The federal official who oversees Colorado River operations is warning Arizona that its lawsuit over the government's new water plan could leave the state worse off, while one of Arizona's congressmen says the legal fight is needed to keep the state from absorbing more cuts.
Arizona recently signed on to Nevada's court challenge to that plan. On a trip to southern Arizona this past week, U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told ABC15 the case may not survive. "I think that the lawsuit will get tossed out because you can't be injured in theory," he said.
Burgum also noted that, among the seven river states, Arizona's water rights are the most junior, and that handing the allocation question to a court is risky for the state. "The last thing that Arizona should want to do is have a judge decide where the water is going to go," he said.
He said federal officials spent about 20 months trying to broker a deal among the basin states without reaching an agreement, which left the government to write its own plan, and that he remains optimistic a longer-term solution can be found.
Stanton: the fight is about what comes next
U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton, a Democrat, called Gov. Katie Hobbs' decision to join the suit "the right thing to do." He told the station the federal plan trims about 30% of Arizona's share for the coming two years, and that the challenge is mostly about the period after that.
Stanton said the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada are being made to take far more of the cuts than they should, while the Upper Basin states are not under similar mandatory reductions. He pointed to the state's semiconductor plants, which need reliable water, and said the outcome matters for national defense.
