The Department of the Interior has come up with two ideas that would lead to dramatic cuts on the Colorado River. One would divvy up the cuts evenly among states; the other would follow a legal priority system that would benefit the users with the longest-standing rights to the water. The federal government is trying to protect the country’s largest reservoirs from failing after 23 years of drought.

Here & Now‘s Peter O’Dowd reports from Phoenix.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

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