Historic Drought Forces Feds to Withhold Water From States (2)

The Interior Department is turning down the Colorado River’s flow to California, Arizona, and Nevada to protect Lake Powell from the West’s historic, climate change-driven drought.

The Bureau of Reclamation will withhold 480,000 acre-feet of water from Lake Powell in 2022 to prevent the reservoir from dropping so low it can no longer generate electricity, Tanya Trujillo, the Interior Department’s assistant secretary for water and science, told reporters Tuesday.

“We have never taken this step before in the Colorado River Basin,” Trujillo said.

The withheld water—roughly one-quarter of the volume of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee—represents a 6.4% cut to the annual ...