In the coming weeks, federal officials must decide whether to impose cuts on the three lower Colorado River Basin states by either following the longstanding system of water-rights seniority or by …
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials are considering whether to order Arizona, California and Nevada to take less water out of the, effectively flexing their muscles over a problem they had hoped the states would solve themselves.
The move strengthens the federal agency’s resolve to conserve water from the Colorado River as the seven states within its basin repeatedly fail to find common ground, said Rhett Larson, a water law professor at Arizona State University. The first option would be to take no additional action, which means conditions along the Colorado River would worsen. Water levels at lakes Powell and Mead would likely sink deeper.
This option likely would hit Arizona the hardest, said Jennifer Gimbel, senior water policy scholar at Colorado State University. She mentioned that the Central Arizona Project, which supplies cities including Phoenix and Tucson, would be at risk of losing water.
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