Agriculture across the West is being hung out to dry after being faced with limited or zero water allocations, thanks to worsening drought conditions. 

Drought has been on the top of people’s minds in Arizona, with Gov. Doug Ducey (R) announcing in late February a new state agency to identify and develop new long-term sources of water, while federal lawmakers with water and agriculture stakeholders also held a roundtable to discuss the drought issue plaguing the state.

The Bureau of Reclamation announced water levels in Lake Powell will drop below the target elevation of 3,525 feet in the coming weeks.

A policy brief released by the Property and Environment Research Center, a free market environmental group, is advocating for Tribes to be able to opt in or out of water marketing.

Producers in the Southwest will likely face warmer-than-average temperatures and less precipitation this winter due to the occurrence of La Niña, at a time when reservoir levels are dangerously low.

While the Colorado River Water Users Association held its annual meeting in Las Vegas to mull over the future of the Colorado River, leaders from the Lower Basin states of Nevada, Arizona and California agreed to voluntarily cut back their allocation from the river in an effort to stave off mandatory cutbacks. 

The Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) released updated projections showing an elevated risk for Lake Powell and Lake Mead reaching critically low elevations. 

A megadrought and warmer climate have brought Lakes Mead and Powell to their lowest levels in decades, leading the federal government to implement its first-ever cutbacks for water delivery. 

A coalition of governors’ representatives from states that rely on the Colorado River sent a letter to the secretary of the interior, pushing back on a proposal to build the Lake Powell Pipeline in Utah.