The Trump administration offered a preview of a short-term plan to control the drought-stricken Colorado River — including the possibility of significant cuts to users in Arizona, California and Nevada — if state negotiators fail to strike a deal by next month.
The Bureau of Reclamation on Friday afternoon released its draft environmental impact statement outlining multiple options for a new long-term operating plan for the Colorado River, which supports 40 million individuals across seven states. Those options include one plan that “is designed to be implementable without agreements” between the states themselves, although not over the long haul.
Despite more than two years of negotiations between the Interior Department and those states, as well as tribal nations, agreement on how to reduce dependency on the drought-stricken river — including who must absorb the pain of cuts to water supplies — remains elusive.
Decades of persistent drought has shrunk Colorado River flows, slashing the available water by as much as 20 percent since 2000.
