LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Democratic Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto said federal government cuts from President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could affect upcoming discussions about water rights as Colorado River states, including Nevada, discuss how to share the natural resource.
The states and tribes sharing the river will have to agree on a new compact by August 2026. Current policies that guide river management expire at the beginning of 2027.
The three states that make up the Lower Basin — Nevada, Arizona and California — are fighting a critical war for their rights to water from the river. The future of growing cities is in the balance, along with farms, businesses and everyone else in the Desert Southwest.
The river provides water for 40 million people, and the Biden administration used billions of dollars from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund agreements with California farming districts, water agencies and tribes to use less water and store more in Lake Mead. Billions more went to conservation, environmental and water infrastructure projects.
Cortez Masto said Monday that the sharing agreement should not be handled in court, stressing cuts from DOGE are affecting employees who control the river and work on this issue.
“The fact that they’re laying off all these people in Bureau of Reclamation or the Department of Interior that actually know the history of this and know how to address it,” Cortez Masto said “And then the person who manages the water on the Colorado River at the federal level is the person who is the head of the Bureau of Reclamation and [the Trump administration hasn’t] appointed that person yet.”
The senator has pushed for federal money to recycle water Nevada receives from the compact.
A Feb. 13 letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum argues the Bureau of Reclamation is making a big mistake by refusing to address a known problem with Glen Canyon Dam, which creates the nation’s second-largest reservoir, Lake Powell.
