Western states miss key deadline as Colorado River impasse persists

The leaders of seven states announced Friday, one day before a Trump administration deadline, that there is still no deal to share the diminishing waters of the Colorado River.

That leaves the Southwest in a quagmire with uncertain repercussions while the river’s depleted reservoirs continue to decline.

Former U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said in an interview with The Times that the impasse now appears so intractable that Trump administration officials should take a step back, abandon the current effort and begin all over again.

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 cuts across the Southwest — which would likely set off a lengthy court battle.

“We need a fresh start,” Babbitt said. “I believe that in the absence of a unanimous agreement, [the Interior Department] should renew the existing agreements for five years, and then we should start all over. We should scrap the entire process and invent a new one.”

Officials for the seven states have tried to boost reservoir levels via voluntary water cutbacks and federal payments to farmers who agree to leave fields dry part of the year. But after more than two years of trying to hash out new long-term rules for sharing water, they remain deadlocked; the existing rules are set to expire at the end of this year.

The states similarly blew past an earlier federal deadline in November.

Interior Department officials have not said how they will respond. The agency is considering four options for imposing cutbacks starting next year, as well as the option of taking no action.

Babbitt, who was Interior secretary under President Clinton from 1993 to 2001, said he thinks the Trump administration’s options are too narrow and inadequate. They would place the burden of water cuts on Arizona, California and Nevada while not requiring any for the four other upriver states — Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico.

Without a consensus, the only reasonable approach is to extend existing water-saving agreements for a few years while making a new push for solutions, Babbitt said.

Federal officials have “missed the opportunity” to take a strong leadership role, he said, and it’s time to reimagine the effort as a “much more inclusive, public, broad” process.

The river provides for about 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 cut back substantially in recent years.

Since 2000, relentless drought intensified by climate change has sapped the river’s flow and left reservoirs depleted. This winter’s record warmth and lack of storms has left the Rockies with very little snow.

Lake Mead, the river’s largest reservoir, is now 34% full, while Lake Powell is at 26%.

“Our states have conserved large volumes of water in recent years,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a joint statement with Arizona’s Katie Hobbs and Nevada’s Joe Lombardo. “Our stance remains firm and fair: all seven basin states must share in the responsibility of conservation.”

The states’ positions haven’t changed much in the last two years, said JB Hamby, California’s lead negotiator, and moving toward an agreement will require firm commitments for cuts by all.

Officials representing the four Upper Basin states said they’ve offered compromises and are prepared to continue negotiating. In a written statement, they stressed they are already dealing with substantial water cuts, and said their downstream neighbors are trying to secure water “that simply does not exist.”