The Interior Department did not say how states should get to deeper water cuts, but defended its authority to make sure the states meet residents' basic needs, such as drinking water and hydropower generated from the river.
are the other six states — Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico — who say it's time to come up with an approach that more fairly shares the river.
A multidecade drought in the West intensified by climate change, rising demand and overuse has sent water levels at key reservoirs along the river to unprecedented lows. That's forced the federal government to cut some water allocations, and to offer up billions of dollars to pay farmers and cities to cut back.
Both plans heeded a call last year from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the major dams in the river system, for states to propose how they would cut their water use by roughly 15% and 30% — in addition to existing water cuts agreed upon in recent years. Each achieve about 2 million acre-feet of cuts, which is at the low end of the requested cuts.
California disagreed with that approach. That's because the state has senior rights to Colorado River water and because of its location, would lose a significant amount of water if such losses were counted. The further south the river travels, more water evaporates — meaning that if evaporation losses were counted, California, Arizona, and Mexico would stand to lose more than states further north.
The six states and California also disagree about when more water cuts should be triggered at Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the largest human-made reservoirs in the U.S. that serve as barometers of the river’s health.
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