Climate Colorado River

Arizona, California, and Nevada would take less water from the Colorado River under a federal proposal to stave off a crisis in the river. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation proposal announced Friday spares Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming from facing mandatory cuts for now. But it’s a temporary fix as the states that rely on the river still fight over management of the dwindling resource that powers huge swaths of the Western U.S. Under the plan, the Lower Basin states could face collective cuts up to 3 million acre-feet annually through 2036. That’s about enough water to serve more than 25 million people a year.