For the second year in a row, Arizona and Nevada will face cuts in the amount of water they can draw from the Colorado River as the West endures an extreme drought, federal officials announced Tuesday. The cuts planned for next year will force states to make critical decisions about where to cut consumption and whether to prioritize growing cities or agricultural areas. The cuts will also put state officials under new pressure to plan for a warmer, drier future and a growing population. Mexico will also face cuts. “We are taking action to protect the 40 million people who depend on the Colorado River for their lives and livelihoods,” said Camille Touton, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation. The river supplies water to seven states and Mexico and helps feed an agricultural industry worth US$15 billion a year. Towns and farms are anxiously awaiting official estimates of future river water levels that will determine the extent and scope of cuts to their water supply. The U.S. government has spared seven western states from mandatory Colorado River cuts for now, but warned on Aug. 16 that drastic conservation is needed to protect the shrinking reservoirs from overuse and severe drought exacerbated by climate change. Reuters It’s not just that. In addition to those cuts already agreed upon, the Bureau of Reclamation said Tuesday that states missed a deadline to propose at least 15 percent more cuts needed to keep water levels in the river’s storage reservoirs from falling even further. For example, officials have predicted that water levels in Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, will drop further. The lake is currently less than a quarter full. “States collectively have not identified and adopted concrete actions of sufficient magnitude that would stabilize the system,” Touton said. After putting last year’s burden on the agricultural industry, Arizona officials will have to decide whether to inflict additional pain on growing cities that rely on the river. The cuts are not expected to have a tangible impact in Nevada, which has already implemented the region’s most aggressive conservation policies, including weed bans and rebate programs. While the Bureau of Reclamation is “very focused on getting this out of the way by next year,” any cuts would likely have to take much longer, said Oxford University hydrologist Kevin Wheeler. “It’s pretty clear that these reductions just have to stay in place until the drought ends or we realize that they actually have to get worse and the cuts have to go deeper,” he said. The cuts are based on a plan signed by the seven states as well as Mexico in 2019 to help maintain reservoir levels. Under this plan, the amount of water available to the states depends on the water level in Lake Mead. Last year, the lake dropped low enough for the federal government to declare a water shortage in the region for the first time, triggering mandatory cuts for Arizona and Nevada as well as Mexico in 2022. Officials expect falling lake levels to cause additional cuts in Nevada, Arizona and Mexico next year. States with higher priority water rights are not expected to see cuts. Reservoir levels have been falling for years—and faster than experts predicted—because of a 22-year drought exacerbated by climate change and overuse of the river. Hot temperatures and less spring snowmelt have reduced the amount of water flowing from the Rocky Mountains, where the river originates before snaking 1,400 miles (2,334 km) southwest and into the Gulf of California. Already, extraordinary measures have been taken this year to conserve water in Lake Powell, the Colorado River’s other large reservoir, which lies upstream of Lake Mead and straddles the Arizona-Utah border. Water from the lake passes through the Glen Canyon Dam, which generates enough electricity to power between 1 and 1.5 million homes each year. After water levels in Lake Powell dropped low enough to threaten hydroelectric power generation, federal officials said they would hold back an additional 480,000 acre feet (more than 156 billion gallons, or 592 million cubic meters) of water to ensure the dam would could still produce energy. This water would normally be directed to Lake Mead. Under Tuesday’s reductions, Arizona will lose slightly more water than it did this year, when 18 percent of its supply was cut. In 2023, it will lose an additional 3 percent, a total reduction of 21 percent from its original allocation. Mexico will lose 7 percent of the 1.5 million acre feet it receives each year from the river. Last year, it lost about 5 percent. Water is a lifeline for northern desert cities, including Tijuana and a major agricultural industry in the Mexicali Valley, just south of the border from California’s Imperial Valley. Nevada will also lose water — about 8 percent of its supply — but most residents won’t feel the effects because the state recycles most of its indoor water and doesn’t use its full allocation. Last year, the state lost 7 percent. The Morning Update and Afternoon Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.
