River usage by about one-third.