SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Starting today, California, Arizona and Nevada will get a lot less water. That's because of new federal rules for the seven states that share the Colorado River. Those states are still scrambling to figure out how they'll bear the pain of those reductions, as KJZZ's Alex Hager reports.
ALEX HAGER, BYLINE: After 20 years under the old rules, the new ones reckon with an uncomfortable reality - there just isn't enough water in the Colorado River to supply the nearly 40 million people who've come to expect it. After years of failed negotiations between the seven states that use the river, the federal government is forcing Arizona, California and Nevada to take about 20% less. But how exactly they'll cut back is still an open question.
TOM BUSCHATZKE: So we want to make sure that all of the water users who are going to be impacted have all of their plans in place to deal with the cuts.
HAGER: That's Tom Buschatzke, Arizona's top water negotiator. His state is hit the hardest by the new cuts. So he's working with allies in California and Nevada on a deal to spread out the pain of the reductions. But even with federal money as an incentive to use less water, getting cities and farms to tighten their belts is easier said than done.
JOHN BERGGREN: That's the real challenge because that's - you're actually talking to people about using less water and getting cut.
HAGER: John Berggren is a researcher with the environmental group Western Resource Advocates.
BERGGREN: The people negotiating these agreements, they reached a kind of high-level agreement of here's what we're willing to do, and then they have to go back and shop it around their state and make sure they can get their water users on board with what they are tentatively agreed to.
HAGER: Also complicating things, Nevada sued the federal government over the new river plans, which slowed down talks about that three-state deal. Another potential lawsuit could complicate things further. Arizona has set aside $9 million to sue other states or the federal government over the river and says it reserves the right to take its water complaints to court. For NPR News, I'm Alex Hager in Phoenix.
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