Facing a looming deadline, seven Western states that have relied on the Colorado River’s water supply for decades have failed to provide a plan to collectively cut water usage from the ailing waterway. As a result, the Department of Interior may impose major restrictions of its own which states have been trying to avoid.
The Colorado River provides water 40 million Americans annually but is currently in a 23-year megadrought with water levels at historic lows.
The U.S. Interior Department has asked the states to voluntarily submit their plans to reduce the amount of water they consume from the river by Jan. 31, as scientists have warned the river’s diminished capacity will lead to a collapse in hydropower and the water supply to farms and cities.
In 1922, states along the river created the Colorado River Compact which allowed for the so-called upper basin states (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming) to receive 7.5 million acre-feet a year, and established that the lower basin states (Arizona, California, and Nevada) would get 8.5 million acre-feet.
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Last year, the Biden Administration gave these states the same demand to draft a proposal that would conserve as much as a third of the river. However, the upper basin states argued that they were already using much less than they were entitled to and instead pointed to the lower basin states of Arizona, California, and Nevada, asserting that they must act first.
California has said it could cut its use of Colorado River water by as much as 400,000 acre-feet — which is only up to one-fifth of the cuts that the Biden administration has gone after.
The fear of federal intervention by the Bush administration forced states to develop new operating guidelines in 2005, and a threat from the Trump administration allowed for a 2019 deal among states to cut water usage.
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Solutions imposed by the federal government could be controversial steps that previous administrations have simply threatened including cuts to water sources that would primarily hurt tribes, instructing farmers how to manage water they legally own, major cities like Los Angeles and Phoenix losing a prime source of water, and farmland drying up.
Los Angeles Times reporter Sammy Roth told NBCLA that one of the biggest impacts of the drought has been on the Imperial Valley, which grows much of the nation’s winter vegetables.
“The Imperial Valley uses more of that water than anywhere else, about as much as Arizona, more than the rest of California combined,” Roth said. “They are wary of anyone who may take their water because that is literally their life blood.”
With no deal reached, the Interior Department will be obligated to make cuts, erasing the age-old tradition of states deciding how to manage the river’s water supply.
