{"id":36012,"date":"2023-02-01T03:01:47","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T10:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/california-is-lone-holdout-in-colorado-river-cuts-proposal\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:28:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:28:53","slug":"california-is-lone-holdout-in-colorado-river-cuts-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/california-is-lone-holdout-in-colorado-river-cuts-proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"California is lone holdout in Colorado River cuts proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"People
People walk by a formerly sunken boat standing upright into the air with its stern buried in the mud along the shoreline of Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area on Jan. 27 near Boulder City, Nevada. Six Western states that rely on water from the Colorado River have agreed on a plan to dramatically cut their use. California, the state with the largest allocation of water from the river, is the holdout. (John Locher\/Associated Press file)<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. \u2013 Six Western states that rely on water from the Colorado River have agreed on a model to dramatically cut water use in the basin, months after the federal government called for action and an initial deadline passed.<\/p>\n

California \u2013 with the largest allocation of water from the river \u2013 is the lone holdout. Officials said the state would release its own plan.<\/p>\n

The Colorado River and its tributaries pass through seven states and into Mexico, serving 40 million people and a $5 billion-a-year agricultural industry. Some of the largest cities in the country, including Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver and Las Vegas, two Mexican states, Native American tribes and others depend on the river that\u2019s been severely stressed by drought, demand and overuse.<\/p>\n

States missed a mid-August deadline to heed the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation\u2019s call to propose ways to conserve 2 million to 4 million acre feet of water. They regrouped to reach consensus by the end of January to fold into a larger proposal Reclamation has in the works.<\/p>\n

\"Utah
Utah State University master's student Barrett Friesen steers a boat near Glen Canyon dam on Lake Powell on June 7 in Page, Arizona. Six Western states that rely on water from the Colorado River have agreed on a plan to dramatically cut their use. California, the state with the largest allocation of water from the river, is the holdout. (Brittany Peterson\/Associated Press file)<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming sent a letter Monday to Reclamation, which operates the major dams in the river system, to outline an alternative that builds on existing guidelines, deepens water cuts and factors in water that\u2019s lost through evaporation and transportation.<\/p>\n

Those states propose raising the levels where water reductions would be triggered at Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which are barometers of the river\u2019s health. The model creates more of a protective buffer for both reservoirs \u2013 the largest built in the U.S. It also seeks to fix water accounting and ensure that any water the Lower Basin states intentionally stored in Lake Mead is available for future use.<\/p>\n

The modeling would result in about 2 million acre-feet of cuts in the Lower Basin, with smaller reductions in the Upper Basin. Mexico and California are factored into the equations, but neither signed on to Monday\u2019s letter.<\/p>\n

John Entsminger, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said all states have been negotiating in good faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t view not having unanimity at one step in that process to be a failure,\u201d he said late Monday. \u201cI think all seven states are still committed to working together.\u201d<\/p>\n

California released a proposal last October to cut 400,000 acre feet. An acre foot is enough water to supply two to three U.S. households for a year.<\/p>\n

\"A
A person is reflected in a window as they walk across Hoover Dam at Lake Mead on June 26 near Boulder City, Nevada. Six Western states that rely on water from the Colorado River have agreed on a plan to dramatically cut their use. California, the state with the largest allocation of water from the river, is the holdout. (John Locher\/Associated Press file)<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The Colorado River flows through the Grand Canyon on the Hualapai reservation Aug. 15 in northwestern Arizona. Six Western states that rely on water from the Colorado River have agreed on a plan to dramatically cut their use. California, the state with the largest allocation of water from the river, is the holdout. (John Locher\/Associated Press file)<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

JB Hamby, chair of the Colorado River Board of California, said California will submit a model for water reductions in the basin that is practical, based on voluntary action, and aligns with law governing the river and the hierarchy of water rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia remains focused on practical solutions that can be implemented now to protect volumes of water in storage without driving conflict and litigation,\u201d he said in a statement Monday.<\/p>\n

Nothing will happen immediately with the consensus reached among the six states. However, not reaching a consensus carried the risk of having the federal government alone determine how to eventually impose cuts.<\/p>\n

By not signing on, California doesn\u2019t avoid that risk.<\/p>\n

\"Water
Water flows along the All-American Canal on Aug. 13 near Winterhaven, California. The canal conveys water from the Colorado River into the Imperial Valley. Six Western states that rely on water from the Colorado River have agreed on a plan to dramatically cut their use. California, the state with the largest allocation of water from the river, is the holdout. (Gregory Bull\/Associated Press file)<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The debates over how to cut water use by roughly one-third have been contentious.<\/a> The Upper Basin states of Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah have said the Lower Basin states \u2013 Arizona, California and Nevada \u2013 must do the heavy lifting. That conversation in the Lower Basin has centered on what\u2019s legal and what\u2019s fair.<\/p>\n

The six states that signed Monday\u2019s proposal acknowledged ideas they put forth could be excluded from final plans to operate the river\u2019s major dams. Negotiations are ongoing, they noted, adding that what they proposed does not override existing rights states and others have to the Colorado River.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of steps, commitments that need to be made at the federal, state and local levels,\u201d said Entsminger of Nevada.<\/p>\n

\"A
A fisherman throws a cast net along shore of Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area on Jan. 27 near Boulder City, Nevada. Six Western states that rely on water from the Colorado River have agreed on a plan to dramatically cut their use. California, the state with the largest allocation of water from the river, is the holdout. (John Locher\/Associated Press)<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Monday\u2019s proposal included accounting for the water lost to evaporation and leaky infrastructure as the river flows through the region\u2019s dams and waterways. Federal officials estimate more than 10% of the river\u2019s flow evaporates, leaks or spills, yet Arizona, California, Nevada and Mexico have never accounted for<\/a> that water loss.<\/p>\n

The six states argued that Lower Basin states should share those losses \u2013 essentially subtracting those amounts from their allocations \u2013 once the elevation at Lake Mead sinks below 1,145 feet. The reservoir was well below that Monday.<\/p>\n

Reclamation will consider the six states\u2019 agreement as part of a larger proposal to revise how it operates Glen Canyon and Hoover Dams \u2013 behemoth power producers on the Colorado River. The reservoirs behind the dams \u2013 Lake Powell and Lake Mead \u2013 have reached historic lows amid a more than two-decade-long drought and climate change.<\/p>\n

Reclamation plans to put out a draft of that proposal by early March, with a goal of finalizing it by mid-August when the agency typically announces the amount of water available for the following year. Reclamation has said it will do what\u2019s needed to ensure the dams can continue producing hydropower and deliver water.<\/p>\n

Those annual August announcements<\/a> have led to mandatory cuts for the past two years for Arizona, Nevada and Mexico in the river\u2019s Lower Basin. California has so far been spared from cuts because it has some of the oldest and most secure water rights, particularly in the Imperial Valley where much of the country\u2019s winter vegetables are grown, along with the Yuma, Arizona, region.<\/p>\n

Without California\u2019s participation, the six states\u2019 proposal can only go so far to meet the hydrological realities of the river. Water managers in the Lower Basin say the scale of conservation Reclamation is seeking cannot be met without California, tribes and farmers who draw directly from the Colorado River.<\/p>\n

Also unclear is how much Mexico eventually will contribute to the savings. In the best water years, Mexico receives its full allocation of 1.5 million acre feet under a treaty reached with the U.S. in 1944.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

result in about 2 million acre-feet of cuts in Lower Basin, with smaller reductions in Upper Basin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1462,402,28,295,294],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-36012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-river","tag-drought","tag-headlines","tag-water","tag-water-supply"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83204,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36012\/revisions\/83204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36012"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=36012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}