States that use the Colorado River failed to meet a deadline for new guidelines about sharing its water. The river is getting drier due to climate change, and states have been stuck at an impasse in negotiations for nearly two years. That threatens the water supply for nearly 40 million people across seven states.
Federal water managers had imposed a mid-February deadline on negotiators from the seven river states, but they were still unable to set aside their differences.
"The negotiations are extremely frustrating," John Entsminger, Nevada's top water negotiator, told KJZZ.
Under pressure to rein in water use from the shrinking river, states have been split into two groups throughout the talks, which continued as recently as Friday morning.
The Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada are on one side. They agreed to some mandatory cutbacks, but their counterparts in the Upper Basin — Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico — have not.
In a written statement, Arizona's top water negotiator expressed frustration with the process.
"Arizona and its Lower Basin partners have offered numerous, good-faith compromises to the representatives of the Upper Basin states," wrote Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources. "In that time, virtually all of them have been rejected."
If the states can't agree by October, the federal government would likely impose its own water management rules, issuing cutbacks that would likely trigger lawsuits and send states to the Supreme Court. State leaders insist that they want to avoid that outcome, but they are running out of time to avoid a courtroom battle.
The monthslong stalemate boils down to a question of which states should have to bear the pain of cutbacks. Upper Basin states argue that they are forced to live with the ebb and flow of Mother Nature and use less water after dry winters leave their reservoirs depleted. The Lower Basin, they say, does not have to deal with that variability because it relies on legally-required deliveries every year from the Upper Basin.
Their ability to stand firm in that belief rests on a particular interpretation of three words within a legal document written in 1922.
"We're being asked to solve a problem we didn't create with water we don't have," Becky Mitchell, Colorado's top negotiator, wrote in a statement. "The Upper Division's approach is aligned with hydrologic reality and we're ready to move forward."
Forced cutbacks from the federal government would likely be felt deepest in Arizona. The state's water managers are trying to avoid that.
"Through it all," Buschatzke wrote, "These difficult negotiations still reduce to a simple truth: All of those who benefit from the Colorado River's bounty must share in the responsibility to preserve the river's health."
Earlier this week, a group of Republican congressmen from Arizona wrote a letter to the secretary of the Interior asking him to withdraw a draft of federal plans for water cutbacks, arguing that it would "disproportionately reduce Arizona's Colorado River allocation while leaving Upper Basin States largely unaffected."
"The Colorado River system functions best when risks, responsibilities, and necessary reductions are shared equitably," they wrote.
Gene Shawcroft, Utah's top negotiator, said Upper Basin leaders would be shifting their focus to a short-term deal that is focused on protecting reservoirs from dropping dangerously low amid one of the driest winters in decades. In a call with reporters, he said they are not withdrawing from talks, but instead dealing with an immediate crisis.
Also on Friday, federal forecasters with the Bureau of Reclamation presented dire projections for water levels at Lake Powell, which show how limited snowfall this winter will create problems at the nation's second-largest reservoir this summer. Continued dry conditions could send water levels too low to generate hydropower inside Glen Canyon Dam as soon as this July. More optimistic projections only delay that outcome by a few months, but still forecast the potential shutdown of hydroelectric turbines as soon as December 2026.
State leaders said they would stay at the negotiating table going forward, and said the desire to stay out of court would help fuel new rounds of talks.
Arizona's Buschatzke also told KJZZ that players outside of the negotiation room could help compel those inside to reach a deal. He specifically said that governors from the seven river states could get more directly involved.
"Perhaps that's the single best hope that at that level, things might move forward," he said. "I also believe that the constituents across the board — that's farmers, that's cities, that's NGOs, that's river runners, that's the whole gamut of folks who have a stake in the river — I'm hoping that those folks might rise up and put pressure on all of us to find a compromise."
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