Western states miss key deadline as Colorado River impasse persists
Leaders of seven states announced Friday that there is still no agreement to share the dwindling waters of the Colorado River, a day before the Trump administration’s deadline.
As the river’s depleted reservoirs continue to dwindle, this leaves the Southwest in a quagmire of uncertain consequences.
The stalemate now looks so dire that Trump administration officials should take a step back, abandon the current effort and start all over again, former U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said in an interview with The Times.
Babbitt said he believes it would be a mistake for Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to “try to impose a long-term solution” by ordering major water shutoffs in the Southwest. court battle.
“We need a fresh start,” Babbitt said. “In the absence of unanimous agreement, I believe [the Interior Department] We must renew existing agreements for five years, then start all over again. “We need to scrap the entire process and invent a new one.”
Officials of seven states have attempted to increase reservoir levels by: voluntary water shutoffs and federal payments to farmers who agreed to leave the fields dry for part of the year. But after more than two years of trying to set new long-term rules on water sharing, they are still stuck; The current rules are scheduled to expire at the end of this year.
Similarly, states earlier federal deadline In November.
Interior Ministry officials did not say how they would respond. Agency considering four options An option to take no action was also requested, along with the implementation of cuts from next year.
Babbitt, who served as Secretary of the Interior under President Clinton from 1993 to 2001, said he thought the Trump administration’s options were too narrow and inadequate. They would put the burden of water outages on Arizona, California and Nevada. doesn’t require anything for four other states upriver – Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico.
If no compromise can be reached, Babbitt said, the only reasonable approach is to extend existing water conservation agreements for a few more years while also making a new push for solutions.
He said federal officials “missed the opportunity” to take a strong leadership role and that it was time to reimagine the effort as a “much more inclusive, public, broad” process.
The river provides approx. 35 million people and 5 million acres of farmland from the Rocky Mountains to northern Mexico. California uses more water than any other state but has reduced it significantly in recent years.
The relentless drought exacerbated by climate change since 2000, disrupted the flow of the river and reservoirs are depleted. This winter’s record temperatures and lack of storms have failed the Rocky Mountains very little snow.
Lake Mead, the river’s largest reservoir, is currently 34% full, while Lake Powell is 26% full.
“Our states have saved vast amounts of water in recent years,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a joint address. expression With Katie Hobbs from Arizona and Joe Lombardo from Nevada. “Our position remains firm and fair: all seven basin states should share responsibility for conservation.”
J.B. Hamby, California’s chief negotiator, said states’ positions haven’t changed much in the past two years and reaching a deal will require firm commitments from everyone on cuts.
Officials representing the four Upper Basin states said they had offered a compromise and were ready to resume negotiations. in writing expressionThey emphasized that they were already dealing with severe water shortages and said their downstream neighbors were trying to secure water that “didn’t actually exist.”
