Federal officials mandate sharp Colorado River water cuts for California, Nevada, Arizona

Cuts affect 35-40 million people relying on Colorado River water, including dozens of Native American tribes and residents across multiple states and Mexican states dependent on the waterway.

For the first time in a generation, the federal government has imposed emergency water rationing on three Western states drawing from the Colorado River — a waterway that has been quietly failing to meet its promises for over a century. The cuts, totaling 1.25 million acre-feet annually through 2028, are not merely a policy adjustment but a reckoning with a compact signed in 1922 during an unusually wet era that was mistaken for the norm. Thirty-five to forty million people, including dozens of Native American tribes whose claims predate the nation itself, now face the consequences of decades

Federal officials mandate sharp Colorado River water cuts for California, Nevada, Arizona

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