Contentious negotiations lead water agencies to come up with plan to save Colorado River

(KYMA, KECY/ CNN) - A group of California water agencies have come up with a way to cut water usage in an effort to save the Colorado River amid severe water cuts hitting western states.

On Wednesday, the agencies - which consume a combined 4.4 million acre-feet of the river's water yearly - proposed cutting their annual allotment of river water by around 130 billion gallons.

They said they'll need to use funding opportunities from the recently passed federal climate law, which contained $4 billion in drought relief. It's unclear exactly what they would use that money to do.

In June, an official from the Bureau of Reclamation asked western states to come up with a plan to cut two to four million acre-feet of Colorado River water usage.

Starting in January, Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will be mandated to further reduce their water usage.

So far negotiations for that have been contentious.