Particle.news
Download on the App Store
25 ARTICLES
·
last wk.

U.S. Imposes Two‑Year Colorado River Cuts, Laying Heaviest Burden on Arizona

The Interior’s plan imposes 1.25 million acre‑feet in annual cuts on Lower Basin states, preserving federal authority to impose much larger reductions if reservoir levels continue to fall.

Image
A man wades his boat into the receding shoreline of Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States by water capacity, highlighting the long-term effects of drought and water demand on the Colorado River system, near Boulder City, Nevada, August 12.
Image
Triple M Farms co-owner Jace Miller, a fifth-generation farmer, examines a field of alfalfa on the Gila River Indian Reservation south of Phoenix, Arizona, on July 5.

Overview

  • The Interior Department finalized a Record of Decision on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, that requires Arizona, California and Nevada to reduce their Colorado River deliveries by about 1.25 million acre‑feet per year for 2027–2028.
  • Under the allocation Arizona will surrender roughly 760,000 acre‑feet per year, California about 440,000 acre‑feet, and Nevada about 50,000 acre‑feet, and the three states also volunteered to conserve an additional 700,000 acre‑feet over the two years.
  • The plan sets operational targets to protect hydropower at Glen Canyon Dam — including a Lake Powell minimum target near 3,510 feet — and leaves Upper Basin states (Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming) without mandatory cuts for the initial two‑year period.
  • Federal officials kept a contingency in the 10‑year framework that would allow mandatory cuts to nearly triple to roughly 3.0 million acre‑feet per year after the initial two years if reservoir elevations worsen, prompting immediate threats of litigation from Arizona.
  • The cuts respond to decades of over‑allocation, warming and low snowpack that have pushed Lake Mead and Lake Powell to record lows, and the shortfall will pressure agriculture, city supplies, hydropower revenues and accelerate costly measures such as groundwater pumping, water transfers and fallowing farmland.