Six states that rely on water from the Colorado River Basin recently reached an agreement regarding a model to drastically cut water use in the basin.
Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, and Nevada, “did exactly what we needed,” according to Colorado Senator Michael Bennet.
However, the agreement doesn’t include California, the largest water user from the basin, which plans to release its own water use plan.
In a letter to the Bureau of Reclamation, the six states admitted, “Over the past twenty-plus years, there is simply far less water flowing into the Colorado River system than the amount that leaves it, and that we have effectively run out of storage to deplete.”
The states asked the Bureau of Reclamation to review their proposal as it seeks drought mitigation guidelines.
Bennet says California not joining the effort was disappointing, adding, “For too long, the other six states, and particularly the Upper Basin, have carried the burden of this historic drought.”
