LAS VEGAS — Disagreements between the seven states over who gets what out of the Colorado River spilled out into public during a pair of back-to-back panel discussions here.
As people filed into the Paris Hotel & Casino's convention center on Thursday for another day of the Colorado River Water Users Association, a flier was passed around from Colorado water officials detailing differences in water use between the Upper Basin and Lower Basin states that use the Colorado River. That's been a key disagreement in negotiations between the states — who takes what cuts and where.
JB Hamby, the Colorado River Commissioner representing California, dismissed the flier as "propaganda." He and the commissioners for Arizona and Nevada, representing the Lower Basin states, showed the crowd slides and detailed their conservation efforts, insisting they have taken cuts.
"Our belief is that everyone should cut back," Hamby told reporters on Thursday. "We all rely upon this river and everyone needs to contribute as part of this solution. The Upper Basin states' point of view has been reductions need to take place where most of the people live and most of the food is grown while they continue to increase their uses. That's sort of the impasse we're at at this time."
But Upper Basin states — Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico and Colorado — say the hydrology of the river shows there's less for everyone and they can't make any more cuts. Becky Mitchell, the Colorado River Commissioner for Colorado, likened it to "The Hunger Games" and said Upper Basin states are consistently going hungry. She said the releases from Lake Powell to Lower Basin states is based on "what Mother Nature is telling us."
Brandon Gebhart, the Colorado River Commissioner representing Wyoming, was more blunt.
"All of the rhetoric, the sabre rattling and other distractions going on are bulls—!" he declared from the stage to some applause from the crowd.
The agreements governing the Colorado River are set to expire in 2026 and what is decided will impact more than 40 million people who rely on that water across the Western United States and a portion of Mexico. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has released a series of ideas and prodded the seven states (plus Native American tribes and Mexico) to hurry up and secure a deal. All states have invoked the spectre of litigation, while each insisting no one wants a court to decide the river's fate.
But Mitchell told the crowd that commissioners as a whole haven't met since they arrived in Las Vegas. Perhaps the most visual display of the entrenchment was that commissioners representing the Upper Basin and Lower Basin states appeared in separate panel discussions, where last year they sat together.
Still, commissioners from both basins were confident a deal could still be reached even with the disagreements they have now.
"The reason I'm optimistic is because we know that what might happen if we don't is scarier, more unknown than what we can put together," said Colorado River Commissioner for Utah Gene Shawcroft. "Do we still have some legwork to do? Absolutely. Part of what you heard today is posturing, to be frank, in my mind. And I think that at the end of the day we will have the maturity to come together and cut a deal."
Shawcroft floated the idea of a short-term deal to buy more time to negotiate. Colorado River Commissioner for Nevada John Entsminger echoed that belief that they will be able to reach a deal.
"We’re going to get a deal done, but I expect we’re going to be trading paint the whole way until the finish line," he said.
