Seven western states that rely on the Colorado River are ending the year at an impasse in negotiations to draft new rules to deal with chronic water shortages.
Representatives from California and other states attending an annual Colorado River conference in Las Vegas last week said they were in discussions about long-term plans to reduce water use to prevent the river's reservoirs from reaching critical lows , still stuck.
Disagreements over competing proposals have created a deep divide between two camps: the three states in the river's lower basin – California, Arizona and Nevada – and the four states in the upper river basin – Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico.
Both sides agree to continue trying to reach agreement on how to share cuts in water use after 2026, when current rules expire. But they also say it will be difficult to defuse the standoff.
Last year's negotiations made “zero progress,” said JB Hamby, California's commissioner for the Colorado River. He blamed upper basin states for resisting participation in the cuts, which he said was untenable.
It is worrying that there is a “bigger divide” between the sides, Hamby said. “We’re running out of time and we’re not much closer at this point than we were when we started.”
The Biden administration last month outlined a number of alternatives for the new guidelines that will replace the transitional rules adopted in 2007. In addition to this ongoing federal review process, President-elect Donald Trump's administration will play a role in finding a plan that all seven states can accept.
The standoff has raised the possibility that the states could enter litigation if the differences are not resolved, a path fraught with uncertainty that water managers in both camps say they want to avoid.
The tensions were evident during last week's Colorado River Water Users Assn. Conference in Las Vegas, an event that often features negotiation sessions alongside speeches outlining proposals to reduce demand on the river.
A public disagreement arose over the absence of a meeting of representatives of the seven states at the conference, a closed-door discussion normally scheduled in previous years.
Becky Mitchell, Colorado's top negotiator, said during a public meeting that she had expected representatives from all seven states to meet before the meeting began, but “that did not happen.”
Hamby contradicted her comments in an interview after the conference, saying it was untrue to suggest that the lower basin states had rejected a request for a meeting. Hamby said Mitchell emailed him and others on Dec. 2 asking if they had time to meet on Dec. 3 before the conference started, but he told her that wouldn't work because his flight was later should arrive.
Hamby accused Mitchell of trying to portray representatives from California, Arizona and Nevada as unwilling to talk.
“It was a targeted, last-minute request that was not intended to organize a meeting and then use it as a media release,” Hamby said. “The question arises: Why should we want to talk to them when they are childish antics that increasingly seem to dominate upper pelvic behavior? Rather than focusing on actual issues, how do we play gotcha games in the media that misrepresent each other.”
Mitchell denied that, saying she had emailed hoping all state representatives would meet later in the week, but that didn't happen.
“My intention is to find a way to move forward,” she said. “So I would be willing to meet at any time – via Zoom, telephone, in person, anywhere.”
The Colorado River supplies water to cities from Denver to Los Angeles, 30 Native American tribes, and farmland from the Rocky Mountains to northern Mexico.
The river has long been overcrowded and its reservoirs have declined dramatically since 2000. The river's average flow has shrunk by about 20% since 2000, and scientists estimate that decline is about half that size caused by global warming driven by the burning of fossil fuels and the increase in greenhouse gas emissions.
The decline in runoff is expected to worsen as temperatures rise.
In recent years, states have adopted a series of gradual water conservation plans to prevent reservoirs from reaching dangerously low levels.
California water officials say they have reduced water use by more than 1.2 million acre-feet over the past two years, minimizing the state's use of the Colorado River water supply since the 1940s. Some of these water savings are due to the Biden administration's funding of programs that pay farmers to use them Leave the fields temporarily dry to reduce water consumption.
These efforts have helped conserve water in Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the country. As of this week, the reservoir near Las Vegas is 33% full.
Above the Utah-Arizona border, Lake Powell, the country's second-largest reservoir, is at 38% of capacity.
With negotiations over future water reductions at an impasse, some experts at the conference discussed the possibility of litigation is decided by the US Supreme Court.
Summing up the mood at the meeting in one Article for the news site Aspen JournalismReporter Heather Sackett wrote: “The speakers referred to Dr. Strangelove, The Hunger Games and Alice in Wonderland to convey the dark, darkly dystopian and illusory state of the negotiations.”
Mitchell told the Times in an interview that the tough discussions reflect the difficulty of making substantive adaptive changes when reservoirs are at low levels.
“When you negotiate at or near crisis points within these reservoirs, it becomes increasingly difficult,” Mitchell said.
Still, Mitchell said she was confident negotiators could move forward in the talks.
“I really feel like maybe we should spend some time figuring out where we have common ground and see what we can build on from there,” Mitchell said. “We need to look at what’s on offer and share it.”
The two groups of states have presented completely different proposalsThey disagree on how the triggers for mandatory cuts should be determined and how the cuts should be distributed.
Representatives from California, Arizona and Nevada say the upper-basin proposal is unworkable because lower-basin states would have to bear the burden of the cuts, while the lower-basin proposal would spread the cuts across the entire region if reservoirs are low reach level.
Officials from Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico say they are seeking appropriate cuts. Officials from those states said water users in their region already regularly face serious shortages because they rely largely on snowmelt rather than water releases from reservoirs.
Water managers in upper basin states have recently faced criticism from environmentalists and officials in other states for their actions Plans for new dams and diversions That would take more water out of the river.
Hamby said these plans raise concerns.
“This is not the time to add further stress to an already stressed river that will only get smaller in the future,” Hamby said.
Mitchell said officials in Colorado are developing such projects with the knowledge that their water rights will likely be restricted for many years to come because of limited supplies.
“In many cases, new storage projects will essentially simply help people store water in wet years so they can survive in dry years,” she said. “We have to take advantage of that.”
The river continues to be managed under a legal framework based on the 1922 Colorado River Compact, which divides water among the states.
The 1922 agreement required the four upper basin states to deliver an average of 7.5 million acre-feet annually to California, Arizona and Nevada for 10 years.
Arizona officials have warned These projections show that water deliveries could fall below the required minimum in the coming years, which would allow lower basin states to make a so-called “compact call” and require upper basin states to meet the requirement by raising theirs Reduce water consumption.
Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, demanded $1 million from state leaders this year to prepare for the potential costs of litigation if states fail to reach an agreement.
“We would rather find a way to negotiate,” said Buschatzke. “But the challenge for all seven of us is to create an outcome where we don’t push each other into a corner.”
John Entsminger, Nevada representative and general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said despite the tensions, the situation is not hopeless. He said he continued to have productive one-on-one meetings with officials from other states.
Early next year, Entsminger said, “States need to get back to work and start finding a solution.”