California Approves Plan to Reduce Colorado River Water Allocation

The cut would take effect if reservoir capacity dropped below 58 percent. Arizona and Nevada join in the agreement, but upper-basin states have other ideas.

An aerial view of Lake Mead's "bathtub ring," a white band of mineral deposits showing previous water levels, at Hoover Dam on the Nevada-Arizona border on June 28, 2022. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

As the decades-long dispute over Colorado River water continues, three lower basin states revealed an agreement on March 6 to reduce their consumption.

The new proposal submitted to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation details agreements among Arizona, California, and Nevada to decrease water usage by up to 1.5 million acre-feet annually if the Colorado River reservoirs’ capacity drops below 58 percent—a reduction representing roughly 17 percent of the total allocation for the three states in most years.