The Bureau of Reclamation continues to weigh options for dealing with expected shortages in the Colorado River Basin in the decades ahead, even as it remains without a seven-state agreement on how to share anticipated reductions in water supplies.
Reclamation officials said this week their agency remains uncommitted to any of the nine proposals it received from regional groups, conservation advocates and tribal nations earlier this year but they expect to decide on alternatives outlined in planning documents by December.
“Reclamation’s goal in this phase is to develop a reasonable and broad range of alternatives through collaboration with our key partners for consideration in a draft [environmental impact statment],” Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said Thursday.
Existing agreements for water management of the Colorado River — which is shared by Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in the Upper Basin and Arizona, California and Nevada in the Lower Basin — will expire at the end of 2026.
