Arizona water experts explain coming Colorado River cuts [Video]

The seven states that rely on the Colorado River failed to come to a water-cut consensus. Here’s the plan the Bureau of Reclamation has been teasing for months.

ARIZONA, USA — Arizona is poised to take the fall for the Colorado River’s dwindling water levels, but how much hurt the state has to bear depends on which cuts federal officials choose to make.

For months, the U.S. government has been telling Arizona and the other six states that rely on the Colorado River (California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming) to cut 2 million acre-feet of water use.

An acre-foot is about as much water as three households use in a year, give or take.

The implied threat: that the feds would do it for them if no agreement came.

The U.S. Department of the Interior on Tuesday morning unveiled its plans to make those cuts itself.

There are three options the department can consider:

Do nothing: The states would continue operating under …