The Interior Department announced that it will store an additional 321,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mead — enough to raise the reservoir’s water level by 5 feet — through 2026, extending existing conservation agreements with water users in Arizona and California.
The agreements, which Interior said would build on 18 existing deals with tribal, municipal and agricultural water users, come amid negotiations over a long-term operating plan for the drought-stricken Colorado River.
The program will cost more than $128 million, with payments of $400 per each acre-foot of water conserved, according to data provided by the Bureau of Reclamation. An acre-foot of water is equal to about 326,000 gallons, or enough water to support two to three families for a year.
Among the water users with the largest contributions are the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona, which will forgo 70,000 acre-feet of water, and the city of Tucson, Arizona, which will give up 50,000 acre-feet in 2026. Previous agreements had the tribe striking a deal to save nearly 24,000 acre-feet of flows in 2023, and Tucson conserving 110,000 acre-feet of flows between 2023 and 2025.
