U.S. officials announced Tuesday that two U.S. states reliant on water from the Colorado River will face more water cuts as they endure extreme drought.
An aerial view of Lake Powell on the Colorado River is seen along the Arizona-Utah border on Sept. 11, 2019. Federal officials on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022, are expected to announce water cuts that would further reduce how much Colorado River water some users in the seven U.S. states reliant on the river and Mexico receive.
Lake Mead is currently less than a quarter full and the seven states overall that depend on its water missed a federal deadline to announce proposals on plans cut additional water next year. Together, the projections and the deadline for cuts are presenting Western states with unprecedented challenges and confronting them with difficult decisions about how to plan for a drier future.
The cuts are based on a plan the seven states as well as Mexico signed in 2019 to help maintain reservoir levels. Under that plan, the amount of water allocated to states depends on the water levels at Lake Mead. Last year, the lake fell low enough for the federal government to declare a first-ever water shortage in the region, triggering mandatory cuts for Arizona and Nevada as well as Mexico in 2022.
After water levels at Lake Powell reached levels low enough to threaten hydropower production, federal officials said they would hold back an additional 480,000 acre-feet of water to ensure the dam could still produce energy. That water would normally course to Lake Mead.
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