Overview
- The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is in the final stages of a Final Environmental Impact Statement and is expected to issue a federal plan if the seven Colorado River basin states do not reach a consensus.
- Negotiations among the Upper Basin states (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico) and the Lower Basin states (California, Arizona, Nevada) remain deadlocked over how to assign mandatory water cutbacks.
- Reporting indicates the likely federal approach will follow much of the Lower Basin proposal and may be issued as a two-year operating plan inside a 10-year framework to give states more time to negotiate.
- Several states are preparing legal options to challenge any imposed rules, raising the prospect of prolonged court fights that could include filings up to the Supreme Court.
- Roughly 40 million people depend on the river for drinking water, farms, and hydropower, and officials say the new federal rules are meant to force rapid conservation as climate-driven shortages and century-old overallocation strain supplies.