Overview
- The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation published a Final Environmental Impact Statement on July 31 that sets a 10-year, adaptive framework through 2036 with operational reviews every two years.
- The EIS proposes roughly 20 percent cuts concentrated on the lower-basin states for the first two years through 2028 and establishes reservoir operation rules meant to keep Glen Canyon and Hoover Dam turbines in service.
- The Final EIS is advisory only and does not bind action because the Record of Decision that would implement mandatory cuts and specific operating plans has not yet been issued.
- Lower-basin leaders in Arizona and Nevada have publicly objected and signaled political and legal pushback, arguing the plan places an unfair share of reductions on downstream users and threatens growth, farming and local economies.
- The move responds to decades of over-allocation and a long-term decline in inflows, with Lake Powell and Lake Mead at their lowest combined storage since the reservoirs first filled and consumptive use regularly exceeding natural inflow.