BOULDER, Colo., — Negotiations on the future of the Colorado River remain tense but on track as state representatives continue to wrangle over competing ideas about how to divide a shrinking waterway following decades of drought, a top Biden administration official acknowledged Thursday.
“The seven governors’ reps care so deeply about these issues, care so deeply about what it means for their states, but also carry the heavy burden of what it means for the American West,” Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said in remarks at the University of Colorado’s annual Colorado Law Conference on Natural Resources.
“I know that these conversations are hard, but I know that we’re having them together, that they’re talking to each other,” she added.
A series of existing agreements for the 1,450-mile river, which supports 40 million people across seven states and irrigates 5.5 million acres of farmland, will expire at the end of 2026.
