Biden administration maintains Colorado River cuts for Arizona, Nevada

Arizona and Nevada will maintain the current cutbacks to their water usage from the Colorado River for the next year but will not be facing any imminent increases in conservation requirements, the federal Bureau of Reclamation announced Thursday.

For the upcoming water year, Arizona and Nevada will need to continue adhering to “Level 1 Shortage Condition” guidelines, per the announcement. Specifically, Arizona will conserve 512,000 acre-feet of water, or about 18 percent of the state’s annual allocation. Nevada will preserve 21,000 acre-feet, or about 7 percent of its allotment. A typical U.S. suburban household uses about 1 acre-foot of water annually. 

Amid historic drought, the Colorado River basin continues to grapple with low storage levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead — the region’s largest reservoirs — which collectively are only at 37 percent capacity, according to the bureau.

But federal officials touted a variety of critical investments that have helped lead to historic conservation agreements across the seven Colorado River states.

“The Colorado River System is already showing significant improvements as a result of water savings from the historic investments in conservation and infrastructure improvements through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act,” bureau Commissioner Camille Touton said in a statement.

Touton was referencing agreements made by Lower Basin states Arizona, Nevada and California to jointly preserve at least 3 million acre-feet of water through 2026.

“These investments provide funding to local, state, and Tribal communities to tackle the climate crisis and unprecedented drought conditions,” the commissioner added.   

The annual operational guidelines announced Thursday stemmed from a 24-month study of the Colorado River basin and will apply to the 2025 water year, which extends from October 1, 2024, through September 30, 2025.

The Bureau of Reclamation’s announcement coincides with an ongoing regional scramble to formulate a unified vision for the waterway’s future, as the clock ticks toward the end-of-2026 expiration date for current operational guidelines.

In the meantime, however, the bureau stressed that shorter-term measures are working to “bridge the immediate need to protect the Colorado River System while moving toward more durable, long-term solutions.”