Years of failed multi-state negotiations over the Colorado River have led the federal government to step in and decide how states will prevent a total collapse of the critical Western water source. A soon-expected Bureau of Reclamation impact statement would represent meaningful progress, but not a complete solution for the dwindling river.

Background

The Colorado River provides water for agricultural irrigation, hydropower, recreation, and municipal supplies for the Lower Basin states of California, Nevada, and Arizona, and the Upper Basin states of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Wyoming.

John Berggren, a regional policy manager for Western Resource Advocates, an environmental organization, said, “We’ve known for 19 years that the current guidelines are going to expire, and we’ve known about climate change and the impacts it’s having. We’ve known about ongoing droughts. We’ve known about overuse… We’ve known about all these challenges – and now we’re actually trying to take steps to solve them.”

Expected Plan

The Southern Nevada Water Authority told The Center Square that it was hopeful of a final Colorado River water usage plan, an Environmental Impact Statement, by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in the coming days. “It’s likely a two-year operating plan within a 10-year framework that will be released,” SNWA spokesperson Bronson Mack told The Center Square.

The 10-year framework would give the Bureau of Reclamation a general longer-term plan for the river’s management, while the two-year operation plans would afford states some additional time to reach the multi-state agreement, according to Mack.

Berggren said of the potential Bureau of Reclamation plan, “It’s not the silver bullet… It’s not the holistic, robust set of guidelines that puts the Colorado River Basin on a sustainable path or anything like that. But it’s taking a good step in the right direction – so it is a big deal in that sense.”

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.