‘It’s past the eleventh hour’: Utah and other Colorado River states call for mediation as current plans near expiration

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Negotiations over future plans for the Colorado River remain stalled as current guidelines near expiration. St. George • As negotiations over the Colorado River remain at a standstill, Utah and other states in the Upper Basin are asking for outside help. Negotiators from Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming called for “immediate mediation” among the seven states that share the Colorado River and the federal government, according to a statement from the Upper Colorado River Commission last week. “It’s past the eleventh hour. It’s 11:59,” Estevan López, New Mexico’s negotiator, said during a commission meeting on April 21 while discussing the looming deadline for new operating plans for the river that provides water to roughly 40 million people. Current guidelines for managing the river system and its reservoirs during dry times expire this year. The Bureau of Reclamation is currently going through an environmental review process and has said it must have a new plan in place by Oct. 1. If the states reach consensus, the bureau has said they will choose that as its preferred path forward. The states have failed to agree, though, missing two federal deadlines over the past six months. “I think it would be worth all of us stepping back from this and seeking to get a mediated solution to solve this really difficult problem,” López said. So far, the bureau has facilitated negotiations among the states. López acknowledged the agency’s “good” attempts but also said that the bureau is “not an independent entity in this discussion.” “Reclamation has a really important interest in the outcome,” he said. “They obviously operate the reservoirs. Reclamation and the Secretary of Interior are the river master in the Lower Basin. Interior serves in a trust responsibility for the tribes throughout the basin.” Utah’s negotiator, Gene Shawcroft, said that he agreed with López and that “it’s extremely disappointing” that the states haven’t reached a resolution yet. “It’s critical for us to continue to work together,” he added. “A seven-state solution will still be much better than any other alternative.” The Upper Basin states are in discussions with the bureau and the Lower Basin states — Arizona, California and Nevada — about developing a mediation process currently, the commission said in an email to The Tribune on Wednesday. John Entsminger, Nevada’s negotiator, said he’s “open to bringing on an independent mediator” but that he’s also disappointed that the states’ seven representatives “can’t come up with a common-sense solution.” “But mediation beats litigation,” he added. “So if there’s a chance this helps break the logjam, then tell me when and where to be.” The idea of a mediator has surfaced in river negotiations “a handful of times” over the past two decades, Entsminger said. But in the past the negotiators were able to come to “a mutually agreeable solution where everybody gives a little,” he added. That hasn’t happened this time around. “I think it’s become more difficult for the states to agree, because the magnitude of the problem has increased,” he said. Read the complete article here.