- The Interior Department finalized new operating rules for the Colorado River on August 21, 2026.
- The plan requires the Lower Basin states to cut water use by 1.25 million acre-feet in both 2027 and 2028.
- Arizona faces the deepest cut at 760,000 acre-feet, with California at 440,000 and Nevada at 50,000.
- Lake Powell and Lake Mead recently dropped to their lowest levels on record.
- State and local leaders welcomed the short-term certainty but pressed for a lasting, seven-state deal.
Friday, August 21, 2026 — The federal government charted a new path for the drought-weary Colorado River today. The Department of the Interior signed a set of operating rules for 2027 and 2028, along with a broader 10-year framework that will guide how the river is run for years to come.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum approved the 2027-2028 Operating Guidelines and the Record of Decision
, the formal document that closes out the government’s Post-2026 environmental study of Colorado River operations. Together, the papers lay out how much water will be released from the river’s two giant reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, and how shortages will be shared.
The timing was hard to miss. The combined amount of water held in Lake Powell and Lake Mead has not been this low since before Lake Powell started filling, back when the gates at Glen Canyon Dam closed in 1963. Both reservoirs slipped to record lows in recent weeks.
“Forty million people, millions of acres of farmland and ranchland, industries that power the American West, and some of our nation’s fastest growing metropolitan areas depend on the Colorado River,” Burgum said. He thanked the seven Basin states, thirty Basin tribes, Mexico, and other stakeholders for the feedback and voluntary arrangements that shaped the new rules.
What the New Rules Do.
The cuts and releases in the plan are measured in acre-feet. One acre-foot is enough water to cover an acre of land one foot deep, and water managers use the unit to track very large volumes.
The guidelines set clear standards for how much water leaves Lake Powell each year, based on real conditions on the ground rather than guesswork. A central goal is keeping Lake Powell at or above an elevation of 3,510 feet, meaning the height of the water’s surface above sea level, so that Glen Canyon Dam can keep operating reliably.
For the Lower Basin, the rules call for reductions of 1.25 million acre-feet in each of the next two years. On top of those mandatory cuts, the Lower Basin states are asked to voluntarily save and store at least 700,000 acre-feet more across the two-year span to help protect the system.
The plan reaches upstream, too. The Upper Basin states can enter an agreement to operate three reservoirs above Lake Powell, known as the Upper Initial Units, to help shield Glen Canyon Dam. Those reservoirs are Aspinall in Colorado, Flaming Gorge on the Utah and Wyoming border, and Navajo on the Colorado and New Mexico line.
Other pieces give water users more room to store water during dry stretches, create a federally managed pool to help meet obligations to tribes, and set elevation triggers that call for extra coordination if the reservoirs keep falling.
Reclamation also released its August 2026 24-Month Study, which sets the stage for 2027. Lake Powell will start the water year on October 1 between elevations of 3,540 and 3,510 feet. That places it in what the agency calls the Lower Elevation Infrastructure Protection Range, with an expected yearly release of 6.0 to 7.0 million acre-feet. The final release figure for 2027 will be decided in April. For Lake Mead, deliveries to the Lower Basin will drop by 1.25 million acre-feet in calendar year 2027.
How the Cuts Are Split.
If the Lower Basin states follow through on their proposed sharing plan, the reductions would fall this way each year:
- Arizona would give up 760,000 acre-feet,
- California 440,000 acre-feet, and
- Nevada 50,000 acre-feet.
The 10-year framework does not lock in specific amounts for the whole decade. Instead, it sets an operating range and expects detailed rules to be written in two-year blocks. The approach leaves the door open for the Basin states, tribes, and other stakeholders to reach their own agreements and fold them into future rules.
“These decisions provide a water management strategy for Basin stakeholders to respond to the prolonged drought by incorporating flexible tools and voluntary actions while leaving room for consensus agreements,” said Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Andrea Travnicek.
The federal government has wrestled with this decision for a long time. The environmental review began in June 2023, and a preferred plan was released on July 31, 2026. Interior noted that the wider Basin has endured 26 years of drought, made worse by the lowest snowpack ever recorded during the winter of 2025-2026. The release also stated that since January 2025 the Trump administration has invested more than $3 billion in the Lower Basin. A separate process covering water deliveries to Mexico under the 1944 treaty is nearing completion.
Arizona Responds.
Arizona stands to lose the most water, and its leaders had plenty to say.
Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, said the state and its Lower Basin partners had created “a level of stability” after more than three years of hard talks. He said the framework for years three through ten still worries him, but he credited Interior for spelling out how decisions will be made beyond 2028. That, he said, keeps negotiations alive while preserving Arizona’s ability to protect its legal rights to the river.
Senators Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, both Arizona Democrats, called the plan “much-needed certainty” in a joint statement. They said the rules protect Arizona from even deeper near-term cuts and give the seven states more time to reach a long-term deal. “Arizona and our Lower Basin partners have stepped up with significant conservation commitments, and now every Basin state needs to do its part,” they said.
Representative Greg Stanton, also an Arizona Democrat, was blunter. He said Interior “dragged this process out for years” only to land on nearly the same plan the Lower Basin states offered back in May. Stanton welcomed the two years of stability but warned that a short reprieve is not a fix. He said the threat of “CAP to zero,” a reference to the Central Arizona Project that delivers Colorado River water to Phoenix and Tucson, will loom every two years until a durable deal is reached. He also pointed to Arizona’s role as what he called “America’s semiconductor capital.”
The Central Arizona Project, which carries Colorado River water to Phoenix, Tucson, and other users across the state, offered support mixed with sharp criticism. The agency, which had worked with the Arizona Department of Water Resources and water users in Arizona, California, Nevada, and the federal government on a two-year deal, said the guidelines adopt the historic level of conservation the Lower Basin states proposed and will help steady the river through 2028. It backed that near-term plan, which counts on a Lower Basin agreement to save at least 3.2 million acre-feet through 2028 and could buy time to reach a long-term resolution without a drawn-out court fight. The Project objected, though, to the longer reach of the Record of Decision, which it said extends through 2036 and sets up a post-2028 framework that violates the Law of the River and would force disproportionate and unlawful cuts on Arizona and its users while asking nothing of the Upper Basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Utah. The agency said it will not accept those post-2028 terms as written, but noted there is time to negotiate over the next two years. “Both lakes are in Arizona, and we want them both healthy for our communities,” said Central Arizona Project General Manager Brenda Burman. “But the framework presented is flawed. Lake Mead should not be sacrificed to protect Lake Powell or other Upper Basin reservoirs, and every state that relies on the river should be part of the solution.”
The City of Phoenix struck a cautious note. Mayor Kate Gallego said the federal decision “does not provide the fair, basin-wide leadership the Colorado River crisis demands.” City officials stressed that the ruling does not interrupt service or force mandatory restrictions on Phoenix customers, who can still expect safe, reliable water.
Phoenix leaders explained where the city’s water comes from: about 40 percent from the Colorado River through the Central Arizona Project, roughly 58 percent from the Salt and Verde rivers, and about 2 percent from groundwater. The city thanked California and Nevada for sharing the near-term reductions rather than letting them fall harder on Arizona.
“Phoenix has prepared extensively for reduced Colorado River supplies, and our customers can continue to expect reliable water service,” said Water Services Director Brandy Kelso. “But preparation does not mean we can be complacent.” She said the city will lean on stored water, new supplies, and careful management to balance what it has against what it needs.
California Weighs In.
California leaders framed the decision as a start, not a finish.
Governor Gavin Newsom said the plan is “a necessary step to protect a river that 40 million Americans depend on.” He said California has cut its Colorado River use to the lowest level since 1949 while still growing its economy. Even so, Newsom said the plan offers only short-term stability and that every state must step up for a durable, fair solution.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which brings imported water to communities across Southern California, said the plan calls for 3.2 million acre-feet in contributions from the Lower Basin through 2028. General Manager Shivaji Deshmukh said the rules are “only a first step.” He noted that California’s farm and city water users still must agree on how to share the reductions within the state. Metropolitan said it has cut its use of imported water in half over two decades, from 2.5 million acre-feet a year to about 1.2 million, through storage, conservation, and recycling.
The Imperial Irrigation District, which holds some of the river’s most senior water rights, welcomed the clarity while stressing that the work is far from over. Board Chairwoman Karin Eugenio said the Lower Basin is putting “substantial, measurable water reductions and conservation on the table.” The district said its conservation programs will have saved more than 9.8 million acre-feet since 2003 by the end of the year, including 726,000 acre-feet in 2025, and that its recent efforts have added more than 12 feet of elevation to Lake Mead over the past four years. A separate agreement among California water users will still be needed to carry out the state’s share.
The San Diego County Water Authority said its region is well prepared, thanks to decades of investment in a diversified water supply that includes repurified water. General Manager Dan Denham said the agency stands ready to work with Basin partners on water exchanges and transfers across state lines, serving its 22 member agencies for decades to come.
Farmers and Advocates Sound the Alarm.
Beyond the official statements, the Arizona Farm Bureau offered a pointed look at what the plan means on the ground. Writer Joanna Allhands described the federal action as an effort to “limp the Colorado River through the next 10 years.”
The Farm Bureau noted that the 1.25 million acre-feet the three Lower Basin states must divide is deeper than any cut faced so far, yet far shallower than the 3 million acre-feet annual reduction Reclamation had once proposed. For metro Phoenix and Tucson, the group said, that still points to a projected 14 percent shortage in the Central Arizona Project’s municipal water pool.
The Farm Bureau reported that Governor Katie Hobbs called the harshest possible cut, a 77 percent reduction, “an unacceptable disaster.” Instead, Hobbs said, “we’ve united as a Lower Basin to deliver two years of stability that ensures Arizona families and businesses will have the water they need to thrive.”
Deeper cuts are not off the table, the group warned. Reclamation plans to release 6 to 7 million acre-feet from Lake Powell next year, but could lower that to 5 million acre-feet if the reservoir is forecast to fall below 3,500 feet. The framework allows for up to 3 million acre-feet in mandatory cuts if the seven states cannot agree on another plan. Under that scenario, the Farm Bureau said, Reclamation’s own modeling shows “no potential futures” in which Central Arizona Project cities and industries receive a normal delivery through 2039.
The group also flagged the risk to farms in the Yuma area, which hold higher-priority rights. Those growers could fare better at first, but they might face much deeper cuts starting in 2029, a shift that could take more than 40 percent of Yuma farmland out of production.
Farmers feel the strain of uncertainty most of all. Shawn Wood, the Arizona Farm Bureau’s first vice president, whose family farms near fast-growing Buckeye, said the shifting outlook is already changing how growers plan. “We may not see the impacts yet,” Wood said. “But markets don’t respond well to uncertainty, and neither does agriculture.”
Looking Ahead.
Across the statements, one message came up again and again. The two-year plan buys time, but not a solution. Leaders from Arizona to California pointed to the same next task, a long-term agreement shared fairly among all seven Basin states, before the next dry year forces the question once more.
