This is not an agreement,” Buschatzke said during a conference call with reporters. Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, stressed that the announcement is not a final deal. During that time of year, yields are already down and more water is required, he said. He said the district is working on a pilot summer idling program where farmers would sign up to turn off their water for 60 days for forage crops. Hamby, chairman of the Colorado River Board of California, said the district has already taken measures to improve water efficiency and will need to do more. The Imperial Irrigation District would account for more than half of California’s cuts. Leaders in Arizona and Nevada didn’t immediately say how they’d divide the other 1.4 million acre-feet. It wasn’t clear why the other states agreed to a deal now when California didn’t offer further cuts. That’s roughly the same amount the state first offered six months ago. Under the new proposal, California would give up about 1.6 million acre-feet of water through 2026 - a little more than half of the total. In November 2022, some of the largest water agencies in the western United States agreed to a framework that would dramatically reduce the amount of decorative grass in cities such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Denver | Photo by Ken Ritter, The Associated Press, St. Traffic passes a grassy landscape on Green Valley Parkway in suburban Henderson, Nev., on April 9, 2021. Arizona and Nevada have already faced cuts in recent years as key reservoir levels dropped based on prior agreements. Most of that goes to farmers in the Imperial Irrigation District, though some also goes to smaller water districts and cities across Southern California. “The wet winter has given us a bit of space to negotiate, but we must not squander this gift from Mother Nature,” said Mitchell, adding that Colorado and other basin states urged federal officials to return to longer-term discussions about how to preserve water levels at Lakes Mead and Powell beyond 2026.Ĭalifornia gets the most, based on a century-old water rights priority system. The plan doesn’t change how much water the Upper Basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah or Wyoming will receive. households annually.īecky Mitchell, director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, said on Monday that Upper Basin states didn’t have a chance to analyze Arizona, Nevada and California’s plan in detail. An acre-foot of water is roughly enough to serve two to three U.S. The three Lower Basin states are entitled to 7.5 million acre-feet of water altogether from the river. “It looks like that’s what’s going to happen.” “The goal was so the government didn’t have to issue a mandate” based on priority rights, he said. He noted the agreement is a “short-term, three-year deal” and that because the Upper Basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming didn’t face immediate cuts, they were not part of the pact. Bureau of Reclamation’s Lower Colorado Basin region. But money helps you keep talking,” said Terry Fulp, former regional director of the U.S. 15, 2022, in northwestern Arizona | Photo by John Locher, The Associated Press, St. FILE – The Colorado River flows through the Grand Canyon on the Hualapai reservation on Aug. The bureau’s earlier proposal, if adopted, could have led to a messy legal battle. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton called it an “important step forward.” She said the bureau will pull back its proposal from last month that could have resulted in sidestepping the existing water priority system to force cuts while it analyzes the three-state plan. Though adoption of the plan isn’t certain, U.S. In exchange for temporarily using less water, cities, irrigation districts and Native American tribes in the three states will receive federal funding, though officials did not say how much they expected to receive. It produces hydropower and supplies water to farms that grow most of the nation’s winter vegetables. states, parts of Mexico and more than two dozen Native American tribes. The 1,450-mile river provides water to 40 million people in seven U.S. That’s less than what federal officials said last year would be needed to stave off crisis in the river but still marks a notable step in long and difficult negotiations between the three states. About half the cuts would come by the end of 2024. The plan would conserve an additional 3 million acre-feet of water through 2026, when current guidelines for how the river is shared expire. LAS VEGAS (AP) - Arizona, California and Nevada on Monday proposed a plan to significantly reduce their water use from the drought-stricken Colorado River over the next three years, a potential breakthrough in a year-long stalemate that pitted Western states against one another.
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