Official: Agreement could come soon on Colorado RIver

(The Center Square) – A federal water distribution and management plan may come out soon regarding the Colorado River, a University of Colorado at Boulder water official told The Center Square.

The river provides water for agricultural irrigation, hydropower, recreation and municipal supplies throughout the Southwest. Its Upper Basin consists of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico. The Lower Basin is made up of California, Arizona and Nevada.

The Colorado River’s current operating rules are set to expire this year, and the seven states are currently without an agreement on how to manage, operate and allocate resources from the two main reservoirs formed by the Colorado River. But there are active negotiations between the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Upper Basin states regarding reservoir operating rules.

And a federal plan based on the seven states’ input may be reached soon, according to Doug Kenney, the director of the Western Water Policy Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU Boulder).

The...