Amazon pledges $20 million for Colorado River conservation without disclosing basin use

Amazon has committed $20 million to water conservation in the Colorado River Basin through a new effort called the Colorado River Basin Collaborative. The company says the initiative aims to raise $100 million within two years for leak repairs, canal lining and precision irrigation. The basin’s river serves roughly 40 million people and faces federal water-delivery cuts.

Amazon has named two projects, both in the Lower Basin. It plans to spend $2.2 million over three years with the Municipal Water District of Orange County on leak detection and repairs, which it expects to save more than 189 million gallons annually once fully in place. Another $2.4 million will go to Arable for soil-moisture sensors on tribal farmland drawing water from Lake Mead. The project is projected to save about 238 million gallons a year. Amazon told Arizona Public Media it cannot yet name the tribal recipient because water-rights negotiations are ongoing.

The two projects total $4.6 million, about 23% of the pledge. The announcement puts the basin’s annual supply-demand gap at about 1 trillion gallons.

Amazon has not specified how much water it uses in the Colorado River Basin. In June 2026, it disclosed that its data centers withdrew about 2.5 billion gallons worldwide in 2025, while withdrawals at sites it owns and operates fell 2% from 2024. The company says its water usage effectiveness was 0.12 liters per kilowatt-hour and that it is 75% of the way to being water positive. It says it has no water-cooled data centers in the basin, but does not disclose water used by power generation supporting its operations there.