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Arizona Water Leaders Push Back on ‘Unacceptable’ Draft Colorado River Plans

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 Snowpack Still Below Average Despite Winter Storms

Despite the recent onslaught of winter storms in California, the state’s snowpack is still below average, according to state officials. During the third snow survey of the season, Department of Water Resources officials “recorded 28 inches of snow depth and a snow water equivalent of 11 inches, which is 47% of average for this location,” the agency said in a Feb. 27 news release.

Statewide, the snowpack is 66% average for this time of year, officials said.

California Warns Federal Government: Proposed Colorado River Plans May Violate Century-Old Water Compact

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.”

How a California Desalination Plant Could Ease Water Shortages on the Colorado River

With desert cities like Phoenix and Tucson bracing for their allotments of Colorado River water to be slashed dramatically, San Diego County’s water agency could for the first time sell some of its water to other states by drawing on its ample supplies from the nation’s largest desalination plant.

The San Diego County Water Authority’s board unanimously approved an initial agreement last week to consider selling some of its water to Arizona and Nevada, where cities that depend on the over-tapped Colorado River are expected to face substantial cuts in water supplies.

Mexican Farmers Gave Up Water to Protect the Colorado River. They Claim Payment Is Still Due

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.

California Water Officials Urge Stronger Legal Review in Post-2026 Colorado River Plan

California water officials are calling on the federal government to strengthen its legal and environmental analysis of proposed new operating rules for the Colorado River, warning that the current draft plan fails to adequately address interstate obligations, infrastructure limitations, and impacts to communities, including the Imperial Valley, according to a recent Colorado River Board of California press release.

In formal comments submitted Monday to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the Colorado River Board of California Chairman JB Hamby outlined concerns with the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) governing post-2026 operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead.

Conservation Groups Lawsuit Challenges President Trump’s ‘Dangerous’ Water Grab in California’s Central Valley

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.

A New Twist of Colorado River Water

OPINION: As the U.S. Department of the Interior has now taken control of the decision about the Colorado River and the volumes of water for each of the seven states, one agency in California is seeking a “game changing” agreement. Based on a press release, (https://www.sdcwa.org/board-approves-federal-interstate-partnership-on-colorado-river)

The San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) has negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the first interstate water transfer-and-exchange pilot program with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and agencies in Nevada and Arizona.

The Colorado River Is Nearing Collapse. It’s Trump’s Problem Now.

The Colorado River currently supports 40 million people and $1.4 trillion in annual economic activity in seven U.S. states and Mexico — but it was never intended to be stretched so thin.

A century-old legal framework promises those users more water than there is to go around. The river’s flow has shrunk by about 20 percent over the last century as climate change has made the West more arid. As water has vanished, states have clashed over how to divide up what remains. The core dispute is between the sparsely inhabited mountainous states of the “Upper Basin,” where hay farmers and a few major cities like Denver draw water from the river and its tributaries, and the far more populous “Lower Basin,” which diverts water to support most of the nation’s winter vegetable farmers as well as megacities like Los Angeles and Phoenix.

Between Two Watersheds

The Colorado River may be running dry, but the Pacific Ocean is not — and on Thursday, San Diego took a first formal step to turn that into a business opportunity.

The San Diego County Water Authority voted to sign a memorandum of understanding with federal, Arizona and Nevada water managers to explore selling desalinated Pacific Ocean water across state lines. The pilot, if formalized, would turn ultra-expensive water and underused capacity at the Western Hemisphere’s largest desalination plant, in Carlsbad, into a resource for fast-growing neighboring states as they absorb potentially-economy-shattering cuts on the Colorado River.