A wet year and major conservation efforts are paying off in the short term for the Colorado River, with California, Arizona and Nevada on track to conserve a record 1 million acre-feet of water or more by the end of 2023, officials announced last week. That is an enormous amount of water: about 325 billion gallons, enough for about 333,000 households for a year. The water will stay in the badly depleted Lake Mead reservoir and not be earmarked for any one supplier to use in the future. … But three California desert water districts are still awaiting federal approvals and taxpayer dollars to implement more conservation measures through 2026, when current guidelines for the river system expire. Environmental reviews have delayed the process, some said, though others say those reviews are vital.

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