The US government has proposed a plan for the drought-stricken Colorado River that could cut up to 40% of current water supplies to Arizona, California, and Nevada, as the waterway's reservoirs continue to plunge to critically low levels.
Details of the Proposed Cuts
Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, shared details of the Trump administration's plan at a state meeting on Wednesday. Under the 10-year plan, which will be finalized in June, the annual amount of water delivered to the three lower-basin states could be slashed by up to 3 million acre-feet. These reductions would be evaluated every two years.
Three million acre-feet of water is enough to supply 6 million to 9 million households for one year, exceeding the total number of homes in Arizona and Nevada.
Buschatzke described the proposed federal cuts as "sobering," noting that Arizona's share could fall to zero, particularly for the Central Arizona Project canal that supplies water to central and southern Arizona.
Legal Framework and State Reactions
The federal plan would be implemented either under existing Colorado River law or through agreements among the states. According to Buschatzke, federal officials indicated that cuts would be based on the "priority of the law of the river," referring to the 1922 Colorado River Compact, which gives California the highest priority for water use.
The Colorado River supplies water to about 40 million people in the American West. The proposal comes months after the seven states that depend on the river's dwindling supply missed a February federal deadline to agree on how water cuts would be divided. The river has lost about 27.8 million acre-feet of groundwater over the last 20 years, largely due to overuse, and a record snow drought this year has further exacerbated the issue.
The upper basin states—Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico—have resisted water reductions, maintaining that downstream states California, Arizona, and Nevada bear responsibility for the shortages and should carry the burden of cuts.
Alternative Proposals and Federal Role
Doug Burgum, the US Interior Secretary, indicated earlier this year that the US Bureau of Reclamation would step in to manage the protracted dispute. Two weeks ago, California, Arizona, and Nevada announced their own proposal for voluntary water reductions of up to 3.25 million acre-feet through 2028. Under their offer, Arizona's water flow would be cut by 760 acre-feet, California by 440 acre-feet, and Nevada by 50 acre-feet.
However, it is unclear if the states' plan will proceed, and it would still require cooperation from state water agencies and the federal government. Alex Smith, an employee with the US Bureau of Reclamation's Phoenix office, told AZ Central that the agency is evaluating the risks and benefits of the lower basin states' plan.
During public comment on Wednesday, Patrick Adams, senior water policy adviser to Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, said "things are moving very quickly" regarding the federal proposal. "The risk of 3 million acre-feet of reductions only in the lower basin is something that's quite alarming to us. So we need to grapple with that," he said.
