As Colorado River reservoirs shrink, Arizona warns of a legal fight

See more from the L.A.Times in Google Search.

Set us as preferred The Trump administration’s plan for dealing with worsening water shortages along the Colorado River is encountering strong opposition from Arizona’s leaders, who are warning they could sue to challenge mandatory water cutbacks that they say would harm their state.A legal fight could end up before the U.S.Supreme Court and further complicate efforts by seven Western states to agree on how to share water from the shrinking river and its reservoirs, which have fallen to record low levels.Arizona laid out its objections in a sharply worded letter to the federal government last week.

It said the Trump administration’s 10-year plan doesn’t adhere to the Colorado River Compact, the 1922 agreement that originally divided the water among the states.Climate & Environment The Trump administration has released a 10-year plan for cutting water use to prop up the Colorado River’s reservoirs, which have fallen to a record low.“Arizona does not accept a framework that gives the federal government the discretion to select from a wide range of alternatives — including catastrophic cuts … every two years for the next decade,” Arizona Department of Water Resources Director Tom Buschatzke said in the letter.The Trump administration’s plan, released July 31, allows for drastic water cuts if they’re deemed necessary, potentially requiring the three downstream states of Arizona, Nevada and California to cut up to 3 million acre-feet per year — as much as 40% of the combined allotments.For the next two years, state officials say, the Trump administration accepted an offer by the three states to reduce what they take from the river by about half that amount.But Buschatzke told the administration that Arizona does not agree to the federal approach for longer than two years and would not accept such large cuts.

He said the state “reserves its rights” to demand the federal government c...