{"id":467347,"date":"2026-08-31T10:33:56","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T17:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=467347"},"modified":"2026-08-31T10:33:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T17:33:59","slug":"colorado-river-crisis-brings-major-cuts-for-california-nevada-and-arizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=467347","title":{"rendered":"Colorado River Crisis Brings Major Cuts for California, Nevada, and Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phoenix is planning to dip into its emergency water bank as a result.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Legal Insurrection<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Posted by Leslie Eastman<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Federal officials are ordering the West to live within the limits of a Colorado River system drained by decades of over- allocation, drought, and policy delay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

California, Nevada, and Arizona allocations will be cut a combined 1.25 million acre-fee<\/a>t annually for the next two years, while the upstream states evade mandatory reductions for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arizona will see the biggest cuts, while states upstream \u2014 Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico \u2014 do not face any for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile neighboring Mexico will reduce its intake by 250,000 acre-feet (about 310 million cubic meters) under a U.S.-Mexico treaty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been in this 26-year prolonged drought period,\u201d said Andrea Travnicek, the Interior Department\u2019s assistant secretary for water and science. \u201cWe continue to see a prolonged drought in our future. So continuing to work together as a whole within the basin is going to be extremely important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current rules governing the use of the river\u2019s water are set to expire in October, and the seven states have been unable to reach a consensus on sharing it over the long term.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Federal officials announced sharp water cuts for the next two years on Friday for three Western states that rely on the imperiled Colorado River.

Years of overuse combined with drought and rising temperatures due to climate change have depleted the country's two largest\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/OsVdsaFKMN<\/a><\/p>— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) August 23, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote>