Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities


** Lower Basin states reach deal to conserve Colorado River water
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Tuesday, May 23, 2023
Lake Mead at Hoover Dam, October 2021; APK/Wikimedia Commons ([link removed])

The three Colorado River Lower Basin states—Arizona, California, and Nevada—have a ([link removed]) greed to ([link removed]) voluntarily conserve three million acre-feet of water over the next three years, in exchange for $1.2 billion in compensation from the federal government. That amounts to around 13 percent ([link removed]) of the states’ total allocation from the river.

Most of the cuts ([link removed]) , 2.3 million acre-feet, will come from water districts, farm operators, cities, and Native American tribes that have agreed to take less water in order to qualify for federal grants offered under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Arizona, California, and Nevada will decide ([link removed]) where the remaining 700,000 acre-feet of cuts will come from in the coming months. If the states don’t identify those additional cuts, the Interior Department says it will ([link removed]) withhold the water.

The announcement comes just eight days before a deadline set by the federal government for the states to submit comments on an Interior Department proposal ([link removed]) that would have made deep cuts to either California or Arizona's Colorado River water.

But the agreement is not a done deal ([link removed]) . The Interior Department will now analyze it and open it to public comment. There is no timeline yet for that process, but the cuts will likely begin ([link removed]) this year.
Quick hits


** Lower Basin states reach deal to conserve Colorado River water
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New York Times ([link removed]) | Washington Post ([link removed]) | Associated Press ([link removed]) | NPR ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed]) | Los Angeles Times ([link removed]) | CPR News ([link removed])


** Colorado frackers doubled freshwater use during megadrought
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Inside Climate News ([link removed])


** Rusty the wolf developed a taste for livestock, so the government had him killed
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Albuquerque Journal ([link removed])


** Haaland visit sparks hope for monument near the Grand Canyon
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KJZZ ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** The Colorado River is shrinking. See what’s using all the water
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New York Times ([link removed])


** Why Deb Haaland is lambasted by the left and right
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Inside Climate News ([link removed])


** Overhaul federal permitting as part of the debt limit deal? Not as easy as it sounds
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Source NM ([link removed])


** 93-year-old woman and grandson complete journey to all 63 national parks
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CNN ([link removed])
Quote of the day
” Getting outside is getting more complicated for everyday Coloradans, and there are continued looming threats of development and privatization of public lands by polluters and the politicians they fund. That’s why we can no longer wait on Congress to act, or for anti-conservation county commissioners to have a change of heart. President Biden must boldly use the Antiquities Act, one of the most powerful conservation tools a president has, to protect these special places.”
—Kerry Donovan, ([link removed]) former president pro tempore of the Colorado State Senate
Picture this


** New York Times ([link removed])
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The majority of the water in the Colorado River basin—more than one trillion gallons—is used to grow feed for livestock, connecting the region’s water crisis to how much dairy and meat we eat.


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