Interior Department veteran Andrea Travnicek on Wednesday identified Colorado River policies, critical minerals development and infrastructure as her top three priorities if she is confirmed as Interior’s assistant secretary for water and science.
With a background that includes service in the first Trump administration’s Interior Department and leadership of North Dakota’s Department of Water Resources, Travnicek noted that there are “a lot of discussions right now” related to the 1,450-mile river and the allocation of its water.
“We’ve got some looming deadlines that are in front of us next year, so we’re going to have to work really closely with those seven states in the [Colorado River] basin,” Travnicek told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Agreements that currently govern the Colorado River will end in December 2026. The river serves about 40 million residents of the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada and the Upper Basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, and they have yet to agree on how to handle potential future water shortages.
