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“I think the average voter probably thinks of water waste as things like water-slide parks and golf courses and grassy medians in the road,” Larson said. What might qualify as “waste” would also be hard to pin down, he said, because “one person’s waste is another person’s job.”Ĭlimate & Environment Mojave Desert tribes aim to turn a sacred mountain into a national monumentįor centuries, Native Americans have visited Avi Kwa Ame, or Spirit Mountain, to seek religious visions and give thanks for the bounty of the Earth. It’s difficult to say what might qualify as “wasteful” or “antiquated” in any reexamination, but “beneficial use” is a foundational principle in Western water law, with accepted uses enshrined in state laws including categories such as municipal, industrial, irrigation, recreation and mining, among other things, said Rhett Larson, a professor of water law at Arizona State University.īecause most water rights fall under state law, developing a new definition of “beneficial” would be complicated and could lead to lawsuits, Larson said. They include improving water efficiency in agriculture, creating a regional program to help people with the costs of removing grass, and redefining “beneficial use” to eliminate “wasteful and antiquated water use practices.” Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, said in a letter to the federal government this week that Arizona supports various proposals put forth by Nevada. But California, which has more senior water rights, has yet to see reductions under that deal. The Colorado River, long overused to supply farms and cities, has shrunk during a 23-year megadrought that research shows is being intensified by the hotter temperatures unleashed by the burning of fossil fuels.įarmers in parts of Arizona are already dealing with major water cutbacks under a 2019 agreement, and Nevada has also taken cuts. The prospect of some type of federal intervention, though, has become one more factor pushing the states to deliver plans to take less from the river. How the government might wield that authority, or tighten requirements on water use, hasn’t been spelled out. Their plan to reexamine and possibly redefine what constitutes “beneficial use” of water in the three Lower Basin states - California, Arizona and Nevada - could open an avenue to a critical look at how water is used in farming areas and cities.

Though Trujillo and Touton have stressed their interest in collaborating on solutions, they have also laid out plans that could bring additional federal leverage to bear. 26 said that the discussion was productive, and that Assistant Interior Secretary Tanya Trujillo and Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton expressed willingness to work with the states to develop plans for water reductions. Some who attended the closed-door meeting on Aug.

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Though the states haven’t agreed on how to meet federal officials’ goal of drastically reducing the annual water take by 2 million to 4 million acre-feet, the looming risks of near-empty reservoirs are prompting more talks among those who lead water agencies.įederal officials from the Interior Department and the Bureau of Reclamation recently met in Salt Lake City with water managers from the seven states that rely on the Colorado River. Without major reductions, the latest federal projections show growing risks of Lake Mead and Lake Powell approaching “dead pool” levels, where water would no longer pass downstream through the dams.

But state and local water officials say there is widespread agreement on the need to reduce water use next year to address the shortfall. So far, they haven’t publicly revealed how much they may commit to shore up the declining levels of Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir. Managers of districts that rely on the Colorado River have been talking about how much water they may forgo. Reducing the state’s use of the river could involve expanding drought restrictions in cities, increasing incentives for property owners to remove grass, and paying farmers to cut the amount of water they use to irrigate their fields. The water flows to farmlands in the Imperial and Coachella valleys, and to cities from La Quinta to Los Angeles. California water districts are under growing pressure to shoulder substantial water cutbacks as the federal government pushes for urgent solutions to prevent the Colorado River’s badly depleted reservoirs from reaching dangerously low levels.Ĭalifornia has the largest water entitlement of any state on the Colorado River, totaling 4.4 million acre-feet.