LAS VEGAS (AP) — Federal water officials on Wednesday released what they called “necessary steps” for seven states and multiple tribes that use water and hydropower from the Colorado River to meet an August 2026 deadline to decide how to use the waterway. the future must be managed.
“Today we are demonstrating our collective work,” said Camille Calimlim Touton, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, as she outlined four action proposals and one “no action” alternative that she and the Biden administration will leave to the incoming Trump administration – with formal environmental assessments still in preparation. come and only 20 months left to trade.
The announcement offered no recommendation or decision on how to distribute water from the river, which provides electricity to millions of homes and businesses, irrigates vast desert farmlands and reaches kitchen faucets in cities including Denver, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque and Las Vegas. , Phoenix and Los Angeles.
Instead, it provided a brief example of elements from competing proposals submitted last March by three key river stakeholders: the states of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming in the Upper Basin, where most of the water comes from; Lower Basin states California, Arizona and Nevada, which are most dependent on water captured by dams at Lakes Powell and Mead; and more than two dozen Native American tribes with rights to river water.
“They won’t accept any of the proposals,” said Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University. “The federal government has put the components together in a different way … and modeled them to provide near maximum flexibility for continuing negotiations.”
One alternative would be for the government to step in to “protect critical infrastructure,” including dams, and monitor the amount of river water delivered, relying on existing agreements during periods when demand exceeds supply. “But there would be no new delivery and storage mechanisms,” the announcement said.
A second option would add supply and storage for Lake Powell and Lake Mead, along with “federal and non-federal storage” to increase the sustainability and flexibility of the system “through a new approach to distributing” water during shortages.
The third, called “cooperative conservation,” cited a proposal from advocates aimed at managing and measuring water releases from Lake Powell amid “shared contributions to maintain system integrity.”
And a fourth, hybrid proposal includes parts of the Upper and Lower Basin and Tribal Nations plans, the announcement said. It would add supply and storage for Powell and Mead, encourage conservation and water use agreements between customers and “provide tribal and non-tribal entities with the same opportunity to utilize these mechanisms.”
The “no action” option does not meet the purpose of the study but was included because it is required under the National Environmental Policy Act, the announcement said.
The legal agreements on the division of the river will expire in 2026. That means that amid the impacts of climate change and more than two decades of drought, river stakeholders and the federal government have just months to reach an agreement on what to do.
“There’s still a pretty big gap between us,” Tom Buschatzke, Arizona’s top negotiator on the Colorado River, said in a conference call with reporters. He referred to the positions of the Upper Basin and Lower Basin states. Tribes, including the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona, have also relaxed their long-standing water rights.
Buschatzke said he saw “some really positive elements” in the alternatives but needed time to assess them in detail. “I think anything that can be done to make things move faster is a good thing,” he said.
Democratic U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado said in a statement that the alternatives “underscore how serious the situation we face on the Colorado River.”
“The only way forward is a joint seven-state plan to solve the Colorado River crisis without taking it to court,” he said. “Otherwise we’ll see the river dry up while we sue each other.”
Wednesday’s announcement came two weeks after Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris lost the election to Republican former President Donald Trump, and two weeks ahead of a key meeting of stakeholders at Colorado River Water Users Association meetings in Las Vegas .
Kyle Roerink, executive director of the advocacy group Great Basin Water Network, said “snapshots” offered in the announcement “underscore the uncertainty surrounding future river management as a new administration prepares to take office.”
“The river needs basin-wide restrictions, agreements to unite tribes, a moratorium on new dams and diversions, commitments to endangered species and new thinking on aging infrastructure,” he said.
Buschatzke declined to speculate on whether Trump administration officials will pick up where Biden leaves off. But Porter said at the Kyl Center that the announcement “demonstrates an expectation of continuity.”
“The leadership is going to change, but there are a lot of people who have been at this for a long time and who will still be involved in the negotiations and the modeling,” she said.
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Associated Press writer Amy Taxin in Santa Ana, California, contributed.
