The Biden administration is trying to throw a Hail Mary to save the Colorado River before Trump takes over
A new operating plan for the river must be in place by August 2026, a few months before the current agreement expires.
The Colorado River at the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona in June. (Photo credit: Bryan R. Smith/AFP/Getty Images/File via CNN Newsource)
(CNN) — The Biden administration is swimming against the current to get seven Western states to agree to divvy up the Colorado River’s water in a way that would protect the river basin and the West’s largest single water source – and do it before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.
It’s a Hail Mary to save the lifeblood of the West on President Joe Biden’s watch and create a sustainable plan to provide drinking water for tens of millions of people, irrigate America’s crops and power homes and industry in the years to come.
But getting all states and stakeholders to agree in just two months how much water they could be entitled to for decades is extremely doubtful, if not impossible, multiple sources involved in the negotiations told CNN.
The Biden administration’s long-shot goal is the latest move in a water showdown that has simmered for years between states as the West becomes more arid and its water-guzzling population explodes.
Colorado River water flowing through an aqueduct next to a dry alfalfa field in September. (Photo credit: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images/File via CNN Newsource)
Recent winters have brought much-needed rain and snow, and states have conserved billions of gallons of water. Still, scientists warn the basin remains in a downward spiral; rising temperatures have sucked more than 10 trillion gallons of water out of the river system between 2000 and 2021, according to researchers at UCLA.
If an agreement on these complex, territorial negotiations can be pulled off before January 20 (almost a year and a half before they were otherwise set to conclude) it would avoid the spectacle of a Supreme Court battle – a possibility already being dangled by some basin stakeholders.
But after months of disagreement, the seven states that surround the river – plus the surrounding Tribal nations, remain far apart.
“There are not enough drugs in the world for me to get to that position” that a consensus could be reached by late January, one representative of river stakeholders said.
The states are divided into two factions – the upper-basin states Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming and lower-basin states Arizona, California and Nevada – which do not agree on who should bear the brunt of future water cuts if reservoir levels drop.
“We have big issues between us, the upper- and lower-basin states,” Arizona’s top water official Tom Buschatzke told CNN. “I think regardless of whether that can actually be achieved, I believe any progress we can make will carry forward into the next administration.”
A new operating plan for the river must be in place by August 2026, a few months before the current agreement expires.
The federal Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation is leading negotiations and has the authority to come to an agreement on behalf of the lower basin states if none can be reached by the deadline.
On Wednesday, the Biden administration proposed five alternatives for post-2026 river use that would protect water levels and hydroelectricity at lakes Mead and Powell, which generate energy at the Glen Canyon and Hoover dams. Those options will be reviewed by federal officials as part of a formal process while state negotiations continue to play out.
Bike riders pedal past a section of the Colorado River east of Glenwood Springs, Colorado in September. (Photo credit: J Sangosti/The Denver PostGetty Images/File via CNN Newsource)
“We continue to encourage all basin partners to find a consensus agreement that meets the needs of all the river’s users,” White House national climate adviser Ali Zaidi said in a statement.
The source familiar with negotiations told CNN the public release of these alternatives is intended to push the states directionally toward a deal as soon as possible.
But Buschatzke, Arizona’s top water official, said no one from the Biden administration has communicated directly to him they want to get a deal done by the end of Biden’s term.
“We will try to make as much progress as we can in the days that remain in the Biden administration,” he said.
There are also unknowns in the incoming Trump administration. Trump recently named North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as his pick for Interior Secretary but has yet to name a pick for Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner – a lesser-known but critical role that has jurisdiction over the fate of the Colorado River.
The Biden administration “can start that process, and it will be Trump to finish it,” the stakeholder representative said.
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