US plan for Colorado River could cut up to 40% supply for Arizona, California and Nevada

The US government has proposed a plan for the drought stricken Colorado River that could cut up to 40% of current supplies to Arizona, California and Nevada, as the waterway’s reservoirs continue to plunge to critically low levels. A top Arizona water official shared details of the Trump administration’s plan at a state meeting on Wednesday. Under the 10-year plan, which will be finalized in June, the annual amount of water delivered to Arizona , California and Nevada could be slashed by up to 3m acre-feet, according to Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona department of water resources. The reductions would be evaluated every two years. Three million acre-feet of water is enough to supply 6 million to 9 million households for one year, more than the number of homes in Arizona and Nevada . Buschatzke said the federal plan would be either implemented under existing Colorado River law or through agreements among the states. He said federal officials had indicated that water cuts across the three lower-basin states would be based on the “priority of the law of the river”. That law, the 1922 Colorado River Compact, gives California the highest priority for water use. Buschatzke described the proposed federal cuts as “sobering”. “That’s us, that’s Arizona, and potentially CAP going to zero,” said Buschatzke, referring to water flows on the Central Arizona Project, a canal that transports Colorado River water to central and southern Arizona. …