Western states are struggling to agree on how to share and conserve water from the dwindling Colorado River. Mandatory cuts are on the table, but some states are advocating for voluntary cuts.
That includes Wyoming, which is considering a new pilot program to ask water rights holders to cut their usage.
“We disagree with any contention that we need to do mandatory reductions,” Wyoming State Engineer Brandon Gebhart said at a Jan. 21 legislative meeting. “But we don't disagree that hydrology is declining and has been in decline for 25 years.”
As drought persists and demands on the Colorado River increase, the lower basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada have pushed for mandatory water cuts in dry years for all states in the basin. That includes upper basin states, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, which have advocated for voluntary cuts.
The seven Colorado River Basin states have been at an impasse for almost two years and risk the federal government stepping in.
Gebhart said voluntary programs are a good compromise.
“A compromise with our sister states avoids uncertain and harmful outcomes from litigation or congressional intervention,” he said.
If state lawmakers pass the voluntary pilot, applications would be open to ranchers and other water users in southwest Wyoming’s Green River Basin, the largest Colorado River tributary.
“I only wish I could sit here before you and tell you that this bill is not needed, but unfortunately that's not the case,” Jim Magagna, executive vice president at the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, told state lawmakers at the Jan. 21 legislative meeting.
Magagna said he supports the voluntary pilot program, as it could encourage water users to send water downstream to those in need.
Wyoming wouldn’t pay users for saving water, but officials hope federal dollars will come through. In the past, money has come through the Upper Basin System Conservation Pilot Program to pay water rights holders for reducing use. The Senate voted last year to reauthorize the program, but the House has yet to vote.
Another upper basin state, Utah, has a similar program, but it’s paying users to conserve water with state funds. In 2025, enrollees got $390 per acre-foot of saved water when they fallowed a field, or stopped planting on and irrigating the land.
Colorado has some municipal programs, and New Mexico has signed agreements with tribes to help conserve water for users downstream.
But lower basin states have said these largely voluntary measures aren’t enough.
“We find it alarming that the Upper Basin States have repeatedly refused to implement any volume of binding, verifiable water supply reductions,” Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs and other state officials wrote in a November letter to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.
They called for a more restrictive plan that includes “measurable and enforceable conservation requirements for the Upper Basin.”
Wyoming lawmakers could sign off on the voluntary program in its upcoming legislative session, which kicks off Feb. 9.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio, KJZZ in Arizona and NPR, with additional support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
