Environmental groups are calling for the Trump administration to exercise federal authority to curb wasteful water use to address chronic water shortages in the Colorado River.
In a petition filed Tuesday, the Natural Resources Defense Council and nine other groups called for the U.S. Burial Service to enforce federal regulations provisions that state that water delivery in California, Arizona and Nevada “does not exceed what is reasonably necessary for beneficial use.”
The petition aims to waste water practices in agriculture, which accounts for about three-quarters of water detours from the Colorado River, said Mark Gold, director of Water Rare Solutions on the Council.
“There’s definitely room for improvement in the agricultural sector,” Gold said. He says an example of waste is growing water-intensive crops such as hay because they irrigate farms all year round in the desert.
Alfalfa and other types of hay are used to feed cattle and other livestock and have been increasing in recent years in China, Saudi Arabia and other countries.
“The export of these water-intensive crops is similar to exporting water itself, a urgently needed resource within the country,” the environmental group leader wrote in the petition. They added that much of Southern California’s farmland, which relies on the waters of the Colorado River, is “fully or partially irrigated via flood irrigation, and uses much more water than drip and sprinkler irrigation.”
Farmers and managers of agricultural water agencies, such as California’s Imperial Irrigation District, are taking part in water saving programs. Growers say they are willing to move to a more water-efficient irrigation system to free up water and increase the level of the reservoir as long as they are paid as long as they are sufficient to set up bills.
However, farmers also point out that in many regions, they retain water rights that go back to more than a century, resulting in higher priorities for allocation and reduction. And many farmers say they are against schemes that government agencies may try to direct which crops to plant.
The leaders of the group that filed the petition – Los Angeles waterkeeper, Orange County Coastkeeper and Utah Rivers Council, suggested that the government should consider wasteful water use in cities and industries.
They pointed to urban purely decorative grass watering and “inefficient industrial processes that use more water than necessary for an outdated evaporative cooling system.”
The Colorado River provides water to cities from Denver to Los Angeles, 30 native tribes and agricultural communities from the Rocky Mountains to northern Mexico.
The gold, known as the “beneficial use” clause, is called “a very important tool to ensure a sustainable future for the Colorado River, and the 40 million people who rely on it.”
“The Department of Reclamation has the authority and obligation to stop waste and to protect this valuable resource,” he said.
The river has been in use for a long time, and its reservoirs have declined dramatically in the persistent arid conditions since 2000. The average river flow has shrunk by about 20% since 2000, and scientists estimate that about half of that decline was caused by global warming driven by the burning of fossil fuels.
Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the river’s two largest reservoirs, are both 33%.
Seven states relying on rivers are putting pressure on them to negotiate new rules to address the shortage since 2026, when current rules expired. However, these talks are at a dead end, with persistent disagreements against representatives from three states in the lower basin of the river, four states in California, Arizona and Nevada, and four states in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico.
Some water managers and experts have previously suggested that the federal government should ensure the required water reduction by laying definitions that separate “beneficial” water use from “irrational” water waste. The environmental group’s legal petition is considered to be the first such attempt to force federal officials to act on their powers.
“Colorado River levels are declining due to climate change, and this trend is expected to last and worsen,” the Environmental Group said in the petition, adding that unless the federal government changes its approach to California, Arizona and Nevada, regulations will apply and “increasing supply and demand will lead to a severe crisis.”
Much of the Colorado River water is used for farming. In a study published last year, researchers found that crops raised by alfalfa and other cattle consume 46% of the water decoupled from the river, accounting for almost two-thirds of agricultural water use. The study found that agriculture is the dominant user of the Colorado River water, accounting for 74% of the water being diverted.
The petition focuses on federal regulations entitled Part 417. This calls for a landfill office to ensure that water delivery in the three lower basin conditions “does not exceed what is reasonably necessary for beneficial use.”
“Our findings are that the department is not complying with this requirement,” said Cara Horowitz, director of UCLA’s Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic.
“We hope that the department sees the urgency to improve its water supply process, especially given how limited our supply is, to avoid wasting water on the Colorado River,” Horowitz said in an email. “But if not, we are ready to consider the next step, including litigation.”
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