"Building Resilience: Saving the Colorado River One Acre-Foot at a Time"

The Upper Basin states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming are implementing the System Conservation Pilot Program to save water in the Colorado River. The program, fueled by a $125 million appropriation from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, has resulted in 64 projects across the four states, saving about 38,000 acre-feet of water. The voluntary program compensates farmers and ranchers for reducing their consumptive use of water through methods such as fallowing fields, split growing seasons, or switching to less water-intensive crops. The goal is to save between 2 million and 4 million acre-feet of water for the ailing river, which supplies water to 40 million people and irrigates millions of acres of farmland.