Governors in the Colorado River basin and their negotiators are meeting with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in Washington on Friday to try and break a yearslong impasse among states over how to share the dwindling waterway.
On the eve of the high-stakes summit, negotiators from both the upper and lower river basins are not sounding confident they can reach an agreement before a fast-approaching Feb. 14 deadline.
"It depends on the day that you ask me," Colorado's negotiator, Becky Mitchell, said Tuesday when asked by KUNC News if she thinks the states are heading toward a court battle. "But I will tell you the level of commitment that we have, both within Colorado and the upper basin, is strong to try to find some way to make a deal. There's some things that we can't give on."
Negotiators are currently working against the backdrop of record low snowpack across much of the West and worsening forecasts for the Colorado River's water supply.
Mitchell said negotiators are continuing to talk at least twice each week — but leaders from the upper and lower basin states say they still have sticking points.
They continue to differ on how water cuts should be handled and how releases from Lake Powell should be managed during dry years.
"Some in the lower basin wanted some sort of guaranteed supply, irrespective of hydrologic conditions," Mitchell said. "And I think asking people to guarantee something that cannot be guaranteed is a recipe that cannot get to success."
The lower basin states of California, Arizona, and Nevada are proposing to cut 1.5 million acre feet of their water use. They're also asking for water restrictions to be mandatory and shared among all seven states.
Negotiators from the different basins spoke at public events on Wednesday to set the stage for the summit in Washington.
"It's tough to say I'm looking forward to it, because that would be a lie," Mitchell told a large crowd Wednesday at a water conference in Aurora.
Her speech was fiery at times.
"Operations must be supply based, not demand based, not entitlement justified, and not built on a hope that the next big year will save us," she said. "That harm will be irreversible, because the Colorado River is not too big to fail."
As Mitchell was addressing the water conference in a hotel ballroom, California's water negotiator, J.B. Hamby, was talking to roughly 600 people on a webinar about his take on the state of negotiations.
He largely focused on his desire to still find a compromise among the seven states in the river basin.
"It's better to be able to work something out across the negotiating table, to do something that makes sense and protects our users and people and agriculture in our state, and as a result of that, getting a seven-state agreement that protects those interests," he said.
Hamby said the federal government is "leaning in" and becoming more involved in the negotiations by offering potential options. He called the feds' ideas helpful.
"Continued back and forth between the basins haven't really been moving the ball forward," he said. "The administrations … have this important role in sometimes knocking heads together, sometimes encouraging consensus, and having diplomatic discussions between the states to be able to move conversations forward."
He pointed to Herbert Hoover's role in 1922 as then Commerce Secretary to broker a deal among states in the river basin over how to share water.
"It's going to take everyone chipping in and making the necessary [water] reductions to balance the supply with the demand we have moving forward," Hamby said.
This story is part of ongoing coverage of the Colorado River, produced by KUNC in Colorado and supported by the Walton Family Foundation. KUNC is solely responsible for its editorial coverage.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between KUNR, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio, KJZZ in Arizona and NPR, with additional support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
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