Nearly $1 billion sought by California desert water agencies to save Colorado River
The Biden Administration is finalizing agreements to pay an estimated $1.2 billion in taxpayer dollars to prop up the Colorado River system that provides 40 million people with water. California desert water districts who are entitled to the most river water are vying for nearly $900 million of those funds, according to interviews with key negotiators and funding announcements to date. In exchange, they would leave nearly 1.4 million acre-feet of water in Lake Mead, one of two massive reservoirs along the river. That’s almost half of the nearly trillion gallons that California, Nevada and Arizona officials on Monday told federal authorities they could collectively conserve through 2026. That proposal and related environmental reviews must still be approved by federal officials.
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