Colorado River Basin States As Deeply Divided As Ever While 2026 Deadline Moves Inexorably Closer

The seven states that rely on the Colorado River are deeply divided over how to manage the shrinking water supply in the future. In a meeting on Monday, Arizona’s top water official outlined major differences between the states’ ideas about how to cut back on water use. The states have been split into two camps for months, and do not appear closer to agreement than they did when they released competing water management proposals in March. They are under pressure to agree on a plan before 2026 when the current rules for sharing water expire.

Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, said he still wants and expects the states to find a collaborative solution. “We’ll continue to pursue that as hard as we can,” he said. “But we won’t give up too much to get it.” Buschatzke described the Upper Basin states of Colorado, Utah and New Mexico as unwilling to sacrifice much of their water. “This is a visceral issue between the states,” he said. “It is a giant chasm and it is a bottom line for all three of us, California, Arizona, Nevada.”

Becky Mitchell, Colorado’s top water negotiator, said Lower Basin leaders are trying to “belittle the significance” of the Upper Basin’s “parallel actions”—a series of water-saving practices outside of state-to-state negotiations. “Those parallel actions do not come at a small cost for the Upper Basin,” Mitchell told KUNC on Monday. “These are not minor actions or a pittance, as some would call them, but these are real and meaningful.”

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Under the Lower Basin proposal, water cutbacks would be triggered when the combined amount of water in eight reservoirs across the West falls below a certain threshold. Cutbacks are split into three tiers. In the first two, when reservoir levels are somewhat low, Lower Basin states would be the only ones to take less water. But when combined reservoir levels drop below 38 percent full, both the Lower Basin and Upper Basin would have to take cuts. “We’re committed to working with the other basin states, along with the tribal nations and the Bureau [of Reclamation], towards a collaborative solution,” Mitchell said. “But also at the same time, we’re prepared to defend Colorado’s significant interest in the Colorado River.”

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20112024/colorado-river-states-disagree-on-new-water-rules/