Colorado River talks resume, with focus on stopgap measure amid critical lows

Critical negotiations about the future of the Colorado River took a two-week hiatus last month after California and the six other states in the basin missed a key Valentine’s Day deadline for striking a deal, New Mexico’s water negotiator said Thursday.

Estevan López said talks resumed March 2, and the upper and lower basin states are using a short-term pitch from Nevada as a starting point.

“Right now, we’re in discussions with the lower basin about a potential short-term agreement,” López told New Mexico’s Interstate Stream Commission.

Nevada is proposing to increase water releases from upper basin reservoirs like Flaming Gorge “by at least 500,000 acre feet” to help prevent Lake Powell from dropping too low.

The latest forecasts predict that Powell could drop enough to stop producing hydropower by December.

In return, lower basin states would agree to cut their water use by 1.25 million acre feet “until system conditions have meaningfully improved.”

López said upper basin states had a counter proposal, and talks about it were scheduled Thursday afternoon.

“The hydrology right now is incredibly dire,” López said. “So we’re beginning for this year, for the remainder of this water year, we’re suggesting that there needs to be a release from the upper initial units, most likely Flaming Gorge, since that’s the reservoir that’s largest and has the most water. And we are anticipating that there will be a release of half a million acre feet from Flaming Gorge to prop up Lake Powell.”

Meanwhile, the Interior Department is reviewing thousands of comments it received on a range of options for how to manage the vital waterway.

The alternatives were published in January and could result in a variety of scenarios, ranging from significant water reductions in lower basin states to creating new incentives for states to conserve water.

And after the states missed two deadlines for reaching an agreement themselves on how to share and conserve the water, it’s becoming increasingly likely the federal government will try to piece together its own plan before the current guidelines expire in the fall.

Negotiators are also facing a worsening water supply forecast, with record low snowpack across the West.

Cody Moser with the federal Colorado Basin River Forecast Center said last week that only 2.3 million acre-feet of Colorado River water is expected to reach Lake Powell through July. That’s about a third of what’s considered normal.

“You’ll notice it’s not a pretty picture here with lots of reds,” he said as he presented a color-coded map of how much water is expected to reach certain locations in the river basin. “That’s 50% to 70% of normal April-through-July runoff. Those maroon colors are 30% to 50%, and we even have some of those pinks, which indicates less than 30% normal seasonal spring runoff.”

An attorney for New Mexico’s Interstate Stream Commission said Thursday the state expects the Interior Department to identify a preferred option for managing the dwindling river by July. The current operating guidelines for Lake Powell and Lake Mead expire in the fall.

This article is part of ongoing coverage of the Colorado River, produced by KUNC and supported by the Walton Family Foundation. KUNC is solely responsible for its editorial coverage.