Feds release Colorado River framework for next 10 years

August 5, 2026

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The Trump administration released a long-awaited plan last week for managing declining water flows in the Colorado River. The framework, which was published Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, will govern how the seven states in the Colorado River Basin share the river’s supplies for the next decade.

The Colorado River supplies water and hydropower to 40 million people in the West and irrigates more than 5 million acres of farmland. During the past two decades, unprecedented drought has depleted the river’s flow and threatened to sink reservoir levels below the threshold needed to supply water and electricity to the Lower Basin.

The plan announced by the Trump administration allows the federal government to reassess the operating guidelines that determine the extent of water cuts every two years.

“The Department has a responsibility to ensure the Colorado River system remains reliable and resilient for the millions of Americans, communities and industries that depend on it,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in a statement. “This framework provides the flexibility to respond to changing hydrologic conditions while preserving the opportunity for the Basin States to continue working toward durable, consensus-based solutions.”

The framework could force the Lower Basin states of California, Arizona and Nevada to cut their use of the river’s water by up to 3 million acre-feet a year in the driest conditions.

However, for the next two years, the Trump administration accepted a proposal from the Lower Basin to conserve about half that much—3.2 million acre-feet of water over the two-year period.

Achieving those reductions will require California to conserve at least 440,000 acre-feet of water a year for the next two years.

Supplies from the Colorado River are allocated based on the seniority of each user’s water rights and governed by a compact enacted in 1922.

Under the century-old law, 7.5 million acre-feet of water a year is promised to the Upper Basin, which includes Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. The Lower Basin states of Nevada, Arizona and California are entitled to the same amount, while 1.5 million acre-feet goes to Mexico. That totals 16.5 million acre-feet. But in recent years, drought has reduced flows to a fraction over 12 million acre-feet.

“The proposal responds to a fundamental reality: The Colorado River no longer reliably produces enough water to support all the uses and expectations built around it. That challenge is shared across the Basin, and addressing it requires specific, measurable reductions in water use by every state,” said JB Hamby, president of the Colorado River Commission of California and the state’s lead negotiator.

The stakes are especially high for farmers in California’s Imperial Valley, who are entitled to the largest share of the river and rely on it as their only source of irrigation for half a million acres of farmland.

Farmers in the desert region produce most of the vegetables grown in the U.S. during winter, and they employ a sixth of the local workforce.

Karin Eugenio, who chairs the Imperial Irrigation District’s Board of Directors, said in a statement that the plan announced last week “recognizes that changes as to how shortages are shared must come through voluntary agreements. That respects senior water rights while allowing the states to work together voluntarily when the system needs help.”

Lower Basin negotiators had asked for a commitment from states in the Upper Basin—Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming—that in the most dire circumstances, those states would join the Lower Basin in enforcing cuts.

During the next two years, the federal government is not requiring cuts from the Upper Basin.

“The Lower Basin cannot stabilize the river alone,” Eugenio said. “A shared river requires a shared commitment, and every part of the basin must be actively involved.”

She added that farmers in the Imperial Valley in particular have shouldered much of the water conservation despite having some of the most senior water rights on the river.

“Imperial Valley has stepped up again and again,” Eugenio said. “For decades our farmers have helped protect the system and other Colorado River water users while continuing to grow food to feed the nation and sustain our rural communities.”

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Reprint with credit to California Farm Bureau. For image use, email agalert@cfbf.com