Troubled Waters: Scarcity and the Colorado River battle
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Alex Hager/KJZZA federal plan for the Colorado River means big water cuts for Arizona. The Phoenix and Tucson areas will be hit hard. City leaders say they can keep taps flowing, but solutions will be expensive. -
Mitch Tobin/The Water Desk at the University of Colorado BoulderWidespread cuts and uncertainty could await cities, farms and ranches if a dispute heads to the Supreme Court
About the project:
The Colorado River has entered one of the most consequential periods in its history. As drought, climate change and historically low reservoir levels strain the system, the seven basin states have failed to agree on new rules for sharing the river. The federal government has now stepped in, adopting operating guidelines for 2027 and 2028 that impose major reductions on the Lower Basin states while leaving the Upper Basin without mandatory cuts for now.
Arizona will bear the largest reduction — 760,000 acre-feet annually — while California will lose 440,000 and Nevada 50,000. Together, the Lower Basin will take 1.25 million acre-feet in annual cuts. The federal framework keeps negotiations open for longer-term rules, but it also raises the prospect of deeper reductions and litigation if the states remain divided.
Yet many of the most important decisions are being debated behind closed doors. Top negotiators from the basin states and federal government regularly meet in private, drawing criticism from transparency advocates and tribal leaders who argue that the public deserves a clearer view into decisions that will shape the future of the American West.
Through public records requests and original reporting, this project examines how those decisions are made — and who is left out of the room.
Understanding who actually uses Colorado River water remains surprisingly difficult. After months of analyzing federal data, the Mountain West News Bureau found that agriculture accounts for roughly two-thirds of Colorado River consumption, far more than municipal, industrial and commercial uses.
The series also explores another major consumer that receives far less attention: evaporation, which claims millions of acre-feet of water from reservoirs across the basin each year.
We also examine some of the most consequential questions facing the river's future.
Tribal nations with deep cultural and legal ties to the Colorado River continue to push for greater representation in negotiations that often exclude them.
And as tensions rise between the Upper and Lower Basin states, we investigate whether the growing threat of litigation could ultimately determine the river's future — and whether the Upper Basin's confidence in a courtroom victory is justified.
This is a rare regional look at the river, where transparency, data, Indigenous affairs, climate, agriculture, law and federal policy all intersect around a single question: who yields power over the river? It is the sort of reporting a regional collaboration can do better than any single newsroom acting alone.
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