The seven states that depend on the Colorado River have missed a Jan. 31 federal deadline for reaching a regionwide consensus on how to sharply reduce water use, raising the likelihood of more friction as the West grapples with how to take less supplies from the shrinking river. In a bid to sway the process after contentious negotiations reached an impasse, six of the seven states gave the federal government a last-minute proposal outlining possible water cuts to help prevent reservoirs from falling to dangerously low levels, presenting a unified front while leaving out California, which uses the single largest share of the river.
The six states — Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — called their proposal a “consensus-based modeling alternative” that could serve as a framework for negotiating a solution. They submitted the proposal to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation ahead of an end-of-January deadline that federal water officials had set for the states to present a consensus proposal. A large portion of the proposed water cuts would involve accounting for evaporation and other water losses in the river’s Lower Basin, a change that would translate into large reductions for California, and which the state’s water officials have opposed.
Federal officials told the region’s water managers at a mid-December conference that they will weigh immediate options to protect water levels in depleted reservoirs this year, and that the region must be prepared for the river to permanently yield less water because of climate change. Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the country’s two largest reservoirs, are now about three-fourths empty. The river, which supplies cities, farming areas and tribal nations from Wyoming to the U.S.-Mexico border, has been pushed to a breaking point by chronic overuse, years of drought and global warming.
https://www.latimes.com/environment/sto ... iver-waterIn October, the Biden administration announced plans to revise the current rules for dealing with shortages and pursue a new agreement to achieve larger reductions in water use. Interior Department officials have said they will consider alternatives for reductions in their review and may need to significantly reduce the amount of water releases from Glen Canyon Dam, where water levels have been sinking closer to a point at which the dam could no longer generate power. So far, four California water districts — the Imperial Irrigation District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Palo Verde Irrigation District and Coachella Valley Water District — have proposed to reduce water use by up to 400,000 acre-feet per year. That would amount to about 9% of the state’s total water allotment from the river for the next four years, through 2026.
https://archive.ph/7g1Mx
And the battle goes on. The Imperial Valley in CA and the Yuma, AZ area are where winter fresh vegetables come from for the US. They probably have the oldest water rights to the Colorado River water. Arizona vs California is the longest running US Supreme Court case. Besides water, there are a lot of power generating plants on the Colorado River both upper and lower basins, it's a lot bigger than just Hoover Dam.
https://www.usbr.gov/uc/power/