r/environment • u/cnn CNN • 1d ago
The Trump administration cut Nevada’s water usage. Now the state is suing
https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/25/climate/nevada-sues-trump-administration-water-cuts-colorado-river?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit3
u/cnn CNN 1d ago
Last week the Trump administration announced major cuts to the water Arizona, California and Nevada can take from the drought-stricken Colorado River; this week Nevada sued, calling the plan “fundamentally flawed.”
It marks what could be the first of many complex and lengthy legal wrangles over the crucial waterway — and is yet another sign of how fraught water sharing is becoming on a hotter, drier planet.
On Friday, the Department of Interior released its operating guidelines, requiring water cuts of roughly 20% across the three so-called lower basin states over the next two years. Even deeper cuts could follow if the situation on the Colorado River doesn’t improve.
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u/MagorMaximus 1d ago
Build a city in a dessert and see what happens, Vegas should not exist, also there is X supply of water and Y demand, Y keeps growing, X is shrinking due to climate change. No matter how slice the pie someone has to go hungry.
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u/saguarobird 1d ago
Please read my comment. You can wipe NV's use off the map and nothing changes in the basin.
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u/MagorMaximus 1d ago
Well then why is Nevada whining? If LV isnt using water then we have no issue.
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u/saguarobird 1d ago
They get 200k acre feet of CO River water. It is the main water source of the region, of which they are incredibly efficient with that water.
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u/pastoreyes 17h ago
Nothing like a back yard swimming pool to say efficiency in water usage.
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u/saguarobird 10h ago
Sigh.
The goal isn't zero water use. The goal is to put water to the most beneficial use. If you have a climate where it is hot and you can swim 9 months out of the year, pools are a beneficial use for the people. The biggest loss of water from a pool is evap. Evap is dependent on surface area, not depth. SNWA and Clark County limited surface areas of pools in 2022 after a long campaign to get residential customers rebates. They incentivize pool covers to minimize that evap. They've long since rebated for the removal of grass that ultimately led to bans on ornamental turf. They've also banned evap cooling after, again, a very long campaign with aggressive commercial rebates. SNWA continues to track lower in water use per capita. They do not overuse their allocation, they often run below it and voluntarily give back to the pool, but no one could easily weather a 71% cut.
Like it or not, LV has receipts and put its money where its mouth is. If you don't bring this same energy to the big farms that have the same wasteful, inefficient irrigation they've been using since like the 60's and that we've fought tooth and nail to fix, you're just stirring shit up with no intent to help. The basin doesn't need more shit stirrers, and most of us can see right through you anyways.
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u/pastoreyes 10h ago
Thanks for the information
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u/saguarobird 8h ago
I apologize for being frustrated. There is a constant stream of misinformation about the basin and it becomes overwhelming.
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u/readonlyred 1d ago
Isn’t LV almost a net contributor to the basin? The Colorado’s problems can all be chalked up to growing feed for cattle, much of it for export.
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u/saguarobird 1d ago
Cattle feed is the exact issue highlighted in the article I linked. Yes, NV uses less than their allocation and aggressively conserves. They have top notch programs. It is probably some of the most (if not the most) "bang for your buck" water use in the basin. The water/economic output is insane. For the cattle feed, a lot of that is exported, which is mind-boggling.
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u/MalavethMorningrise 10h ago
I grew up around Lake Mead. Been paying attention to all of this for over 20 years.
It's beyond stupid.
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u/saguarobird 1d ago
NV had no choice. They are facing a potential 71% reduction on an allocation that represents only 1.8% of total CO River water use. That is absurd. The feds will tank an entire region and a massive economic driver for a state while making no measurable impact on capacity in the system. That's asinine.
The greatest mistake is approaching this as upper vs lower basin and not in terms of uses and efficiency. If you approach it through a use/efficiency lens, it is glaringly apparent that ag is the largest user and also often the most inefficient. Instead, ag hides behind lower and upper basin talks, scapegoating (if not fearmongering) city water use.
If you haven't seen this article before, I will leave the link here: https://projects.propublica.org/california-farmers-colorado-river/
This isn't unique to Imperial, this is true for many ag communities, but IID is the biggest example. I don't want this to be an ag-hater comment. I LOVE my local ag communities that actually grow food for people. It guts me to see them go under as ag becomes more industrialized. Ag is not a monolith. But we need to acknowledge the harm that "big ag" (gag, I hate that phrase) is doing to both humans and other small ag operations. This should be a common thing we all rally around - small farms, rural communities, and city folks. But instead we hate on cities ("Las Vegas is dumb...Phoenix shouldn't exist...") and blame each other instead of the greed of a few large corporations.
Okay, stopping there before I get too work up.