Arizona joins Nevada in suing over the federal plan for the Colorado River
The states say the 10-year plan puts the burden of water cuts on the Lower Basin while upstream states face no mandatory reductions.
Arizona has moved to join a lawsuit challenging the federal government's 10-year plan for operating the Colorado River, arguing that it puts the burden of shortages on Arizona, Nevada and California, Wyatt Myskow reported Friday for Inside Climate News.
The Arizona Department of Water Resources filed a motion to join Nevada's suit against the Interior Department and the Bureau of Reclamation. The plan, finalized in July and starting in 2027, imposes no mandatory cuts on the Upper Basin states. Its first two years would cut Arizona's allocation by 760,000 acre-feet, California's by 440,000 and Nevada's by 50,000, and later Lower Basin cuts could total up to 3 million acre-feet. One acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons.
Tom Buschatzke, the department's director, said the plan "ignores basic elements of the law of the river" and "could effectively dry up" the Central Arizona Project, the canal that supplies Phoenix, Tucson and other communities. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said the state would not accept a "forced federal plan" that shifts the burden onto its residents.
The river serves 35 million to 40 million people in seven states, 30 tribes and two Mexican states. Its natural flow averaged 11.2 million acre-feet a year from 2020 to 2024, down from a historical average of 14.7 million, according to provisional Reclamation data, a decline Inside Climate News attributes to climate change. The 1922 compact that divides the river assumed about 17.5 million acre-feet.
This brief is based on an article published Oct. 16, 2026, by Wyatt Myskow in Inside Climate News. Read the original: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16102026/arizona-joins-colorado-river-lawsuit/
This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by an editor before publication.
