Seven Colorado River states have mere weeks to reach water agreement after long impasse
An agreement would send a clear signal to federal decision-makers about how the basin wants to manage its water future. But for months, basin states have been at odds.
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SOUTHERN UTE RESERVATION — Colorado River states have weeks remaining to resolve deep divides over how to manage the river for years to come, officials at a water conference in southwestern Colorado said Friday.
“We have a real ticking-clock problem in this basin right now,” Chuck Cullom, executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission, told an audience of almost 200 water experts, ranchers, water managers and others gathered Friday for the Southwestern Water Conservation District’s annual seminar. “Folks are working hard.”
Basin officials must submit a joint management proposal by May for it to be considered in the larger federal process that will decide how the river is managed. A seven-state agreement would send a clear signal to federal decision-makers about how the basin wants to manage its own water future. But for months, basin state officials at the center of negotiations have been at odds.
These state meetings have resumed in earnest, and the seven basin states have been meeting about every two weeks since January, Cullom said.
The current river management agreement lapses fully in September 2026, and there are many steps left in a larger federal process before a new management plan is finalized. If the states can reach an agreement by May, then the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation can consider the proposal as part of its longer process.
That process aims to identify different ways to manage the river’s key reservoirs, like lakes Mead and Powell, share water cuts, assess environmental impacts and more for years to come.
Lakes Mead and Powell make up about 92% of the total reservoir capacity for the basin. The reservoirs’ water levels dropped to historic lows in recent years, threatening a vital storage system that helps pace the flow of water for 40 million people across the West.
If the seven basin states cannot come to consensus, they will forfeit a chance to have a strong, united voice in their own water future. Without a basinwide proposal, the federal government will move forward with its own management options based on a variety of proposals, letters, climate models and more.
Without a basin states’ agreement, the federal government’s approach will lead to significant cuts in the Lower Basin states — Arizona, California and Nevada, Cullom said, based on a report from the Bureau of Reclamation.
With or without basin state consensus, the Bureau of Reclamation does not plan to continue its current management approach, which would run the system “into the mud” according to the federal analysis, Cullom said.
The Bureau of Reclamation has already outlined five “Franken-alternatives,” as Cullom described them, which combine facets of various proposals, including those submitted by tribal nations, environmental groups, the Upper Basin states — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — and the Lower Basin states.
All of the federal alternatives aim to avoid the chance that water levels in lakes Mead and Powell would drop so low that the reservoirs’ dams could not generate hydropower, Cullom said.
Some Lower Basin officials called in February for a new review of the future management options, saying their proposal was not adequately considered by former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Their proposal includes larger cuts in the Upper Basin than officials in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming want to see.
Cullom, who works with the Upper Basin states, said that century-old water agreements allocated water to the Upper Basin so it would be able to grow long into its future.
“For someone to come and tell you, ‘You need to shrink,’ would be antithetical, anathema to what you were promised in 1922,” Cullom said, referring to the 1922 Colorado River Compact, which outlined water sharing in the basin. “The Lower Basin has achieved its full use — some would argue maybe a skosh more. … But you all have not.”
Regardless of the outcome of the state negotiations, officials agree new Colorado River management rules must be finalized by August 2026 so they can be used starting in October 2026, Cullom said.
These state negotiations are only one part of the larger Colorado River conversation. Mexico-U.S. negotiations over Colorado River water are being held through a separate process.
The Trump administration is making unprecedented moves in Colorado River relations with Mexico. This month, the administration denied a special request to deliver Colorado River water to the city of Tijuana for the first time in 81 years because Mexico is behind on water owed to the U.S. from the Rio Grande River under a 1944 treaty, according to news reports.
Thirty tribal nations have a stake in the Colorado River’s future and are advocating for their own water rights, usage and priorities in proposals and letters to the federal government.
Alongside the basin’s increasingly complex challenges is an opportunity for innovation, Melvin Baker, chairman of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, said during Friday’s symposium.
“You’re all here today to work together, to strategize, to think about things because not one person just has the right answer,” he said. “It takes many minds to make sure we’re doing the best with what we have.”
Chairman Manuel Heart of the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe called for people to take action. Funding is on hold. Change is inevitable, he said. People in southwestern Colorado should come together as partners to advocate for the needs of the Colorado River Basin.
At a conference like this, we need some action items, he said Friday.
“How do we really educate our legislators? How do we really educate this administration to look at our needs here in the Colorado River Basin?” Heart said. “I’m concerned. I’m trying to look out for the future.”
