LAS VEGAS — California water officials signed a significant conservation agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on Wednesday, agreeing to enact stronger measures along the Colorado River.
In a series of agreements, hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of water will remain in Lake Mead, instead of going downstream into the massive state. In exchange, the Biden administration is giving California millions of dollars in infrastructure investment for water.
"These agreements will commit more than 1.5 million acre feet to system conservation through 2026 thanks to the historic investments of the Inflation Reduction Act. We’re already seeing the results of these efforts," said U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton.
The agreements with California water officials keep water in Lake Mead and further upstream in Lake Powell, which have seen precipitous declines in recent years. California officials said consumers would not see visible impacts, but it would lead to infrastructure improvements that save water.
"What you see here is a partnership, a commitment to doing the right thing," Adel Hagekhalil, the general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, told FOX 13 News.
The agreements were signed at a meeting of the Colorado River Water Users Association. It's a power summit of all the states, tribes and others with a stake in the mighty river that supplies water to more than 40 million people. The annual conference in Las Vegas becomes the site of negotiations over the Colorado River and who lays claim to water in it.
Upper and lower Colorado River Basin states have meetings and each brings their own concerns to the table.
"We've really had to adapt with living within means in a way that the lower Basin is not accustomed to. They’ve got a big reservoir that sits above them and they’re drawing on that. We conversely don’t have that luxury, and we’re having to reconcile supply and demand naturally. That’s what Mother Nature provides or does not," Amy Haas, the executive director of the Colorado River Authority of Utah, told FOX 13 News.
At Wednesday's meeting, upper Colorado River Basin officials raised issues about lower basin states overconsuming water and what is equitable.
"When we conserve? Oftentimes that's not compensated. Nobody is getting some sort of incentive for living within the means of the river," said Rebecca Mitchell, the Colorado River Commissioner for the state of Colorado.
On Wednesday, she raised her concerns with Touton, who paid a visit to the upper basin states' meeting. Touton responded that lower-basin states have used less and collectively, all have stepped up.
Touton reiterated that in her remarks following the agreement with California.
"This is an all of Basin approach," she told the crowd.
JB Hamby, the Colorado River Commissioner for California, insisted that his state was trying to work constructively. He pointed to the agreement as protecting the river in the near term.
"What these agreements do today is it solves our immediate problems but it also provides us a pathway and an ability to get up to speed for what we need to do in the future, which is living with a future of less water on the Colorado River," he told FOX 13 News.
While no one at this conference is anticipating further cuts like we saw earlier this year, all the states, tribes and the federal government and Mexico are going to start negotiating new agreements for 2026. Each state is already working on their proposals.
"First and foremost? I'd like to see the acknowledgment that climate change is real and that we have to respond to what Mother Nature provides. All of us. Every single one of us," Mitchell said. "I'd also like to see that reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, are operated with some reflection of what is happening with hydrology in real time, so we can say we are responding and protecting the future for all 40 million people, the seven states, 30 tribes, two countries that rely on this system."
The conference continues through Friday.
