Federal officials call upon states to prepare for urgent water cuts — and permanent reductions as a hotter, drier climate shrinks the Colorado River.
With Colorado River reservoirs nearing dangerously low levels, the federal government has given basin states a Jan. 31 deadline to negotiate major water cuts and stave off a possible collapse in supplies.
Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the nation’s two largest reservoirs, are now nearly three-fourths empty, and water levels are set to continue dropping. The latest government estimates show there is a risk that Lake Mead could reach “dead pool” levels in 2025, at which point the river would no longer flow past Hoover Dam, cutting off water for California, Arizona and Mexico.
“We are acting now to protect the Colorado River system and the future of America’s hardest-working river,” she said. Another alternative would be for the Interior secretary to exercise federal authority to change reservoir operations, which could be done in addition to any regional water-saving agreement if the reductions turn out to be insufficient.
Over the last six months, federal officials have been pressing water managers in the seven states — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona and California — to come up with plans for major cutbacks. But negotiations have proved difficult, and pledges of voluntary cuts remain far from the federal government’s goal.
Sen. Mark Kelly said that if the region fails to negotiate a solution and the federal government uses its authority to impose cuts, that could lead to problems and disruptive legal disputes. Some water managers and others said they think the seven states and the federal government aren’t moving quickly enough.
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