Negotiators from the seven states along the Colorado River blew past yet another federal deadline over the weekend without reaching a compromise on how to share its water — even as this winter’s dismal snowpack could spell immediate disaster for the river system.
Yearslong discussions about how to split the river’s shrinking water supply, which is relied upon by 40 million people, remained deadlocked as the Saturday deadline for a final deal came and went. It was a deadline set by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The seven basin states are split into two factions that have not agreed on how to divvy up cuts to water supplies in dry years. The Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada lie downstream of Lakes Powell and Mead and rely on releases from those reservoirs for water. The Upper Basin states — Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico — are upstream of the reservoirs and primarily depend on mountain snowpack for their water supplies.
Leaders from each basin pointed fingers at the other as the deadline passed.
Lower Basin negotiators have repeatedly said that Upper Basin states must “share the pain” and take mandatory cuts in dry years, which have become increasingly common in recent decades. But the Upper Basin states say their water users already take cuts every year because their supplies depend on the amount of water available and are not propped up by supplies in Lakes Powell and Mead.
Repeated overuse in the Lower Basin has drained the two reservoirs, they’ve argued.
“We’re being asked to solve a problem we didn’t create with water we don’t have,” Colorado’s negotiator, Becky Mitchell, said in a statement Friday. “The Upper Division’s approach is aligned with hydrologic reality and we’re ready to move forward.”
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said he was disappointed in the state of negotiations, especially after the Upper Basin states recently offered a revised proposal to the Lower Basin.
“The Lower Basin rejected that plan, did not offer an alternate proposal, and walked away from the table before the deadline,” Weiser said in a statement.
The Lower Basin states have put significant cuts to their water supplies on the table but cannot agree to a plan that lacks mandatory cuts in the Upper Basin, Arizona’s negotiator Tom Buschatzke said in a statement. The Lower Basin’s proposals “fell on deaf ears in the Upper Basin,” he said.
“We simply cannot take on the task of saving this precious river system on our own,” Buschatzke said.
As political leaders unleashed a series of pointed statements Friday, the Bureau of Reclamation released new projections that show one of the river system’s major reservoirs could be in peril as soon as this summer.
The bureau’s new projections show that, if drought conditions remain dire, Lake Powell could fall so low by the end of July that water would no longer flow through Glen Canyon Dam’s hydropower system — a level called “dead pool.” Even if snow conditions improve, the reservoir could still reach dead pool in November — a scenario the bureau dubbed its most probable outcome.
The Colorado River District, an agency created by the Colorado legislature that’s based in Glenwood Springs and advocates for Western Slope water needs, said it was disappointing that Lower Basin negotiators walked away from discussions on the day the projections were released.
“With Lake Powell now quickly approaching dead pool, that decision reflects a continued disconnect from hydrologic reality and a clear refusal to confront the core problem: longstanding Lower Basin overuse,” the district said Monday in a statement.
Snowpack across the mountains that feed the Colorado River remained dismal in early February.
Above Lake Powell, snowpack on Feb. 1 sat at 47% of the median recorded for that time of year between 1991 and 2020. The water year — which began Oct. 1 — has so far featured record-setting warmth and limited precipitation, according to the National Weather Service’s Colorado Basin River Forecast Center.
That could translate to water supplies at 38% of normal, according to the center. Current projections show inflow into Lake Powell will total a meager 2.4 million acre-feet — far less than the 7.5 million acre-feet allocated to the Lower Basin in the 1922 Colorado River Compact.
“This winter’s alarmingly low snowpack across Colorado adds an exclamation point to the already dire drought in the Basin,” Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper said in a statement. “If we don’t address this problem together — head-on and fast — our communities, farms, and economies will suffer.”
Federal officials under both the Trump and Biden administrations have repeatedly set deadlines by which the states must find agreement. But now, with only months before the current guidelines expire, time is truly running out.
“We are increasingly concerned that, after more than two years of negotiations, multiple deadlines, and extensive public engagement, the Basin states have still not reached agreement on a Colorado River management framework,” said a new statement issued by a coalition of conservation groups. It includes the Environmental Defense Fund, the Nature Conservancy and Western Resource Advocates.
Federal officials have repeatedly said they will finalize a plan before the Oct. 1 start of the next water year. The Bureau of Reclamation in January published outlines of the plans officials are considering. Public comment on those plans ends March 2.
Without a deal between the states, the bureau will implement its own plan — a move that will likely set off costly litigation that takes years to resolve.
“Colorado is prepared for any litigation, and we will work tirelessly to protect our state’s rights and interests under the Law of the Colorado River,” Weiser said.
Leaders from both the Upper and Lower basins pledged to continue working on a deal.
“We can and we must rise to this occasion,” the governors of the four Upper Basin states, including Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, said in a joint statement.
Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.