Trump administration pursuing short-term plan for Colorado River

Key Points:

• The Trump administration is developing a 10-year plan to address water shortages on the Colorado River, which supplies water to Southern California and much of the Southwest, amid severely depleted reservoir levels.
• The plan includes specific rules for mandatory water reductions, potentially requiring California, Arizona, and Nevada to cut up to 3 million acre-feet annually—about 40% of their combined allotments—with reassessments every two years.
• State negotiators have so far proposed reducing water use by roughly 1.6 million acre-feet annually over the next two years to help stabilize Lake Mead, but the federal plan suggests larger cutbacks may be necessary.
• The water allocations stem from the 1922 Colorado River Compact, which overestimated the river's capacity, and climate change has exacerbated drought conditions, further shrinking the river since 2000.
• The Bureau of Reclamation has begun consultations with states, tribes, and Mexico to finalize the plan, aiming to balance stability and flexibility in managing the river's scarce resources.