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EAGLE MOUNTAIN, Utah (KUTV) — What started as a small rescue effort six years ago has turned into a thriving animal sanctuary in Eagle Mountain.

Haven Ranch is home to nearly 300 animals. Due to soaring costs and a drop in donations, the facility has been struggling to stay afloat.

ARC Salt Lake spoke to executive director David Curneal about the financial strain forcing the sanctuary to make difficult choices just to keep caring for hundreds of animals.

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Curneal said the sanctuary had 37 animal sponsors this time last year — that number has now dropped to just 12 as both families and businesses cut back on charitable giving.

He said Haven Ranch has depleted retirement savings to continue operating and is no longer accepting new animals because resources are too limited, even during one of the busiest times of year for rescue calls.

The sanctuary is now working to find homes for some animals, including birds, while Curneal said Haven Ranch is far from alone, noting other sanctuaries are also facing mounting financial pressure.

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ST. GEORGE — As negotiations over the Colorado River remain at a standstill, Utah and other states in the Upper Basin are asking for outside help.

Negotiators from Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming called for “immediate mediation” among the seven states that share the Colorado River and the federal government, according to a statement from the Upper Colorado River Commission last week.

“It’s past the eleventh hour. It’s 11:59,” Estevan López, New Mexico’s negotiator, said during a commission meeting on April 21 while discussing the looming deadline for new operating plans for the river that provides water to roughly 40 million people.

Current guidelines for managing the river system and its reservoirs during dry times expire this year. The Bureau of Reclamation is currently going through an environmental review process and has said it must have a new plan in place by Oct. 1. If the states reach consensus, the bureau has said they will choose that as its preferred path forward.

The states have failed to agree, though, missing two federal deadlines over the past six months.

“I think it would be worth all of us stepping back from this and seeking to get a mediated solution to solve this really difficult problem,” López said.

So far, the bureau has facilitated negotiations among the states. López acknowledged the agency’s “good” attempts but also said that the bureau is “not an independent entity in this discussion.”

“Reclamation has a really important interest in the outcome,” he said. “They obviously operate the reservoirs. Reclamation and the Secretary of Interior are the river master in the Lower Basin. Interior serves in a trust responsibility for the tribes throughout the basin.”

Utah’s negotiator, Gene Shawcroft, said that he agreed with López and that “it’s extremely disappointing” that the states haven’t reached a resolution yet.

“It’s critical for us to continue to work together,” he added. “A seven-state solution will still be much better than any other alternative.”

The Upper Basin states are in discussions with the bureau and the Lower Basin states — Arizona, California and Nevada — about developing a mediation process currently, the commission said in an email to The Tribune on Wednesday.

John Entsminger, Nevada’s negotiator, said he’s “open to bringing on an independent mediator” but that he’s also disappointed that the states’ seven representatives “can’t come up with a common-sense solution.”

“But mediation beats litigation,” he added. “So if there’s a chance this helps break the logjam, then tell me when and where to be.”

The idea of a mediator has surfaced in river negotiations “a handful of times” over the past two decades, Entsminger said. But in the past the negotiators were able to come to “a mutually agreeable solution where everybody gives a little,” he added.

That hasn’t happened this time around. “I think it’s become more difficult for the states to agree, because the magnitude of the problem has increased,” he said.

Much of the Colorado River Basin experienced its worst snowpack and hottest winter on record. The bureau and Upper Basin states reached an agreement to release up to 1 million acre-feet of water from Flaming Gorge this year to prevent Lake Powell from reaching minimum power pool — the level at which the dam can no longer generate hydropower or sustainably send water downstream.

California proposed a mediator last year, JB Hamby, California’s negotiator, told The Tribune in an email.

“However, effective mediation requires common ground, and the system cannot wait,” he added. “Current conditions require immediate, measurable water reductions from every state.”

The Arizona Department of Water Resources said it had no comment at this time.

How a third party could help

Bringing in a mediator “makes total sense” to help states get past politics and personalities and reach a solution, said John Berggren, a regional policy manager on Colorado River issues for Western Resource Advocates.

“I kind of wish it would have happened two-plus years ago,” he added, “but some of the fundamental challenges that they’re facing come down to trust and communication … and not taking each other’s proposals seriously.”

The drawn out negotiations have put states in an unpredictable situation that makes finding a solution more difficult, said Danya Rumore, director of the Environmental Dispute Resolution Program at the University of Utah.

“Our options get more limited,” she said. “People are more likely to be entrenched. We get more fear in the conversation, and that makes it harder to actually productively deal with it. It doesn’t make it impossible, it just gives you one more thing you have to contend with.”

A trained third-party facilitator — or team of facilitators — would ideally create a process that helps people learn how to productively work through conflict while also integrating the complex science, legal frameworks and uncertainties involved in this issue, Rumore said.

“If somebody can’t understand the legal elements of what’s going on there, they don’t understand the scientific elements enough to be able to facilitate those conversations, that can create huge challenges,” she added.

Rumore and her co-workers jokingly call themselves “the group mom.” That means both getting things done and seeing what’s emotionally happening in the room.

“We have to stay regulated,” she said. “We have to stay present. We have to not go into this crisis thinking mode. And that’s going to help us get a good outcome.”

If the states do bring in a third party, Entsminger said he hopes it’s “somebody that could inject some objectiveness into the entire process because we’ve got some entrenched people. There’s no doubt about that.”

He said he thinks the states will come up with a short-term, two- or three-year operating plan this year while they continue hashing out a long-term plan.

This article is published through the Colorado River Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative supported by the Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water, and Air at Utah State University. See all of our stories about how Utahns are impacted by the Colorado River at greatsaltlakenews.org/coloradoriver.