Feds impose urgent deadline on multi-state Colorado River plan

Reforming western water policy has always been an exercise in political maneuvering, stop-and-start negotiations and bureaucratic delays. Progress comes slowly and often reluctantly – a pace water wonks refer to as “water time.” For years now, the Interior Department has been pressing the seven Colorado River states to reach joint agreements on managing their water use in the face of prolonged and record drought. The two holdouts, Arizona and California, have blown this week’s federal deadline to approve their strategies, jeopardizing progress for Colorado and the four others. Water bosses from Arizona and California said publicly at a water conference here Wednesday that they’re close to striking deals, but privately admitted that negotiations have been stalling. Having grown impatient with those states’ inaction, the Interior Department announced Thursday that it will give them until the end of January before it steps in and forces water cutbacks on them. “This is absolutely not our preferred course of action,” but “deadlines matter,” U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman said at the Colorado River Water Users Association (CRWUA) annual conference here Thursday...MORE