Why Trump is already worrying the people in charge of the Colorado River

By Ella Nilsen, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump’s first month in office has worried federal and state officials alike tasked with overseeing the West’s all-important water supply.

The Bureau of Reclamation — the federal agency tasked with managing America’s largest dams, including Hoover and Glen Canyon on the Colorado River — is facing as much as a 40% staff cut, although the final number could be lower, three people familiar with the matter told CNN. And the agency still doesn’t have a nominee for the commissioner to lead it.

Trump’s early actions, from staff cuts to directly ordering the US Army Corps of Engineers to open two California dams, have led to concerns over the stability of water management in the region.

The administration’s pause on federal grants for water cuts, which have since been reinstated, threw a wrench into negotiations between seven Western states on how to divvy up a dwindling and overused Colorado River – negotiations managed by Reclamation with critical deadlines approaching.

Internal discussions at Reclamation are now focused on how to protect critical staff who oversee dam safety and hydropower, but agency morale is extremely low, two of the sources said. There is fear that a combination of so-called staff “buyouts” and the firing of probationary employees has already created a “skeleton crew” that could be further winnowed, one person familiar with the discussions told CNN.

Work-related purchases in the Interior Department’s bureaus, including Reclamation, have also been limited to $1, which complicates necessary purchases like oil for dam equipment. An Interior Department spokesperson said Thursday department officials are working to ensure “purchases in support of mission-critical activities continue in a timely manner.”

It’s an example of a blanket cut made across the federal government without consideration for agencies’ needs.

“It’s a lean agency; it’s a very effective agency,” said David Hayes, a former high-ranking Interior Department official under President Barack Obama and White House adviser under President Joe Biden. “It’s the largest wholesaler of water in the world; it’s managing irrigation districts all around the country. It’s not like Washington bureaucracy.”

Reclamation’s senior officials have already faced pressure from the White House. In the first weeks of Trump’s second term, representatives from the Department of Government Efficiency repeatedly demanded the acting head of Reclamation open a major California pump system in late January to release a huge amount of water toward Los Angeles — even though it would have never reached the fire-scarred metropolis, CNN recently reported.

The two DOGE agents even flew to California with the goal of turning the pumps on themselves, in what people familiar with the incident characterized as a stunt for a “photo op.”

Days after that unsuccessful DOGE trip, the White House ordered the US Army Corps to release water from the Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam at Lake Success. Ultimately, 2.2 billion gallons flowed out of the two dams into a dry California lakebed before panicked local water managers and Republican and Democratic California lawmakers beseeched the Army Corps to shut it down.

“I think people noticed it and had a twinge of concern that action was being taken without appreciating the interconnectedness of the system,” said Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University. “The California system is part of a larger 7-state system and it’s best to really understand the linkages before an order to spill water.”

There are fears it could happen again, especially if more federal workers are cut out of various water agencies, two sources familiar with the agency told CNN.

And earlier this month, one of the DOGE representatives who took part in the California trip, Tyler Hassen, was promoted to Interior’s assistant secretary for policy, management and budget, according to an order from Interior Sec. Doug Burgum.

It’s a high-ranking position that gives Hassen power to oversee the budget for Interior and its various bureaus. An Interior Department spokesperson declined to comment on personnel matters.

High stakes negotiations

The Trump administration’s pause on grants in January and early February was seen in Lake Mead: Water levels dropped after one Native tribe’s funding for water conservation dried up.

During Trump’s first few weeks in office, the Arizona-based Gila River Indian Community found its funding had been turned off and spent weeks trying to get the Interior Department to pay out money they were contractually owed for a water-saving project. Unsure of the future of the conservation agreement, the tribe pulled 3.2 billion gallons of its water out of Lake Mead to put back into its own underground storage system.

Mead water levels plummeted, raising alarm bells among Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Arizona, who lobbied Interior to restore federal funding.

Gila River’s funding was reinstated, but the freeze itself “was particularly disturbing to us,” Gila River Gov. Stephen Lewis said in a statement to CNN, adding the length of the funding freeze nearly caused “a rupture in our federal partnership that could have had devastating implications for the entire (Colorado River) Basin.”

The Colorado River water negotiations are complex and take finesse and a willingness to listen carefully, said Hayes, the former Interior official. Continuing to compensate stakeholders for their water cuts will be an important part of continued negotiations, he added.

“It’s not a fish vs. people issue,” he said, referring to Trump’s early executive orders on water. “That grandstanding about, ‘I’m going to solve this water problem’ just like this is a recipe for disaster on the Colorado River.”

A 2026 deadline is looming for the seven states – Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, California, Arizona and Nevada – to renegotiate how much each can draw from the river.

The federal government has played an important role guiding state negotiations and setting deadlines. The new staff cuts could pose logistical challenges to those negotiations, as Reclamation is responsible for monthly reports on water levels at the government’s biggest reservoirs.

Those reports in 2021 and 2022 showed water levels at Mead and Powell dropping precipitously amid a megadrought and helped lead to a hasty deal among the states to cut back on water usage.

Reclamation is “not only the manager of the Colorado system, but they’re functionally the technical experts for the seven states and water users as we try to figure out what the new management guidelines should look like,” said Porter, the Arizona water expert.

But western water users see new Interior Sec. Burgum as someone who “brings an understanding of western natural resources and roll up his sleeves,” Porter noted.

Given the looming cuts at Reclamation and chaos with grant funding, states and water users have been seeking a meeting with Burgum, two people familiar with the effort said.

“It would be good to have clarity on what their plan is,” one source said.

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