For the second year in a row, Arizona and Nevada will face cuts in the amount of water they can draw from the Colorado River as the West endures more drought, federal officials announced Tuesday. The cuts planned for next year will force states to make critical decisions about where to reduce consumption and whether to prioritize growing cities or agricultural areas. Mexico will also face cuts. But those reductions represent just a fraction of the potential pain to come for the 40 million Americans in seven states that rely on the river. Because the states failed to respond to a federal ultimatum to figure out how to cut their water use by at least 15%, they could face even deeper cuts that the government has said are needed to prevent reservoirs from falling so low they cannot be pumped. “The states collectively have not identified and adopted specific actions of sufficient magnitude that would stabilize the system,” Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton said. Together, the missed deadline and cuts place officials responsible for providing water to growing cities and farms under renewed pressure to plan for a hotter, drier future and a growing population. Touton has said the additional 15% reduction is necessary to ensure that water deliveries and hydroelectric power are not disrupted. She was noncommittal on Tuesday about whether she planned to impose those cuts unilaterally if the states cannot reach agreement. She emphasized partnership between federal officials and their counterparts in the seven states and Mexico, but repeatedly declined to say how much time the states will have to reach the deal she requested in June. For years, cities and farms have diverted more water from the river than flows through it, depleting its reservoirs and raising questions about how it will be divided as water becomes more scarce. After more than two decades of drought, Arizona, Nevada and Mexico were hit with mandatory cuts for the first time last year. Some of the region’s farmers have been paid to leave their fields fallow, while residents of its growing cities have been subjected to conservation measures such as restrictions on grass lawns. But those efforts thus far haven’t been enough. The water level at Lake Mead, the nation’s largest man-made reservoir, has plummeted so low that it’s currently less than a quarter full and inching dangerously close to a point where not enough water would flow to produce hydropowever at the Hoover Dam on the Nevada-Arizona border. For officials in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, the cuts and the demand for additional reductions present new challenges and unpopular choices. Officials have been reluctant to propose more draconian water rationing measures or limits on development. After putting last year’s burden on the agricultural industry, Arizona officials will have to decide whether to spread this year’s cut to growing cities that rely on the Colorado River, including Scottsdale and Peoria. The two cities get more than half of their water from the Colorado. The cuts are not expected to have a tangible effect on Nevada, which has already implemented the region’s most aggressive conservation policies, including grass bans and rebate programs. Scorching temperatures and less melting snow in the spring have reduced the amount of water flowing from the Rocky Mountains, where the […]

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