Top state negotiators working on an agreement to guide the future of the drought-ravaged Colorado River said they don’t expect that the looming shift in control of the White House will derail the process for drafting a long-term operating plan.
President-elect Donald Trump’s victory this week means there soon will be new people in top jobs at the Interior Department and the Bureau of Reclamation, which plays a decisive role in brokering an agreement and could impose its own view if participating states don’t come to a consensus.
But this might be one area where the shift in administration won’t change much, negotiators said.
“The politics are not going to matter at the end of the day. We’ve got to forge ahead,” said Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources.
