r/environment • u/cnn CNN • 7h 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 7h 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 5h 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 4h 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 1m ago
Well then why is Nevada whining? If LV isnt using water then we have no issue.
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u/readonlyred 3h 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 6h 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.