On July 14, 2026, the Metropolitan Water District Board of Directors provided the institutional authorizations needed for Reclamation to implement five coordinated conservation agreements: Metropolitan’s own System Conservation Implementation Agreement (SCIA), amended SCIAs with Imperial Irrigation District (IID) and Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD), and new federal agreements with the Quechan Tribe and Bard Water District.
Metropolitan’s approval was needed for the IID and CVWD agreements because all three parties, along with Palo Verde Irrigation District and the City of Needles, are Section 5 contractors—and Section 5 contractors must unanimously agree to any conservation agreements. For the Quechan and Bard agreements, Metropolitan has seasonal fallowing agreements that entitle the agency to purchase conserved water from those entities, so Metropolitan had to approve forbearance agreements waiving its right to purchase the conserved water from those entities.
These approvals do not create new Metropolitan programs; rather, they enable Reclamation to activate its Lower Colorado conservation tools across multiple contractors and tribes, ensuring that conserved water generated under these agreements can be retained in Lake Mead within the federal accounting framework.