Colorado River states reach deal with Biden to protect drought-stricken river

The states along the Colorado River — a vital source of water and electricity for the American West — reached an agreement with the Biden administration on Monday to conserve an unprecedented amount of their water supply in exchange for about $1 billion in federal funding, according to people familiar with the situation.

After nearly a year of negotiations and multiple missed deadlines, the deal amounts to a temporary solution intended to protect the country’s largest reservoirs — Lake Powell and Lake Mead — from dropping to critical levels over the next three years. These reservoirs have fallen dramatically as the warming climate and the past two decades of drought have pared down the river’s natural flow by some 20 percent.

To stabilize the river, the three states that comprise the Lower Basin — California, Arizona, and Nevada — have agreed to voluntarily conserve 3 million acre-feet of water over the next three years, which amounts to 13 percent of these states’ total allocation from the river. The Biden administration has committed to compensating the states for three quarters of the water savings — or 2.3 million acre-feet — which would amount to at least $1 to $1.2 billion in federal funds, the people familiar with the talks said. The money from the Inflation Reduction Act would pay farmers and others who voluntarily forego their supplies.