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Eggscellent lv nevada8/13/2023 Some water savings are expected to come from a longstanding program that provides funding for leaving water in Lake Mead, the reservoir behind Hoover Dam outside Las Vegas.Īlready, the Gila River Indian Community and the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation in metropolitan Phoenix have agreed to cut back their water use in exchange for tens of millions of dollars. Much of the state’s Colorado River supply is delivered through a canal system to dozens of water users that include cities in metropolitan Phoenix and Tucson, Native American tribes, businesses and farms. “I would believe that part of the calculus here for those cities is: ‘Step up here, we do this, and we avoid maybe bigger mandatory cuts,'" said Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources. Water officials in the state declined to confirm the number and said discussions are underway on how cuts to other water-users would be shared. The latest proposal from the three states will affect eight cities that get water through the Central Arizona Project and farms in tribal areas, said Brenda Burman, the entity’s general manager.īased on commitments from Nevada and California, Arizona would accept 1.1 million acre-feet in additional cuts. Under the plan, the district would instead let the federal government buy that water.Īrizona has already endured two years of federally mandated water cuts tied to the level of Lake Mead. The district also typically pays a nearby farming district to fallow land in exchange for about 130,000 acre-feet of water a year. Metropolitan will turn to other sources of water and leave about 250,000 acre-feet in Lake Mead this year, said Bill Hasencamp, the district’s manager of Colorado River resources. The district is benefitting from a winter that battered the state with storms, leaving California awash with water for the first time in several years. That might affect dairy farmers, but farmers, their workforce and consumers wouldn’t see a major hit, he said.Īnother key recipient of river water is the Metropolitan Water District of California, which provides water to 19 million people in six counties, including Los Angeles. The district will work on a pilot program where farmers would turn off their water for 60 days on forage crops like alfalfa to save water during hot summer months, said JB Hamby, a district board member and chair of the Colorado River Board of California. The Imperial Irrigation District, which provides water to the crop-rich Imperial Valley in southeastern California, is the largest single recipient of the river's water. It aims to conserve an additional 1.5 million acre-feet by the end of 2024.Ĭalifornia is entitled to 4.4 million acre-feet of water per year, Arizona to 2.8 million acre-feet and Nevada to 300,000 acre-feet.Ĭalifornia has committed to conserving 1.6 million acre-feet of water under Monday's agreement - which is about half of the total. The plan comes after mandatory and voluntary cuts. The watershed deal broke a stalemate that could have swept the seven states that rely on the river into expensive and lengthy legal fights, though the amount of water offered falls short of what the federal government sought last June. West serves 40 million people with drinking water, as well as water for irrigation and hydropower.
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