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

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.”

Farmers in Mexicali are protesting again, arguing they haven’t been paid in full for pulling land out of production to save water for the imperiled Colorado River.

The farmers argue they’ve only been paid half for the amount of land they’ve left out of production. Earlier this month those farmers staged a days-long sit-in at the offices of CONAGUA, Mexico’s federal water agency. They claim they’re still owed millions of dollars, which ultimately come from the U.S. government under international agreements to compensate farmers who agree not to grow crops and save river water.

On Monday, Conservation groups sued the Trump administration for pumping excessive amounts of water out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in a way that harms imperiled fish.

The lawsuit says that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation violated the Endangered Species Act by exceeding regulations intended to limit the Central Valley Project’s impacts on Central Valley steelhead, North American green sturgeon, and Chinook salmon.