You are now in California and the U.S. Media Coverage category.

You might appreciate snowpack as something to sled, ski, or snowboard on. But beyond the slopes, vast masses of snow melt as winter turns to spring, feeding rivers and streams, which go on to hydrate towns and cities and crops. We’re talking incredible amounts of water: California, for instance, gets 30 percent of its supply from the snowpack in its Sierra Nevada mountains.

But across the American west, that bounty is in trouble as the climate quickly changes: The region is currently in the grip of a severe snow drought, as more precipitation falls as rain. At the same time, higher temperatures are desiccating the landscape, fueling massive wildfires once all that snow melts away. Not helping matters is a long history of fire suppression — quickly stamping out blazes has allowed dry vegetation to accumulate, adding yet more fuel to the flames.

Leaders of California, Arizona and Nevada are criticizing the Trump administration’s proposals for water cutbacks along the Colorado River, urging it to take a different approach and avoid a court battle.

The three downstream states said in letters to the Interior Department this week that the agency’s preliminary outline of five options for cuts ignores the foundational “Law of the River” that has underpinned how seven western states operate for more than a century.

State officials in California have announced the implementation of a statewide water-saving plan meant to conserve water resources amid worsening climate change.

“Climate change is reshaping life in California through historic droughts and record storms that threaten the farms that feed the nation, communities that depend on reliable water, and the environment we all share,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a news release on Feb. 25. “The 2028 Water Plan is a commitment to every Californian that we will capture, store, and conserve the water our state — the 4th largest economy in the world — needs to thrive, no matter what climate change throws at us.”

Arizona water leaders had some harsh words about a draft of federal plans for managing the Colorado River. Brenda Burman, general manager of the Central Arizona Project, wrote in a statement that those plans would “disproportionately harm Arizona and are unacceptable.”

The Colorado River is managed according to agreements between the seven states that use it. The current management plan expires this year, and those states have failed to agree on a new deal for sharing water. With states at an impasse, the federal government proposed its own series of options for river management.

California water officials issued a formal warning to the federal government Monday, asserting that current draft plans for managing the Colorado River after 2026 lack a sound legal basis and unfairly shift the burden of drought onto Lower Basin states.

In a detailed comment letter submitted to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, JB Hamby, California’s Colorado River Commissioner, argued that the government’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) fails to analyze whether its proposed “shortage” scenarios actually comply with the 1922 Colorado River Compact—the foundational “Law of the River.”