City of Phoenix officials are criticizing the federal government’s plan to share a reduced supply of Colorado River water, saying it puts an undue burden on Arizona.
On Friday, the Bureau of Reclamation finalized a 10-year framework of how to share water between the seven Colorado River basin states as well as 2027-28 operating guidelines. The current agreement of how to share water on the river expires at the end of 2026.
Those guidelines for the next two years states that the three Lower Basin states must reduce their water use by a combined 1.25 million acre-feet of water per year. Arizona will take the brunt of that reduction. The reductions per state will be: