Colorado River negotiators face new deadline to divvy up water
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Negotiators from seven Western states including New Mexico say they do not want the federal government to force a new Colorado River water-use agreement but have only a short time to reach consensus on their own.
The original Nov. 11 deadline came and went without an update to guidelines established in 2007. Since then, a detailed account of where the river's water is used has been published by the global water education organization Sustainable Waters.
Brian Richter, president of the group, believes the percentage each state receives should be based on a rolling three-year average, which each state can use as it chooses.
"We've got to get away from the fixed-volume allocations that we've been working under," Richter urged. "And instead we need to look at how much water the river is actually delivering each year, and allocations should be based on what's coming down the river."
A combination of growing water demand, long-term drought and climate change has reduced supply from the Colorado River, which serves the needs of 40 million people for everything from crop irrigation to drinking water. So far, upstream states including New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Utah have not found a water-usage compromise with downstream states such as Arizona, California and Nevada.
Western water law is complicated but has historically given farmers and ranchers senior rights to the majority of the river's flow. Richter argued any equitable and lasting solution also must include tribal nations with a stake in the river.
"One very important bit of progress in the last couple of years has been that the Native American tribes have more meaningful engagement now than they have historically," Richter observed.
Because a new long-term operating plan must be in place by next Oct. 1, failure of states to reach a deal on their own by Feb. 14 increases the likelihood the federal government would step in with its own plan.
Last month, lawmakers in Arizona, a lower basin state, submitted a letter to the federal government accusing upper basin states of not taking enough initiative to reduce their water usage.
