With Western states deadlocked in negotiations over how to cut water use along the Colorado River, the Trump administration has called in the governors of seven states to Washington to try to hash out a consensus.
The governors of at least four — Utah, Arizona, Nevada and Wyoming — say they’ll attend the meeting next week led by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, but California Gov. Gavin Newsom won’t.
Newsom is “unable to attend but plans to send key representatives of his administration to attend in his place,” spokesperson Anthony Martinez said in an email.
Representatives of the seven states that depend on the river have met regularly for two years trying to agree on how much less water each will take after the current rules expire at the end of this year.
Federal officials have told the states’ leaders to come to an agreement, giving them until Feb. 14.
The states are “actively engaged and doing the hard work needed to reach consensus,” said JB Hamby, chair of California’s Colorado River Board, who will attend the meeting.
Hamby said California will “continue to lead” with real commitments of water reductions “because shared responsibility means every state has to do its part.” California has used less water the last three years under a temporary deal, with farmers being paid to leave some of their hay fields dry part of the year.
“My expectation for this meeting is that everyone comes prepared to put forward what every state can contribute … to support the system that sustains us all,” he said in an email.
In the negotiations, the three downstream or lower basin states — California, Arizona and Nevada — are at odds with the four states in the river’s upper basin — Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico.
Rhett Larson, a water law professor at Arizona State University, said it’s hard to say whether bringing the governors together might help unjam the negotiations.
“These are pretty technical conversations, and the distance that would have to be bridged is pretty far right now,” Larson said. “So I’m not sure how much progress is going to be made by having governors in the room, but I think it’s still a good sign.”
California’s farmlands and cities use more Colorado River water than any other state. If Newsom ends up being the only governor absent from the meeting, it will look like a snub, Larson said.
“Not going isn’t good optics,” Larson said.
Addressing the Colorado River’s crisis is one of the most important issues facing the country, Larson said, and there is a chance that being absent from the meeting might not sit well with federal officials who have authority to order cuts in water use in the river’s lower basin.
“Why would you want to upset someone whose power is so great?” Larson said. “And that power is over your water supply.”
The Trump administration hasn’t said what it will do if there is no agreement. But it released an outline this month of four options, each of which could dramatically cut the water available for Southern California and Arizona.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said in a Jan. 12 speech that for years the three lower basin states “have regularly brought proposals, offers of collaboration, and a commitment to the long-term health of a river that sustains nearly 40 million people.”
The federal government “must ensure the upper basin is stepping up and conserving water like Arizona does,” she said.
“The upper basin states, led by Colorado, have chosen to dig in their heels instead of acknowledging reality,” she said. “As negotiations continue, I refuse to back down.”
Hobbs is going to the Jan. 30 meeting in Washington focused on protecting Arizona’s farmers and businesses, spokesperson Christian Slater said. She is “glad Secretary Burgum heard her calls for greater involvement from the federal government,” he said, “and hopes the meeting will be a productive conversation.”
As the negotiations remain at an impasse, the possibility of the states suing one another is increasing. It’s a path riddled with uncertainty that water managers in both camps say they hope to avoid.
The Colorado River provides water for cities from Denver to Los Angeles, 30 Native tribes and farming communities from the Rocky Mountains to northern Mexico. It has long been overused, and its reservoirs have declined dramatically amid unrelenting dry conditions since 2000.
In the last quarter-century, the river has lost about 20% of its flow. Research has shown that climate change has intensified the long stretch of mostly dry years. Lake Mead, the river’s largest reservoir, is now just 34% full, and Lake Powell, its second-largest reservoir, is at 27% of capacity.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said in an interview with Salt Lake City’s Fox 13 News that the negotiations are “going to be difficult for every state” but that “it will be good to have us all in the room.”
A spokesperson for Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon said he is “committed to working on a solution that benefits the entire basin, while protecting Wyoming’s interests.”
Conor Cahill, a spokesperson for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, said he “hopes to attend this meeting if it works” for the other governors, and that “we remain hopeful that we will reach a sustainable solution for all who depend on the river.”
Larson, the ASU law professor, said based on the lack of progress in the talks, he expects the states will miss the federal government’s Feb. 14 deadline, but “a deadline with no consequences is just a date.”
This winter has so far brought very little snow in the Rocky Mountains. That means less water flowing into the river’s reservoirs.
It’s possible, Larson said, “that the hydrology is just getting so bad right now that people are getting really nervous, and that’ll push people to the table as they get worried.”
Yet, he said, for now it’s hard “to see a way in which we get out of this with no lawsuits.”
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