After months of negotiations, the Colorado River Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada have reached an agreement to conserve their water supplies over the next three years in exchange for money from the federal government.
The states agreed to conserve 3 million acre-feet (an acre-foot is 325,851 gallons) through 2026, with 2.3 million acre-feet compensated through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). According to Cal Matters, a nonprofit news agency, the plan will save 13% of the states’ allocation and the payments could total $1.2 billion.
Though no specific details of the agreement have been released, California is expected to save 1.6 million acre-feet—similar to what the state earlier proposed—which will affect farmers in the Imperial Irrigation District (IID). The district announced it is increasing its conservation by 250,000 acre-feet per year, contingent upon developing a federal funding agreement.
In addition to IID, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the Palo Verde Irrigation District, the Coachella Valley Water District, the Fort Yuma Quechan Tribe and the Bard Water District are anticipated to assist in meeting California’s conservation volumes and utilize IRA funding. Arizona and Nevada will make up the difference in addition to previously agreed cutbacks.
J.B. Hamby, chairman of the Colorado River Board of California, said in a statement the plan “will generate unprecedented volumes of conservation that will build elevation in Lake Mead, make strategic use of the improved hydrology, and build upon partnerships within and among states, urban water agencies, agricultural irrigation districts, and Basin Tribes who rely upon and share the Colorado River.”
Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton called the agreement “an important step forward towards our shared goal of forging a sustainable path for the basin that millions of people call home.”
The Department of the Interior said it would withdraw its draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement so the agency could consider the proposal.
In April, BOR released a plan that considered two ways to force cuts for the Lower Basin states to reduce usage between 2-4 million acre-feet. One targeted Arizona and Nevada, using a decades-old water priority system that would have benefited California and some Tribes. The other would have been a percentage cut across the board. — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
