A new period of tension looms over the waning availability of water from the Colorado River. Officials from upstream states, including Wyoming, claim that downstream states continue to use more than their fair share.
Water-use negotiations and infrastructure operations are up for renewal after 2026. Representatives of the Upper Colorado River Basin States — Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico — are alarmed over what post-2026 river management might look like.
There’s concern that the Lower Basin states — Arizona, Nevada and California — aren’t holding up their end of the 1922 Colorado River Compact, which still sets the overarching policy for water use along the river.
Those states are "asking me to give up the future we were promised and make promises that I can’t keep,” Wyoming State Engineer Brandon Gebhart said Wednesday during an online meeting of the Upper Colorado River Commission.
Gebhart represents Wyoming on the commission.
Upper Vs. Lower Basin
There’s longstanding tension between the Upper Basin and Lower Basin states over rights to water from the Colorado River.
In a nutshell, the Upper Basin States claim that they have stayed within, or even below, the allocations designated to them in the Colorado River Compact.
But as populations boomed in the Lower Basin states over the 103 years since the compact has been in effect, Upper Basin representatives argue.
2026 Begins Period Of Uncertainty
In 2023, the Lower Basin states struck a deal to trim their use of water from the Colorado River by 3 million acre feet by 2026.
An acre foot is the amount of water that would flood an acre of land to the depth of a foot. Water rights are usually allocated in terms of acre feet.
Also in 2023, the Bureau of Reclamation finalized its supplemental environmental impact statement (EIS) for Lake Mead and Lake Powell that will determine policy through 2026.
The Bureau of Reclamation has jurisdiction over dams and other infrastructure along the Colorado River.
Upper Basin Frustration Over Mead, Powell
Lake Powell, created by the Glen Canyon Dam, straddles the Utah-Arizona state line. Lake Mead, created by the Hoover Dam, straddles the Nevada-Arizona state line.
Together, those reservoirs supply most of the water for the Lower Basin States.
Upper Basin officials have expressed frustration over what they see as unreasonable demands to draw water from reservoirs and sections of the Colorado and its tributaries in their states to help fill Lake Powell and Lake Mead.
Those frustrations spilled over during Monday’s commission meeting.
Gebhart said that his predecessor on the commission, Pat Tyrrell, advised him to be “an honest broker” and to not give up Wyoming’s future, regarding water access.
He said he feels increasingly unable to do that, because of demands from the Lower Basin.
Even so, Gebhart said he’ll remain an “honest broker” and seek solutions based on a consensus between all seven states involved.
Concern About The Future
Negotiations over post-2026 river management can’t leave the Upper Basin states unable to meet the water needs of their own populations, commissioners said.
Gene Shawcroft, who represents Utah, said he was recently on the Colorado River, and the flow appeared to be about half of what it should be.
The situation is starting to look “dire,” he said, and the Upper Basin states shouldn’t be asked to give up too much.
The overarching principle of the 1922 Compact, ensuring that every state’s needs are met, should be honored, he said.
“That’s what the compact was about, making sure we had some kind of future,” he said.
Aiming For A ‘Seven-State Solution’
Estevan Lopez, commissioner for New Mexico, said the crisis over Colorado River water is nothing new.
“We’ve been working on this thing for the last 20 years. This isn’t something that started two years ago,” he said.
Colorado commissioner Becky Mitchell said that the Lower Basin states have become dependent upon an amount of water usage that exceeds their share of the 1922 Compact.
“Breaking that dependency is going to be hard,” she said, adding that it needs to be done.
“This will only continue to leave the system in crisis and leave us one dry year away from a system failure,” Mitchell added.
Lopez said hope isn’t lost for a management model that can serve the needs of all the states along the Colorado River, and isn’t unfair to any of them.
“The bottom line is, we’re working on this,” he said. "We’ve been working on this, we continue to work on this. We’re committed to a seven-state solution."
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
