Amid Tense Negotiations Over the Colorado River’s Future, Arizona Mayors Unite Against ‘Threat’ to State’s Water – Inside Climate News

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—Arizona mayors, from major metropolises to rural agriculture communities, came together Wednesday to announce a new coalition focused on protecting the state’s share of the Colorado River and the canal system built to deliver the water in the face of looming cuts to that share. 

They also acted, they said, in response to increasingly tense negotiations among Southwestern states over the river’s future. 

Colorado River water has enabled Arizona to flourish, with a 336-mile canal system, the Central Arizona Project (CAP), delivering water far from the river’s shores to the state’s most populated areas. But over 20 years of drought has left the river in dire conditions, with the state bearing the brunt of cuts to preserve it. 

The seven states that take Colorado River water are divided into two factions engaged in conversations about its future and how cutbacks should be distributed. 

“Two decades of drought over allocation and the unwillingness of some to protect its future have put immense pressure on the Colorado River system,” said Brenda Burman, general manager of CAP and the former commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency overseeing the Colorado River. She was speaking at a press conference Wednesday announcing the new group, the Coalition for Protecting Arizona’s Lifeline. 

“Any dramatic reallocation of Colorado River water that CAP delivers will present a threat to Arizona,” she said. “Protecting our share of the river means protecting the investments we have made over generations and ensuring our children and grandchildren secure their water future. These are the foundation of our desert communities.”

The Colorado River is the lifeblood of the Southwest. It carves a path from Wyoming to Mexico, supplying seven states, 30 tribes and 40 million people with water while irrigating some of the country’s most vital and productive agricultural areas and powering the U.S.’s largest hydroelectric dams. 

But for over 20 years, the region has undergone aridification because of climate change. The mountain snowpack that feeds the river, turning into runoff in the spring, has decreased, shrinking the river. On top of that, the river is overallocated, with shares dictated by a century-old compact that overestimated how much water went down the river on average. 

Creating new guidelines for the river has been the goal of the Bureau of Reclamation and the seven states for years. But doing so has proven challenging. The states have divided into two camps—the Lower Basin, made up of Arizona, California and Nevada, the river’s biggest users due to their population and agricultural production, and the Upper Basin of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, which historically have not relied on reservoirs for water but the flow of the river itself and for years have taken “involuntary cuts.” 

The Upper Basin has argued the other side should make the cuts since they use more of the river, while the Lower Basin has said all users should make sacrifices. 

“We’re focused on fairness and equity on this river. … Arizonans have taken deep cuts already,” Burman said. “We have felt real pain. We have stepped up to the table to create extra conservation to help Lake Mead. Some of our partners in California and Nevada, even Mexico, have added and created water to help balance Lake Mead. What we’re asking is that this be something that we all step up and do. If you rely on the Colorado River, you should be willing to put something on the table to help the Colorado River.”

The current guidelines are set to expire at the end of 2026, and new ones must be in place by then. Though the negotiations have been fraught—Arizona’s top water negotiator was even worried it may lead to litigation—tensions have eased this summer as the states come closer to a plan that would be based on a three-year rolling average of the natural flow, or how much would head south if humans didn’t dam and divert it, KUNC reported in June.

“Absent an agreement, we’re worried about what that means, if everyone goes into their corners and starts coming up with their best legal argument” for how they think the river should be managed, said Haley Paul, the Arizona policy director for Audubon Southwest.

It’s a sentiment seemingly shared by federal officials, with the Department of the Interior’s acting assistant secretary for water and science, Scott Cameron, saying in a recent statement that “we cannot afford to delay” reaching a consensus among the states. 

Just last week, the Bureau of Reclamation announced cuts on the river would continue into next year. In 2026, the river will again be in what are known as Tier 1 shortages, with Arizona and Nevada facing cuts. Arizona’s will amount to roughly 18 percent, or 512,000 acre-feet. One acre foot is enough water for two to three households in Arizona for a year. 

The cuts are determined by water elevation levels at Lakes Powell and Mead, the nation and river’s two largest reservoirs. Those conditions were first met in 2021 after years of dwindling levels at the lakes, and have remained there or worse since. The Bureau of Reclamation expects water levels at Lake Powell to only be 27 percent full next year. 

“This underscores the importance of immediate action to secure the future of the Colorado River,” said Reclamation’s acting commissioner, David Palumbo, in a press release about the numbers. “We must develop new, sustainable operating guidelines that are robust enough to withstand ongoing drought and poor runoff conditions to ensure water security for more than 40 million people who rely on this vital resource.”

The new Arizona coalition is made up of more than 20 Arizona municipalities and CAP, the canal operator that serves agricultural areas, industrial users and tribal communities. The coalition, they said, formed in part due to the fact that others, like the Upper Basin and agricultural users across the states, historically have more united fronts on Colorado River issues, and Arizona cities wanted to change that. 

Local leaders at the press conference said they have cut water usage, with cities today using less water per capita and in total than they did in the 1950s, when the population was far smaller, while also investing billions of dollars in water infrastructure like CAP and water reclamation facilities. 

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said the river is overburdened, and all users have to work together to protect it, especially in Arizona. 

“Phoenix got its name from the mythical bird that rose from the ashes,” Gallego said. “In our case, the folks who named us named it for rising from the ashes of canal infrastructure built by Native American communities who came before us. Water infrastructure is in our DNA, here by necessity, and it’s ingrained in our culture and heritage. This coalition will take part in an all-sectors approach to rebalance the Colorado River system.”