Arizona starts work on Colorado River plans

Guidelines for states set to expire in 2026

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Arizona is getting a jump start on what will be a yearslong process to address a dwindling water source in the West.

Several states and Mexico rely on the Colorado River for drinking water and growing crops. But climate change, drought and demand have taken a toll on the river, which no longer can deliver what was promised in the 1920s.

Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, California, Utah, Wyoming and Nevada have been operating under a set of guidelines approved in 2007. Those guidelines and an overlapping drought contingency plan will expire in 2026.

Arizona water officials gathered Thursday to outline a plan for what comes next. Other states in the river basin have had more informal discussions.

“Hold on to your seats because the reconsultation will be technical and complicated, and it will take a long time,” said Ted Cooke, general manager of the Central Arizona Project, who is co-chairing Arizona’s effort.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is reviewing the effectiveness of the 2007 guidelines, which address shortages and surpluses of water, and efforts to conserve water in Lake Mead along the Nevada-Arizona border. A draft is expected in August, and a final report in December.

“It’s prudent water management to review how well something has worked before determining what might replace it,” said Carly Jerla of the Bureau of Reclamation.

When those guidelines went into effect, the river had been in drought conditions for several years. It hasn’t let up. A drought contingency plan approved by the Western states last year was meant as a stopgap. It requires Arizona, Nevada and Mexico to prop up Lake Mead earlier than under the 2007 guidelines. It also looped in California for water cuts.

A Reclamation audit published last month found that water use in the Colorado River’s lower basin dropped by more than 575,000 acrefeet from 2018 to 2019, a level not seen since 1986. That allowed Lake Mead and Lake Powell — key indicators of the river’s health — to increase by several feet, but both remain well below capacity.

As of last week, Mead was 41 percent full. Powell, along the Arizona-Utah line, was 53 percent full.

The Arizona committee will be led by Cooke and Arizona Department of Water Resources director Tom Buschatzke. The river is governed by a series of interstate agreements, international treaties and court rulings — all of which the two said would guide the committee’s work.

They ruled out marketing unused water within Arizona or sending it outside the state.

Daryl Vigil, water administrator for the Jicarilla Apache Nation in New Mexico, said he would like to see all Arizona tribes represented on the committee. Buschatzke said that would become unwieldy.

“What do we do with renegotiation in Arizona? You just go back to what you know, which leaves out an incredible huge portion of people who have water rights in the basin and, of course, I’m talking about tribes,” Vigil said.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority said it has been accelerating conservation that will allow the state to be flexible in working through the next round of guidelines.

The upper basin states — Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico — historically have not used their full allocation of Colorado River water. Amy Haas, director of the Upper Colorado River Commission, said those states will be looking to address overuse in the lower basin, reliability in the forecast for lake levels and equity in the river operations.

John Locher The Associated Press As of last week, Lake Mead, above, was 41 percent full. Lake Powell, along the Arizona-Utah line, was 53 percent full. Both are indicators of the Colorado River’s health.