Water in the Colorado River is dwindling to levels that haven\u2019t been seen in decades, and the seven states whose residents and farmers depend on the river can\u2019t agree on a fair way to divide up what\u2019s left.<\/p>\n
Negotiations are going nowhere despite more than six months of ongoing talks, plus cajoling by the Trump administration, which twice gathered governors in hopes of a breakthrough<\/a> that never came. States are already sniping at aspects of a water-use plan the federal Bureau of Reclamation is set to unveil this summer and impose later this year, and they\u2019re threatening to sue each other over water deliveries, raising the prospects of prolonged legal battles just as Western states face demands to sharply reduce water use<\/a>.<\/p>\n The river\u2019s system of reservoirs and canals was designed for the climate and population of a century ago. It has strained to adapt to a declining water supply and enormous growth in communities in the river basin, despite improvements in efficiency that mean even booming cities are using less water than in the past. Water rights that may date back to the arrival of European settlers also complicate matters. And a year of extreme drought is making it even harder to decide how much each state can draw from the Colorado.<\/p>\n It is not for lack of effort.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have invested time, effort and money in trying to facilitate a multistate agreement,\u201d Scott Cameron, the acting commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, said in an interview this month, moments after signing a deal that could one day augment the basin\u2019s supply using desalinated water from a plant in Carlsbad, Calif.<\/a><\/p>\n But a day later, Mr. Cameron told a conference of water experts in Boulder, Colo., that states have repeatedly rejected proposals for compromise. He said he doesn\u2019t expect any state to be pleased with the measures the federal government is expected to take to delay or prevent reservoirs from dropping to critical lows in the short term.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019ve succeeded in making everyone unhappy, and maybe making everyone mad,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n About 40 million people and 5.5 million acres of cropland depend on the Colorado for drinking water and irrigation, but its flow has gradually diminished over the past two decades as the climate becomes warmer and more arid across the West. Now the arcane system of water rights governing the river entitles each state and Mexico to far more water than is actually available. The rules prioritize the longest-established uses of water, in many cases dating to the 1850s and 1860s.<\/p>\n But the states have been unable to agree upon water cuts that would reflect the new reality.<\/p>\n In the river\u2019s lower basin \u2014 which includes growing urban areas in California, Arizona and Nevada, vast agricultural operations and the nation\u2019s largest reservoir, Lake Mead \u2014 communities have agreed to significant reductions in recent years. A new proposal that the states are asking the federal government to consider would curtail use even more, but the lower basin states and tribal nations have asked upstream communities in New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming to cut back, too.<\/p>\n But any time winter snowpack in the river\u2019s headwaters is meager, the upper basin is forced to use less water, so those states have resisted committing to permanent annual water use cuts. While a 1922 compact divides the United States\u2019 share of the river\u2019s flow equally between the two basins, the less-populated upper basin consumes significantly less water each year than the lower basin.<\/p>\n The stalemate between the basins has deepened as the stakes rise. An existing water-use plan expired this winter, and the states missed key deadlines to agree on a new one<\/a>, which must be in place by October to avoid chaos and confusion in water deliveries.<\/p>\n