Bureau orders sharp Colorado River cuts for three Western states

Federal action comes after seven states fail to agree

The Bureau of Reclamation moved on Friday to impose mandatory water cuts on the three states that draw from the Colorado River downstream of its two largest reservoirs, after the seven states that share the river failed to reach their own agreement on how to divide a shrinking supply.

Under the bureau’s plan, California, Nevada and Arizona will collectively reduce their draw by 1.25 million acre-feet — about 1.54 billion cubic meters — each year for the next two years. The plan reserves the option of larger reductions depending on hydrological conditions. Arizona will absorb the steepest cuts, while the four upper basin states — Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico — face no cuts for now.

Mexico, which receives Colorado River water under a long-standing U.S.-Mexico treaty, agreed to reduce its intake by 250,000 acre-feet, or about 310 million cubic meters, under the same plan. The treaty component makes the cuts a cross-border effort, even as the bureau’s direct jurisdiction over how much water leaves its reservoirs is largely confined to the lower basin.

The cuts reflect the depth of the basin’s long-term shortage. Travnicek, the Interior Department’s assistant secretary for water and science, framed the action in the context of a drought now stretching back a generation. “We’ve been in this 26-year prolonged drought period,” she said. “We continue to see a prolonged drought in our future. So continuing to work together as a whole within the basin is going to be extremely important.”

The action followed federal interventions earlier this year to keep water flowing through the basin’s hydroelectric system. In April, the bureau moved water into Lake Powell from an upstream reservoir and cut planned releases by 20 percent, projecting that Powell would stay just above “minimum power pool” through March 2027. Lake Mead, the largest U.S. reservoir by capacity, fell in early August to its lowest level since tracking began in 1930, as drought and overuse steadily reduced storage across the system. The combined volume of Lake Powell and Lake Mead recently reached its lowest level since 1957.

The seven basin states, which together rely on the river for water delivered to about 40 million people and used to irrigate more than 5 million acres of farmland, did not arrive at a unified plan for cutting consumption before the bureau stepped in. Each side had insisted that the other reduce first, with the lower basin pointing out that it has consumed roughly twice as much water on average as the upper basin over the last 25 years. The bureau ultimately made the call for cuts among the states it directly regulates.

The 1.25 million acre-feet annual reduction announced Friday sits below the 3 million acre-feet the bureau had previously indicated it could require from the lower basin. The plan also includes a reassessment window that allows federal officials to revisit the numbers if drought conditions deepen, and leaves open the possibility of further reductions in the upper basin if voluntary conservation falls short.

Power generation at Lake Powell’s Glen Canyon Dam remains a persistent concern. Water must reach a minimum elevation to flow through the dam’s turbines; below that threshold, known as “dead pool,” water cannot be released on demand for hydropower. Federal projections earlier this year had Powell just above its minimum power pool threshold through March 2027.

As previously reported, the bureau had been weighing cuts of up to 40 percent in the lower basin. The announcement comes two weeks after Lake Mead’s fall to its lowest level on record underscored the urgency behind Friday’s cuts.