New Colorado River rules are coming next week, and states still can’t agree how to share water

Federal water officials say new rules for the Colorado River will be announced next week. Doug Burgum, secretary of the Interior, convened governors from the seven states that share its water for a virtual meeting, perhaps attempting to break the deadlock in negotiations about how to divide the shrinking river.

Talks over the future of the river have been stuck at an impasse for months. Record-breaking drought, supercharged by climate change, has shrunk the river’s supply, and the states that use it cannot agree on how to rein in demand.

Without a seven-state consensus about how to share the pain of water cutbacks, the federal government is expected to release its own plan. Earlier drafts of that plan showed big cutbacks to the amount of water sent to cities in the Phoenix area.

Arizona officials say they are trying to convince Interior to adopt a counterproposal put forth by Arizona, California and Nevada. That proposal still includes significant reductions to the Valley’s water supply, but they are volunteered by Arizona rather than forced by the federal government.

The scale of cuts to Arizona cities is one of the most hotly-anticipated details that will be included when the next water-sharing plan is released in the form of a “Final Environmental Impact Statement” next week.

Federal officials, state negotiators and outside experts generally agree that a seven-state agreement would be far preferable to a federal plan or a deal between the federal government and a smaller group of states. Without seven-state agreement, states may initiate a risky courtroom battle over the river.

Still, recent meetings between state leaders do not appear to have moved the needle toward consensus.

The Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada have put forth a plan with some mandatory cutbacks to rein in demand on the shrinking Colorado River. The Upper Basin states of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico have not agreed to mandatory cutbacks.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs attended the virtual meeting with her counterparts across the Colorado River basin. A spokeswoman for Hobbs declined to comment on the meeting, instead referring to a social media post from the Governor.

“Unreasonable cuts to our Colorado River water allocation are unacceptable,” she wrote. “The Lower Basin has put commonsense, compromise solutions on the table to protect the stability of the system and ensure water security for all Colorado River water users, but we will not accept a plan that puts all of the burden on our states. I remain committed to ongoing negotiations, but also remain steadfast in calling for the Upper Basin to join with us in conserving water to protect the continued stability of the Colorado River.”

A previous meeting of the seven governors, held early this year, also failed to yield a seven-state consensus, causing the states to blow through a federal deadline with no deal and no apparent consequences.