Wednesday December 21, 2022
Las Vegas Review-Journal —
The Southern Nevada Water Authority has a plan for how the seven states that rely on the Colorado River can protect Lake Mead and Lake Powell.
But whether the other six states have any interest in backing that plan remains to be seen.
The water authority on Tuesday outlined how it thinks the Colorado River basin states and the federal government can drastically cut back on water use along the dwindling Colorado next year in order to keep water levels at its two major reservoirs from crashing further and threatening putting their ability to deliver water downstream and generate hydropower.
The plan, submitted to the Department of Interior, calls for significant alterations to the current drought guidelines for the river’s two main storage reservoirs and cuts across the basin of more than 2 million acre feet in water use starting next year.