6 western States Plan for Water Use But No California
Six Western states that rely on water from the Colorado River have agreed on a model to dramatically cut water use in the basin. California is the holdout. The state has the largest allocation of water from the river that serves 40 million people and a $5 billion-a-year agricultural industry. States missed a mid-August deadline to heed the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's call to conserve 2 million to 4 million acre-feet. They regrouped to reach consensus by the end of January. The outline will factor into a larger proposal on how to operate the two largest dams on the river. California didn't sign on to Monday's plan, but says it intends to release its own proposal.