Colorado River negotiators vow to slog on as timelines shift
Key state officials negotiating the future of the drought-ravaged Colorado River said Monday that a multi-state agreement is still in the works, even as “sticky issues” continue to bar consensus and prompt the Interior Department to shift back an expected analysis of any plans. Anne Castle, the Biden administration’s appointee to the Upper Colorado River Commission, outlined the change in timing for developing the next operating plans for the Colorado River during a meeting of the group on Monday. She said the Bureau of Reclamation will not publish in December a full draft environmental impact statement analyzing the options, as had been originally planned. The delay comes as the seven Colorado River states — Arizona, California and Nevada in the Lower Basin and Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in the Upper Basin — continue to debate a potential consensus agreement dictating how the pain of future cuts to water supplies would be shared.
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