Another state to intervene in Nevada’s legal fight with the feds over Lake Mead

Arizona water managers said they will intervene in Nevada’s lawsuit over the federal government’s imposition of Colorado River cuts that could hamstring the West’s fastest-growing economies and most-productive farmlands. Like Nevada, Arizona believes the federal government’s new operating framework ignores basic elements of the law of the river and could result in cuts to the state apportionment that would devastate Arizona’s economy.

Nevada’s water managers say that while near-term cuts over the next two years are doable within its planning, the federal government has asserted it could slash the state’s share of the river by up to 71 percent of its normal allocation some time over the next 10 years. In Arizona, the threat is similarly existential, largely because the Central Arizona Project — which delivers Colorado River water from Lake Havasu to urban centers such as Phoenix and Tucson — holds relatively junior water rights, making its supplies particularly vulnerable to cuts.

Under one management scenario, the federal government has floated a cut of up to 77 percent of available Colorado River water in Arizona. The state makes up the Lower Basin along with Nevada and California. The dilemma facing officials is happening due to harshly declining water availability in the larger basin, with human-caused climate change shifting weather patterns that typically deliver Rocky Mountain snowmelt.

Sources: Las Vegas Review-Journal