{"id":468,"date":"2025-09-02T15:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T15:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/?p=468"},"modified":"2025-09-04T10:15:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T10:15:57","slug":"colorado-river-negotiations-will-reach-an-impasse-if-colorado-wont-face-cuts-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/02\/colorado-river-negotiations-will-reach-an-impasse-if-colorado-wont-face-cuts-opinion\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado River negotiations will reach an impasse if Colorado won\u2019t face cuts (Opinion)"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s time to set the record straight regarding the negotiations<\/a> among Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico and Colorado regarding the post-2026 Colorado River operations.<\/p>\n

Amid the backdrop of prolonged drought and declining flows of the Colorado River, the seven states have the unenviable task of balancing the amount of water Mother Nature provides and the stressors related to the use of that water for 40 million people and millions of acres of farmland.<\/p>\n

Discussions among the seven basin states continue, but finding common ground has been extremely challenging.\u00a0 The United States has told the seven basin states that if an agreement is not reached by November 11, 2025, they will move forward with an alternative. The terms and conditions of that alternative have not been disclosed. There is still an opportunity to avoid the path of federally imposed operating guidelines and the legal entanglements that would likely follow.\u00a0 But the clock is ticking.<\/p>\n

However, Arizona, California, Nevada, and our partners in Mexico have not been idle. Over the last decade, we have reduced our water use so that the elevation of Lake Mead, the primary storage reservoir supplying water to our three states and Mexico, is over 100 feet higher because of those water-use reductions. That is over two trillion gallons of water. Arizona\u2019s contribution to that success story? Nearly a trillion gallons of that total entirely on our own.<\/p>\n

Those reductions have been painful, but they have not been enough to sustain the river. Moving forward, all seven states must do more.<\/p>\n

That outcome requires bold thinking, sacrifice, and a willingness to share in protecting the Colorado River by all seven states that benefit from its bounty.\u00a0 The tool to achieve that goal is simple: reduce water use.<\/p>\n

Arizona, California, and Nevada have put forth a Post 2026 operational proposal that requires mandatory, certai,n and verifiable water-use reductions of additional billions of gallons of water by the three Lower Basin states.<\/p>\n

To the contrary, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico have not agreed, nor have they proposed, any mandatory, certain and verifiable reductions in their water use. Not. One. Single. Gallon. Instead, they propose that water-use reductions needed to save the Colorado River come solely from Arizona, California and Nevada.<\/p>\n