(The Center Square) – Both U.S. senators from Arizona joined those from California and Nevada in a plea to end a federal freeze of $4 billion in water management and conservation for the Colorado River Basin and other Western areas in drought.
The six Democratic senators have criticized Republican President Donald Trump’s day one executive order to end all ongoing Inflation Reduction Act payments in a letter Monday to Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum. This includes the $4 billion for water management.
“The need for this water is more urgent than ever,” read the letter, signed by U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla of California, and Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada.
“This year’s water outlook is dry, with forecasts predicting below-average supply,” the senators wrote. “Project recipients need certainty that the federal funding they were promised – whether formally under contract or not – will be available so they can plan accordingly. Without continued support from Interior, efforts to conserve water and sustain the communities, economies and ecosystems that rely on the Colorado River are in serious jeopardy.”
The Colorado River Basin provides water for over 40 million people, 5.5 million acres of agricultural land and generates hydropower energy in seven states at facilities such as the Glen Canyon and Hoover dams.
But the river has also run about 20% lower in the 21st century than it did in the 20th. It is why the seven Colorado Basin states, including Arizona, Nevada and California, signed a short-term deal in 2024 to use less water in an effort to conserve the valuable resource.
“Representing the Lower Colorado River Basin States, [we] strongly urge the Department of the Interior to ensure that any cuts do not further impact the Bureau of Reclamation,” read the senators’ letter. “Reclamation is already a primarily operational rather than regulatory agency, and staff are indispensable to managing water in the West, where water systems are highly technical, complex and closely coordinated with state, tribal and local authorities.”
But a February memo from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget said the federal government is generally wasteful.
“Tax dollars are being siphoned off to fund unproductive and unnecessary programs that benefit radical interest groups while hurting hard-working American citizens,” read the memo.
No mention was made in the memo of the Lower Colorado River System Conservation and Efficiency Program, which runs much of the effort to conserve Colorado River water usage. But the senators cited the memo as they asked for leniency for water conservation programs.
