Roerink said there is \u201ca failure of leadership\u201d among state and federal officials, and \u201ceverybody else is being left in the dark.\u201d<\/p>\n
Disagreements over how mandatory water cuts should be allotted have created a rift between two camps: the three downstream or lower basin states \u2014 California, Arizona and Nevada \u2014 and the four states in the river\u2019s upper basin \u2014 Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico. State officials have talked publicly about the spat, but much of the debate is happening out of the public eye.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis process is a backroom negotiation,\u201d said Zachary Frankel, executive director of the Utah Rivers Council. \u201cWe need to shift the governance of the Colorado River Basin … back into the halls of democracy so that people can get engaged.\u201d <\/p>\n
Frankel said the limited details that have filtered out of the negotiators\u2019 \u201csecret backrooms\u201d indicate officials are still debating water cuts far smaller than what\u2019s really needed to deal with the current shortage. <\/p>\n
He said the Southwest could face \u201cserious water crashes\u201d soon if the region\u2019s officials don\u2019t act faster to take less from the river.<\/p>\n
The Colorado River provides water for cities from Denver to Los Angeles, 30 Native tribes and farming communities from the Rocky Mountains to northern Mexico.<\/p>\n
It has long been overused, and its reservoirs have declined dramatically amid unrelenting dry conditions since 2000. Research has shown that the warming climate<\/a>, driven largely by the use of fossil fuels, has intensified the long stretch of mostly dry years.<\/p>\n Water overflows Lake Mead into spillways at Hoover Dam in 1983 near Boulder City, Nev. <\/p>\n (Bob Riha Jr. \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n Near Las Vegas, Lake Mead, the nation\u2019s largest reservoir, is now just 32% full.<\/p>\n Upstream from the Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, the country\u2019s second-largest reservoir, is at 29% of capacity.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re using a third too much water. There\u2019s no accountability for the fact that the reservoirs are disappearing,\u201d Frankel said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re not even looking at what the drop in future flows is going to be from climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n California uses more Colorado River water than any other state, and has been reducing water use under a three-year agreement<\/a> adopted in 2023. As part of the water-saving efforts, Imperial Valley farmers are temporarily leaving some fields dry<\/a> in exchange for cash payments.<\/p>\n A large portion of the water is used for agriculture, with much of it going to grow hay for cattle<\/a>, as well as other crops including cotton, lettuce and broccoli. <\/p>\n The main sticking point in the negotiations is how much and when the upper basin states are willing to share in the cuts, said J.B. Hamby, California\u2019s Colorado River commissioner. <\/p>\n \u201cThe river is getting smaller. We need to figure out how to live with less, and the upper basin absolutely must be part of that,\u201d Hamby said in an interview. \u201cWe are running out of time.\u201d<\/p>\n The new rules for dealing with shortages must be adopted before the end of 2026, and federal officials have given the states \u201cseveral milestones\u201d in developing a consensus in the coming months, Hamby said. <\/p>\n \u201cThe clock is ticking,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re still essentially at square one.\u201d<\/p>\n Morning sunlight hits Lone Rock on Lake Powell in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. <\/p>\n (Rebecca Noble\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Federal officials have not said what they will do if the states fail to reach consensus. The impasse has raised the possibility that the states could sue each other, a path riddled with uncertainty that water managers in both camps have said they hope to avoid. <\/p>\n Hamby said he believes solutions lie in a compromise between the upper and lower states, but that will require all of them to stop clinging to \u201ctheir most aggressive and rigid dreamland legal positions.\u201d<\/p>\n Experts have called for urgent measures<\/a> to prevent reservoirs from dropping to critically low levels.<\/p>\n In a study<\/a> published this week in the journal Nature Communications, scientists found that if current policies remain unchanged, in the coming decades, both Lake Powell and Lake Mead will be at risk of reaching \u201cdead pool<\/a>\u201d levels \u2014 water so low it doesn\u2019t reach the intakes and no longer gets through the dams, meaning it doesn\u2019t flow downstream to Nevada, Arizona, California and Mexico. The researchers said a more \u201csustainable policy\u201d will require larger water cutbacks throughout the region. <\/p>\n Federal officials have said they recognize the need to move quickly in coming up with solutions. In August, Scott Cameron, the Interior Department\u2019s acting assistant secretary for water and science, said<\/a> \u201cthe urgency for the seven Colorado River Basin states to reach a consensus agreement has never been clearer. We cannot afford to delay.\u201d<\/p>\n But the coalition of environmental groups raised concerns that federal and state officials are flouting the normal procedures required when making new water rules. <\/p>\n The environmental review began under the Biden administration, which announced several options<\/a> for long-term river management. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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