Nevada has sued the federal government over a new plan for managing the shrinking Colorado River, warning that the rules could eventually strip the state of more than 70% of its river allocation and place an extraordinary burden on the Las Vegas region.
The lawsuit was filed Monday by the State of Nevada, the Colorado River Commission of Nevada and the Southern Nevada Water Authority against the Interior Department and Bureau of Reclamation. It challenges a newly finalized federal framework requiring Arizona, California and Nevada — the river’s three Lower Basin states — to make substantial reductions in water use beginning in 2027, while the four Upper Basin states face no mandatory cuts under the plan.
The immediate reductions require the three Lower Basin states to collectively use about 1.25 million fewer acre-feet of Colorado River water annually over the next two years. But Nevada says the longer-term consequences could be far more severe. Under one shortage level outlined in the federal framework, Nevada’s annual reduction could reach 213,556 acre-feet — roughly 71% of the state’s normal 300,000-acre-foot Colorado River entitlement.
That matters enormously to southern Nevada. The Las Vegas Valley relies heavily on water from the Colorado River, while the region contains roughly two-thirds of Nevada’s population and much of its economic activity. Gov. Joe Lombardo said the lawsuit is not about political positioning but the survival of a community central to the state’s economy. Nevada argues that federal officials failed to adequately consider alternatives or fully analyze the economic, environmental and public-health consequences of the new rules.
The legal fight is the latest escalation in a much larger struggle over a river that supplies water to about one in every 10 Americans and supports roughly 15% of U.S. food production. Years of drought, declining reservoir levels and competing demands have left the seven Colorado River states unable to agree on how future shortages should be shared. Nevada is now asking a federal court to declare the government’s plan unlawful and block it until the Interior Department completes a legally sufficient review.
