SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's chief negotiator over the Colorado River says progress has been made in coming up with a new agreement to manage the water supply for more than 40 million people in the West.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Gene Shawcroft told reporters they had a "conceptual agreement" by the Nov. 11 deadline set by the Trump administration. The current agreements between the seven states along the Colorado River expire in 2026.
"The Nov. 11 deadline, if you will, was more of a milestone for us to have conceptual agreement on a framework. That was achieved yesterday," Shawcroft said. "So what we will do is we will continue to meet on a regular basis until we get to the framework solution. The details, if you will, have to be accomplished by the about the middle of February. But we did not miss a deadline."
The devil is in the details, and it remains unclear what exactly the sticking points are to a final agreement between the Upper Basin and Lower Basin states. Shawcroft confirmed that hydrology remains a factor. There is simply less water in the Colorado River.
That means cuts are a real possibility.
As FOX 13 News and the Colorado River Collaborative first reported last month, Utah's Division of Water Rights has begun warning of the potential of "curtailments." Under Utah's longstanding water rights system of "first in time, first in right," junior water users would see the first cuts. That would include the Central Utah Project, which pumps millions of gallons from the Colorado River into the Wasatch Front for drinking water supply.
"There's no doubt the Central Utah Project is a junior user on the river. We have capacity in in reservoirs to help us through drought cycles," Shawcroft said. "We will have to be very judicious about how we use the water during these periods of time when we have low water. But we have opportunities for us to negotiate with folks to either purchase a third crop of hay, for example, or things like that that could help us be more efficient and continue to have water for municipal uses in the state."
Lower Basin states — California, Nevada and Arizona — have said they're cutting their use and called on the Upper Basin States of Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah to take less water. Upper Basin states have countered that they are doing with less because of the river's hydrology.
Management of Lake Powell and Lake Mead will remain a central part of any deal. But Shawcroft said a previous concept of "natural flow" and an "amicable divorce," which basically is the Upper and Lower Basins manage their own parts of the river so long as Lake Powell and Lake Mead have certain levels, has been pushed aside.
"That was probably a little bit of a stretch to believe that there would be no communication or no coordination between the two basins," Shawcroft told reporters. "Yes, there will be. We will have to understand how they use water. They will have to understand how we use water."
John Weisheit, the conservation manager for the environmental group Living Rivers, told FOX 13 News he is not surprised the states can't achieve consensus and said maybe it's time for a change.
"Maybe we need an intervention, you know, maybe we need to handle this like we handle alcoholism and drug addiction," he said.
The intervenor? The federal government.
"I think there's classic denial going on here. There's false hopes, false starts," Weisheit said. "You have to realize that this infrastructure was built by the taxpayers of the United States, not the taxpayers of the seven Basin states. You know, this is a national problem. I would almost suggest that this, that the power of the decision may be decision making be taken away from the seven states, and that maybe we need a national water policy rather than a seven state policy."
Weisheit said that with impacts from climate change and aridification in the West, perhaps it is time for new policies — including the idea of getting rid of Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam.
"My suggestion for my organization and my constituency is we only need one reservoir. And I think that needs to be part of the discussion is that Lake Powell is unnecessary. It doesn't match the geography and the scope of the of the what nature really is," he said. "I think having that conversation with is kind of like the adult thing to do. Glen Canyon Dam is meant to be full, not half-empty or empty. And so it's become the problem. It's the bad child and it's the bad teenager."
The states' Colorado River negotiators and their respective governors have repeatedly said they want a solution and not federal intervention. That was repeated by Republican and Democratic governors who provided statements on the negotiations.
"While the Basin States did not finalize an agreement [Tuesday] on post-2026 Colorado River operations, our commitment to a state-led path remains. We will continue to engage with our partners across the Basin to develop a framework that protects water users and the system as a whole," Governor Spencer Cox said in a statement to FOX 13 News.
Democratic Colorado Governor Jared Polis echoed that sentiment in his own statement.
"We remain committed to collaborating with our fellow Basin states and moving forward to do what is best for Colorado River users, including protecting Colorado’s water resources. We look forward to continuing these important conversations to find the best possible solution and are focused on finalizing the details of a deal," he said.
Moving forward, Shawcroft said he and his fellow Colorado River commissioners will continue to meet to hammer out a more formal agreement between the states. It's unknown how long it would last.
"Every state is involved in aggressive conservation measures, and those measures are ultimately what we will have to continue to do in order to stretch this water supply as far as we possibly can," Shawcroft said.
