Nevada files suit over Colorado River plan

Nevada filed suit against the Interior Department and Bureau of Reclamation on Monday, three days after the federal government released a Colorado River operating plan the state calls arbitrary. The plan could cut Nevada's water allocation by over 210,000 acre-feet — about 71% of its entitlement — water that makes up 90% of usage in the Las Vegas Valley.

Nevada argues the plan's environmental impact statement ignored economic and public-safety consequences, violating the Administrative Procedure Act, NEPA, and the Law of the River. The state notes it reduced water use from 325,000 to under 200,000 acre-feet annually since 2002 despite adding 875,000 residents, and has banked over 2.2 million acre-feet in storage, including 900,000 in Lake Mead.

The lower-basin states of Nevada, California, and Arizona had proposed an alternative plan they say better complied with existing law, but the federal government rejected it. Nevada wants a judge to halt the plan's implementation and vacate both it and the underlying environmental review.

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