Continued disagreement over which states must absorb the pain of future cuts to water supplies drawn from the drought-stricken Colorado River could upend negotiations just two months before a federal deadline, key state officials are warning.
Top Arizona water officials are demanding that the four Upper Basin states — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — commit to future reductions in their own water use in any agreement on a new long-term operating plan for the river.
The divisive warnings come in the wake of some progress this summer, in which all seven states coalesced around a plan known as “natural flow,” or sharing water supplies based on recent water records — rather than historical figures that require significantly more water than now exists in the river.
The proposal was centered, in part, on ending the need to negotiate future cuts across the entire seven-state region — a major sticking point in past discussions.
