Arizona has moved to join a lawsuit against the federal government's plan for managing the Colorado River over the next decade. The Arizona Department of Water Resources filed the motion on Friday, according to Inside Climate News. The state contends that the federal operating framework fails to account for basic legal requirements.
The dispute centers on how water from the river will be allocated and reduced as the basin faces persistent drought and dwindling reservoir levels. Arizona maintains that the new federal rules are legally flawed and could unfairly shift burdens onto the state's water users.
This is a single-source report, so there is no independent agreement or disagreement to compare. The lawsuit adds another layer of tension to long-running negotiations among Colorado River basin states over how to share a shrinking water supply.