BREAKING: The Biden administration has negotiated an agreement among California, Arizona and Nevada to take less water from the drought-strained Colorado River, a deal that reduces, for now, the risk of the river running dry below the Hoover Dam.
The agreement calls for the federal government to pay about $1.2 billion to irrigation districts, cities and Native American tribes in three states if they temporarily use less water.
But drought, population growth and climate change have dropped the river’s flows by one-third in recent years compared with historical averages, threatening to provoke a water and power catastrophe across the West. There was even the risk that reservoir levels would fall so low, the water would no longer reach the intake valves that control the flow out of the lakes — essentially drying up the river downstream.
Under the agreement announced Monday, most of the cuts — 2.3 million acre-feet — would come from water districts, farm operators, cities and Native American tribes that had agreed to take less water in order to qualify for federal grants offered under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Those payments will total about $1.2 billion.
The terms of the deal were described to The New York Times by a senior official at the Interior Department who was involved in the negotiations, and who spoke on the condition that he not be identified by name. The Washington Post reported elements of the deal last week.
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