May 7 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Interior said Wednesday it extended more than a dozen contracts with water-rights holders in California and Arizona that aim to boost water funding and conservation efforts in the Colorado River system for its seven western states.
Interior officials say it marked “major progress” with the Bureau of Reclamation in securing a continuation of 18 short-term agreements with tribal, municipal and agricultural water users in the lower Colorado River basin that will, they said, “result in additional water savings” through 2026 and, likewise, secure its short-term health as the region looks to its post-2026 water-use guidelines for Lake Powell and Lake Mead.
Scott Cameron, a senior adviser to U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, said the Trump administration was focused on strengthening the Colorado River system’s drought response and “safeguarding the interests of western communities” for more than 40 million citizens and hydropower fuel resources in its seven states.
The Colorado River flows through the Glen Canyon and Hoover dams to supply hydroelectric power to California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. Years of rising global temps, drought and water overuse have dropped Lake Mead and Lake Powell’s water levels to historic lows.
“The Colorado River is essential to the American West, and Interior and Reclamation is dedicated to delivering life-sustaining water and harnessing the significant hydropower the river offers,” Cameron added Wednesday.
According to the department, the extended agreements were part of a more than three million acre-feet of “system conservation commitments” made by states in the lower basin to bolster water resilience and hydropower on the Colorado River.
Officials said the newly secured short-term agreements with the scores of tribal, municipal and other water users in the Colorado’s lower basin will ultimately result in approximately 321,000 acre-feet in water storage at the Hoover Dam’s drying Lake Mead, which experts say equals to about an extra five feet of much-needed water elevation in the reservoir.
The Biden administration took a number of steps to target conservation and water resilience in the Colorado River water infrastructure, including a $50 million investment in 2023 to improve key water infrastructure in the upper basin, a “historic” $400 million investment in August to pay western U.S. farmers to conserve water amid inter-state agreements on conservation and water-sharing.
It comes on top of Biden’s $850 million infusion of federal dollars in December weeks after the 2024 presidential election to improve water and drought systems in 11 western states.
