Click the link to read the article on the Colorado Politics website (Marianne Goodland). Here’s an excerpt:
June 7, 2024
An unprecedented public appearance by six of the seven commissioners who are negotiating the future of the Colorado River revealed how divided they are on solutions, and just as importantly, where they agree. The commissioners and state representatives spoke at Thursday’s 2024 Getches-Wilkinson conference on the Colorado River at University of Colorado Boulder’s law school. The commissioners showed up together at a critical juncture — they are in the thick of the talks to come up with an agreement that would manage allocations and ensure that America’s two largest reservoirs, both located in the Southwest, don’t fall below critical water levels. In addition, the negotiations are geared toward protecting the health of the river, which 40 million residents across several states rely on for drinking water. That agreement is supposed to be in place starting in 2027.
One of their more striking differences is in just what defines the health of the Colorado River system. The proposal submitted to the Bureau of Reclamation in March by the Lower Basin states wants to judge that health based on seven reservoirs in the system. In addition to Lake Powell and Lake Mead, that also includes Flaming Gorge in Utah, Blue Mesa in Colorado, and Navajo, which straddles the Colorado-New Mexico borders. The Upper Basin states of Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah want that health judged only on the two largest reservoirs — Powell and Mead, both directly on the Colorado River.