While a Colorado River conservation plan has yet to be approved by the federal government, Gov. Katie Hobbs made two things clear at a news conference Thursday: Arizona will lead the way in the tri-state agreement, and Arizonans need not worry about a water-use crackdown. Read more»
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Arizona, California and Nevada have narrowly averted a regional water crisis by agreeing to reduce their use of Colorado River water over the next three years - but this deal only represents a temporary solution to a long-term crisis. Read more»
State and federal officials are celebrating an agreement reached this week by Arizona, California and Nevada to reduce their use of Colorado River water by millions of gallons over the next three years - but it’s a temporary reprieve. Read more»
Arizona, California and Nevada have agreed on a plan to conserve 3 million acre-feet from the Colorado River over the next three years, and the Lower Basin Plan has the support from all seven Colorado River Basin States. Read more»
The purchase of Vidler Water Company by D.R. Horton is a clear indication of where the West is headed, as the need grows to find creative new water supplies that will allow national builders to keep building even as regulators try to clamp down on unsustainable growth. Read more»
Following one of the wettest winters in recent history, Arizona officials anticipate a dry 2024 - as over the 23-year drought, the wettest years have always been followed by some of the driest - while federal water usage cuts loom. Read more»
An extra pulse of water was sent through the Grand Canyon, part of a Bureau of Reclamation “high-flow experiment” designed to redeposit sediment from Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, and in response to above average spring snowmelt forecasts in the Rocky Mountains. Read more»
California and Arizona are currently fighting each other over water from the Colorado River, but this isn’t new - it’s actually been going on for over 100 years; at one point, the states literally went to war about it - and the problem comes down to some really bad math from 1922. Read more»
Cuts to water use along the Colorado River could be spread evenly across some Southwestern states, or follow the priority system that currently governs water management, as federal officials consider ways to keep hydropower generation going at the nation’s largest reservoirs. Read more»
On the heels of one of the wettest Arizona winters in history, federal, state, local and tribal leaders united to announce a total of $233 million in funding for water conservation agreements to aid the Gila River Indian Community and other Colorado River users. Read more»
Arizona is receiving $27.7 million for four projects to increase drought resilience and improve water delivery systems, part of $585 million in funding sent to 11 states as part of last year’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Read more»
Supreme Court justices pressed government attorneys Monday on their argument that the treaties that put the Navajo on reservation lands implied an intent – but not a duty – for the government to provide water to the tribe. Read more»
After watching billions of gallons of rainwater wash away into the Pacific, California is taking advantage of extreme weather with a new approach: Let it settle back into the earth for use another day. Read more»
The fight for water in the West heads to the Supreme Court next week where the justices will decide if Arizona has a duty to give the Navajo Nation a share of the region's most precious resource - recognition of their water rights to the Colorado River. Read more»
With water levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead at record lows, federal officials are ready to spend tens of millions of dollars to get farmers and other water users to conserve in 2023 and keep the reservoirs from falling farther. Read more»
Senators from the seven Western states in the Colorado River basin - including Arizona Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly - have been quietly meeting “for about a year,” to facilitate difficult discussions between the states over the future of the river. Read more»