Colorado River shortage triggers 7% Nevada water cut

Nevada will lose 7% of its apportioned water for its 2025 operations in drought-saving measures from the dwindling Colorado River supply, the Bureau of Reclamation announced Thursday.

However, even after the cuts, the state is still using significantly less water than it’s allotted.

“Right now, our community has around a 90,000-acre-foot buffer with our current water use,” said Bronson Mack, a spokesperson for the Southern Nevada Water Authority. “It may sound like a lot, but we’re really going to need that buffer going forward in the years ahead.”

Nevada’s cuts amount to 21,000 acre-feet — an acre-foot of water equals 320,000 gallons, according to the authority. Arizona and Mexico will cut 18% and 5% of their apportionments, respectively. In exchange for the Central Arizona Project, a canal that diverts water from the Colorado River, California’s reductions are being taken on by Arizona, Mack said.

None of the other states that share water from the Colorado were listed in Thursday’s announcement from the Bureau of Reclamation.

The bureau projects that Lake Mead’s water elevation will be around 1,062 feet at the beginning of 2025, 10 feet lower than last January and 13 feet below the shortage trigger.

Due to an unseasonably wet winter in 2023, Lake Mead recently moved down from a “Tier 2” shortage to “Tier 1,” where it will stay for 2025 based on the bureau’s 2024 24-month study.

The Colorado River serves around 40 million people in the United States and Mexico, supplying the United States with 90% of its winter vegetables. Just one of the river’s 17.5 million-acre feet of water flow can supply two households for a year.

Kyle Roerink, the executive director of the Great Basin Water Network conservation advocacy group, told the Sun the cuts announced Thursday were expected and that the water authority was prepared to handle the announced changes.

Instead, he said, Thursday’s decision triggers questions on how the vital resource will be handled in the future.

The current 100-year agreement detailing how the Colorado River’s water is divided is set to expire after 2026. Southern Nevada gets around 90% of its water from the river.

“We’re seeing the Lower Basin already committed to using less and less and less (water). The Upper Basin, as evidenced by the number of proposals, wants to use more and more and more,” Roerink said. “They don’t want to commit to curtailment.”

The Colorado River Basin is divided into two regions: Lower Basin states are Nevada, Arizona and California; Upper Basin states are Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

While he added that Thursday’s cuts were not as painful as they have been in previous years, Roerink said they were a signal that the Colorado River Basin is only a few dry winters away from “being back at the brink.”

In its news release, the Bureau of Reclamation wrote that, despite low reservoir storage in both Lake Powell and Lake Mead, investments have helped stabilize the river “in the near term.”

“The Colorado River System is already showing significant improvements as a result of water savings from the historic investments in conservation and infrastructure improvements through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act,” Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton said in the release.

Touton spoke on those investments at a summit hosted by U.S. Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., on Wednesday at Springs Preserve. A spokesperson for Lee, vice chair of the congressional Colorado River Caucus, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Nevada is a great example of what you practice and what you preach, right?” Touton said at the summit. “A 52% increase in population growth over the last 20 years and the water use has declined by 40%.”

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