Healing a river with eddies of trust

California’s new plan to decrease the water it draws from the Colorado River rests on selfless gestures for the common good.

The Monitor's View

The nations of the world reached a landmark accord this week to phase out the use of fossil fuels in the next quarter century. Another hard-won response to climate change reached the same day shows how they can achieve that goal.

On Wednesday, California announced a plan to cut the amount of water it draws from the Colorado River by 1.6 million acre-feet over the next three years. That is roughly equivalent to the amount of water all of Los Angeles would consume in the same period of time – and half of the combined conservation target set by the Biden administration in May for California, Nevada, and Arizona by 2026.

The California strategy taps federal support: The administration earmarked $1.2 billion to help the three states offset the costs of drawing less water from the river. But its viability rests on a different currency. Comprising 21 separate agreements with local water board and tribal authorities, the plan is a blueprint for cooperation through shared sacrifice and trust-building.

“Less than a year ago, we faced the worst possible consequences of drought and interstate conflict,” said J.B. Hamby, chair of the Colorado River Board of California. “Today, California’s agricultural, urban, and tribal users are banding together.” He called the progress “an incredible turnaround.”

Seven states and 30 tribal nations share rights to the Colorado River under a century-old compact. More than 40 million people depend on it for water, agriculture, and hydropower. Stretching from Wyoming to Mexico, it is so overtapped that it often dries up before it reaches the sea. Hotter, drier weather patterns over the past two decades have made finding a new balance among competing users an existential concern.

Resetting that balance is about more than calculating who gets less. The California plan does do that. But some of the biggest cuts in water consumption included in the plan come through voluntary agreements with communities that once fiercely resisted making concessions. The plan also recognizes the unique role of groups such as tribal nations whose water rights were long ignored. These components reflect a deliberate effort by state water officials like Mr. Hamby to do more listening than mandating.

Humanity is adapting to climate change through a restless embrace of innovation, environmental stewardship, and cooperation. “Old ways of thinking are not going to solve new problems,” Kathryn Sorensen, director of research at Arizona State University’s Kyl Center for Water Policy, told the Los Angeles Times.

The agreements reached this week underscore how trust dissolves division when cooperation is forged through humility and selflessness.