SACRAMENTO \u2014 With the clock ticking toward a year-end deadline to rewrite the rules for the Colorado River, the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) announced it will host a public forum next week to discuss the state\u2019s strategy for securing a sustainable water future.<\/p>\n
The webinar, titled \u201cWhat\u2019s Happening on the Colorado River? Securing Water Sustainability across Seven States\u201d is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 28, from noon to 1 p.m. PT. The event comes at a critical juncture: federal officials recently released a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) outlining potential management paths that could see California\u2019s water allocations slashed significantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Colorado River is the lifeblood of the West, supporting 40 million people and the farming communities that feed our nation,\u201d said California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, who will host the discussion. \u201cAs climate change continues to dry the basin, we must find a shared, durable solution that protects our communities and our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
A basin at a breaking point<\/p>\n
The discussion arrives as negotiators from the seven Basin States\u2014California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming\u2014scramble to reach a consensus before the current 20-year management agreement expires in December.<\/p>\n
The challenge is a math problem made worse by a warming planet. The river was originally over-allocated decades ago based on unusually wet years. Today, a 25-year “megadrought” has left the system\u2019s primary reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, at roughly one-third of their capacity.<\/p>\n
California\u2019s stake<\/p>\n
California has a massive stake in the outcome. The state draws 4.4 million acre-feet of water from the river annually, fueling the Southern California economy and the Imperial Valley\u2019s agricultural powerhouse.<\/p>\n
In late 2025, California proposed a framework to conserve 440,000 acre-feet per year, but tension remains high. Some federal alternatives released this month suggest even deeper cuts\u2014up to 3.9 million acre-feet annually\u2014to prevent the system from reaching \u201cDeadpool\u201d levels where water can no longer flow through dams.<\/p>\n
Event details<\/p>\n
The Secretary Speaker Series event will feature Crowfoot and a panel of experts to be announced next week. They will unpack the complexities of the negotiations and what the different federal proposals mean for California residents and farmers.<\/p>\n
The public is encouraged to join the session to learn about the prospects for a seven-state agreement and how the state plans to protect its water rights while adapting to a more arid future.<\/p>\n
The discussion includes California Natural Resources Agency Secretary\u00a0Wade Crowfoot, Department of Water Resources Director\u00a0Karla Nemeth, Department of Water Resources\u00a0State Climatologist\u00a0Michael Anderson, California\u2019s Colorado River Board Chair\u00a0JB Hamby, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California General Manager\u00a0Shivaji Deshmukh, and Coachella Valley Water District\u00a0Assistant General Manager\u00a0Robert Cheng.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO \u2014 With the clock ticking toward a year-end deadline to rewrite the rules for the Colorado River,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,551,1957,3933,13930,8386,7370,445,50171,2268,13922,74769,646],"class_list":["post-151311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-river","tag-earth-sciences","tag-environmental-issues","tag-environmental-science","tag-hydrology","tag-natural-environment","tag-natural-resources","tag-nature","tag-physical-geography","tag-southwestern-north-american-megadrought","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}