With the drought-stricken Colorado River teetering on the brink of disaster and negotiations deadlocked over a water-sharing deal among the seven states that share it, Arizona, California and Nevada have made the Trump administration an offer that could provide a way out of the immediate crisis.
But there are strings attached.
The three downstream states submitted a proposal to Interior late Friday that would have them conserve at least 3.2 million acre-feet of water over the next two years — roughly a third of what they say they are legally entitled to. The amount adds up to the deepest cuts they have agreed to take yet.
The deal is premised, however, on a handful of controversial assumptions that are alarming the upstream states with whom they have been brawling — and those states are already making their objections known
