CAP and the Arizona Department of Water Resources have been working with other water users in Arizona, California and Nevada, as well as the United States, on a two-year agreement to provide stability to CAP users and the entire Colorado River.
The Record of Decision and two-year Operating Guidelines for the Colorado River released today by the federal government adopt the historic level of conservation proposed by the Lower Basin states that will help stabilize the River for all users through 2028. However, the Record of Decision extends through 2036 and proposes a post-2028 framework for future River operations that violates the Law of the River and authorizes the imposition of disproportionate, unlawful, and intolerable cuts on Arizona and CAP users. The ROD requires no water conservation or cuts from the Upper Basin states – Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Utah – and fails to encourage much needed consensus among the seven Basin states.
The 2026-2028 Operating Guidelines contemplate the execution and incorporation of a Lower Basin states agreement that would conserve at least 3.2 million acre-feet of Lower Basin states’ water through 2028 and may provide the time needed to negotiate a long-term resolution to the River’s future outside protracted litigation. As written, the post-2028 framework described in the Record of Decision includes conditions which CAP will not accept, but there will be time to negotiate that over the next two years.
CAP supports the finalization and implementation of a Lower Basin proposal to provide water certainty for the next two years.
Quote from Brenda Burman, Central Arizona Project General Manager
“Today we also heard from the federal government that our major reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are in crisis. Both lakes are in Arizona, and we want them both healthy for our communities. But the framework presented is flawed. Lake Mead should not be sacrificed to protect Lake Powell or other Upper Basin reservoirs, and every state that relies on the river should be part of the solution. The Colorado River needs to be treated as the system it is.”