MAY 22, 2023:
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Arizona, California and Nevada on Monday (May 22, 2023) proposed a deal to significantly cut their water use from the drought-stricken Colorado River over the next three years. It’s a potential breakthrough in a stalemate over how to deal with a rising problem that pitted Western states against one another. The plan would conserve an additional 3 million acre-feet of water from the 1,450-mile river that provides water to 40 million people in seven U.S. states, parts of Mexico and more than two dozen Native American tribes. Cities, irrigation districts and Native American tribes in the three states will receive federal funding in exchange for temporarily using less water, but officials did not say how much funding individual users in the states would get.
APRIL 7, 2023:
PHOENIX (AP) — A Native American tribe in Arizona has reached a deal with the U.S. government not to use some of its Colorado River water rights in return for $150 million and funding for a pipeline project. The pact was announced Thursday (April 6, 2023) in Phoenix with the Gila River Indian Community. It is being hailed as an example of the kind of cooperation needed to rescue the Colorado River. Officials say the river is crucial to a massive agricultural industry and essential to more than 40 million people. The deal is part of a broader effort to get states that rely on the river to substantially lessen their water use amid an ongoing drought.
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