The West's Climate Mayors call for federal help as Colorado River flows decline

Los Angeles Times

18-06-2025

A group of mayors representing cities across the West is calling for the federal government and state leaders to rally around efforts to help the region address water scarcity as climate change takes a toll on the Colorado River and other vital water sources.
The bipartisan group Climate Mayors outlined a series of proposals for the Trump administration and state governments in a document released this week, saying federal and state involvement and financial support will be essential as cities seek to advance solutions including new infrastructure and water-saving initiatives.
'The Colorado River was allocated in a much wetter time period than now,' said Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, the current chair of Climate Mayors.
'Every part of the river system has been impacted by climate change, and so we need to talk about what's the best way to address those changes, and how to spread the impact most intelligently,' Gallego said in an interview. 'Our group of Western mayors thinks this really needs to be a local, state and federal priority.'
The group urged the federal government to support additional funding for infrastructure projects, including efforts to recycle wastewater and capture stormwater locally, and to maintain funding for various federal water programs.
The mayors noted that drought-related disasters are on the rise. The Colorado River's average flow has declined dramatically since 2000, and research has shown that human-caused climate change is a major contributor.
'This region is facing severe challenges with charting a new future and will need regional collaboration to move forward,' the group said in the document. 'Current water use levels and patterns across all sectors cannot be maintained in the face of increasing water scarcity due to climate change.'
Nearly 350 mayors across the country are part of Climate Mayors. The policy proposals were developed by a Western regional group of mayors and their representatives, among them officials from Los Angeles, Culver City, Irvine and San Diego.
The mayors called for the Interior Department and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to 'ensure sustainable management of the Colorado River system,' saying that ongoing negotiations on new rules for addressing shortages after 2026 'must be based on the concept of permanent and proportionate measures for all sectors of water use.'
The Colorado River provides water for cities from Denver to Los Angeles, as well as 30 Native tribes and farmlands from the Rocky Mountains to northern Mexico.
Representatives of seven states that rely on the river have been negotiating new rules for managing the river after 2026, when the current guidelines expire. But the talks have been at an impasse, as competing proposals have created a rift between the three states in the river's lower basin — California, Arizona and Nevada — and the four states in the river's upper basin — Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico.
Gallego, a Democrat, said water efforts in the Colorado River Basin have largely been bipartisan, and mayors hope to see bipartisan cooperation continue.
'We're very hopeful to see Washington, D.C., make this a big priority,' Gallego said. 'We need to do everything we can to stretch existing supplies further.'
Failing to reach an accord, she said, could lead to 'extensive litigation and a lot of paralysis along the river system.'
The federal government has previously been helpful in providing funds to support water conservation efforts, as well as scientific and legal expertise to help the region manage the river, Gallego said.
The Trump administration has recently cut the staff of the Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees water management in the West.
President Trump has nominated Ted Cooke, who previously led the Central Arizona Project, to be the Bureau of Reclamation's new commissioner.
'I hope he'll work hard to bring all the stakeholders together so that we can get a lot of progress on Colorado River negotiations,' Gallego said.
The federal government declared the Colorado River's first water shortage in 2021. A series of subsequent agreements, supported with federal funds, have helped secure temporary water savings. (Some farmers in California's Imperial Valley, for example, have volunteered to participate in a federally funded program that pays growers who leave some hay fields unwatered for part of the year.)
The meager snowpack in the Rocky Mountains this winter has again shrunk the amount of runoff, increasing the risks the river's depleted reservoirs could decline to critically low levels.
The water level of Lake Powell, on the Utah-Arizona border, now sits at 34% of capacity. Downstream near Las Vegas, Lake Mead is about 31% full.
Presenting their proposals, the Climate Mayors touted the progress of cities including Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas in reducing water use through conservation, recycling water and becoming more locally self-sufficient. Cities have also reduced water use by offering cash rebates to customers who remove thirsty lawns, and by targeting the elimination of purely decorative grass.
While the Colorado River supplies growing cities in Southern California and across the Southwest, agriculture remains the dominant user of the river's water, accounting for about three-fourths of the water that is diverted.
Among their recommendations, the group of mayors called for state leaders to regularly convene representatives of agricultural water agencies, as well as tribes and other entities, to discuss goals and potential solutions.
'We think there is opportunity for collaboration in a variety of areas that allow agriculture to still succeed, but provide opportunities for cities as well,' Gallego said.
Mark Gold, director of water scarcity solutions for the Natural Resources Defense Council, provided advice to the group that prepared the recommendations. He said the substantial reductions in water use that cities have achieved in recent years shows they are 'leading when it comes to sustainable water management, and agriculture is way behind.'
An implicit message behind the cities' proposals, Gold said, is a call for those representing agricultural water agencies to take part in collaborative efforts to address the region's water shortfall.
'Success can't be achieved without agriculture coming up with sustainable, durable solutions,' he said.
It's also important that the federal government begin to play a bigger role to help break the long impasse in the negotiations among the states, Gold said.
'I think anybody who has been a student of what's going on in the Colorado River system would say that the federal government has not been exerting their authority,' he said. 'And that leadership is just hugely important.'
The proposals also underline city leaders' interest in seeing federal funding for water projects not be eliminated, Gold said.
'The transformation to a sustainable water management future is not going to be cheap,' he said, 'and it can't all fall on ratepayers, or you're going to have incredibly difficult affordability problems.'