Metropolitan briefs its board: stored Colorado River water gets harder to withdraw once Lake Mead nears 1,025 feet
Metropolitan Water District staff walked through the new guidelines: California falls from 4.4 to 3.96 million acre feet, ICS creation is capped at 400,000 acre feet a year, and between elevations 1,025 and 1,000 feet delivery of stored water becomes subject to consultation and can be reduced or denied.
- California 2027 allocation
- 3.96 million AF
- Annual ICS creation cap (CA)
- 400,000 AF
- ICS deliveries, 2026 to 2028
- ≤ 800,000 AF
- Consultation band
- 1,025 to 1,000 ft
What happened
Metropolitan Water District staff briefed the board on what the post-2026 guidelines mean for Southern California. If the Lower Basin implementation agreement is executed, Arizona receives 2.04 million acre feet, California 3.96 million, and Nevada 250,000, reductions of 760,000, 440,000, and 50,000 acre feet respectively, for a Lower Basin total of 6.25 million against the normal 7.5 million.
The briefing also spelled out the limits on Intentionally Created Surplus, the conserved water contractors bank in Lake Mead. California contractors may create up to 400,000 acre feet of ICS annually and accumulate up to 2 million, and total ICS deliveries from January 2026 through December 2028 may not exceed 800,000 acre feet. Without a completed implementation agreement, no new ICS may be created after December 31, 2026. Between Lake Mead elevations 1,025 and 1,000 feet, ICS delivery is possible but subject to consultation and may be reduced or denied if it would push the lake below 1,000 feet.
What it means if you own water here
Water stored in Lake Mead is only as good as the elevation at which you can withdraw it. With Mead at 27 percent and falling, the 1,025 foot line is the number that determines whether banked ICS is a reserve or a stranded asset.
For anyone holding or contemplating storage-based arrangements on the river, the lesson is that the storage vehicle carries its own drought risk on top of the underlying right. Price the withdrawal rules, not just the acre feet.
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