CARLSBAD, Calif. — San Diego could sell some of its rights to Colorado River water to Arizona and Nevada under a deal struck Wednesday that could help parched inland states fill a widening gap between water supply and demand.
The San Diego County Water Authority now has a water surplus thanks to a desalination plant the utility opened a decade ago after facing shortages of its own. Water wouldn’t physically move inland, but the utility wouldn’t draw as much from the river as it’s entitled to.
The deal is the first large-scale water trade between states with claims on the Colorado River — which officials said was urgently needed in light of shortages that are threatening a system of reservoirs and dams that provides water to 40 million people and 5.5 million acres of farmland across the West. Before Wednesday, the complex set of laws and court rulings that govern the use of the river’s water included no legal or practical mechanism for such swaps…