New Rules Being Negotiated for Colorado River Water

The Colorado River is an extremely important part of the water supply for California and the Western U.S. When the waters of the Colorado River were allocated nearly a century ago, it was thought that the annual yield of the river was in the 16 million acre-foot range. Over the past number of decades the actual yield has been closer to 12 million acre-feet. The two huge reservoirs created by the Hoover Dam (Lake Mead) and the Glen Canyon Dam (Lake Powell) were full 25 years ago, but now hold only about a third of the water they did back then. The current river operating rules expire at the end of 2025 and new rules that take into account this new supply reality are being negotiated among the seven states with rights to Colorado River water. The following article gives an excellent overview of the current state of the negotiations, which, as you can imagine, are very difficult. The federal government ultimately has control, but the courts are also potentially involved, and a cooperative agreement is in everyone’s interest if that can be achieved.