Colorado River water crisis has a looming Valentine’s Day deadline

Seven states are facing a deadline to come to a consensus on how to share water from the shrinking Colorado River.

The deadline for seven states to agree on how to split up the water from the shrinking Colorado River is looming.

The debate has pitted the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada against the four states in the Upper Basin: Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico. The states are struggling to find a way to save enough water so that the two largest reservoirs on the river and in the nation — Lakes Mead and Powell — retain water levels capable of producing hydropower and of supplying downstream users in the Lower Basin and Mexico.

The states have tried unsuccessfully for more than a year to reach a voluntary agreement to replace dam-operating guidelines that expire later in 2026. Federal officials have said they want a consensus on a deal that will last 20 years by Feb. 14, though that deadline may not be firm.

For months, the Upper Basin states have argued they would only make voluntary cuts because they don’t use as much water as the Lower Basin and can’t control the drought that has afflicted them.

Arizona recently surrendered about a third of its allotted supply of the river through both mandatory and compensated voluntary cuts to keep Lake Mead from going dry. It has offered to do that and more in dry future years, but only if upstream states agree to their own mandatory cuts.

“I’ve been really clear that Arizona isn’t willing to go further,” Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said in a Feb. 2 news conference in Phoenix, “without some meaningful, measurable, mandatory reduction from the Upper Basin. And they all said, ‘we know we have to find a way to make our cuts into firm commitments.’ So that is the most commitment we’ve heard on this.”

Without a deal, the states will either have to accept a plan imposed by the U.S. Department of Interior, or launch into a lengthy legal battle.

After the governors of six of those states met at the U.S. Department of Interior on Jan. 30, negotiators for California and Colorado expressed optimism about the prospect of reaching a deal. Hobbs said the meeting has put them “on a path to get a deal,” even if they remain at odds over details.

Negotiators have started to discuss the possibility of making a short-term deal that lasts up to five years and then continuing negotiations over what to impose for the remaining 15 years.