The ongoing Colorado River negotiations are an illuminating example of regional cooperation for climate risk mitigation in the Ten Across geography. Due to a century-old miscalculation of water supply and a 25-year modern megadrought, the Colorado River has been overdrawn by millions of acre-feet for years.
By 2021, this crisis could no longer be ignored. That year, Lakes Mead and Powell, two important water savings accounts and hydropower sources for the West, dropped to critically low levels that prompted federal intervention. The seven basin states, 30 Native Tribes, and two Mexican states with claims to the river were directed to seek both immediate and long-term conservation solutions and to formalize a new sharing agreement by 2026 to keep these reservoirs from falling below functional levels.
Next week on the Ten Across Conversations podcast, regular 10X contributors Anne Castle and John Fleck will review present barriers to meeting this negotiation deadline, a failure that could expire more than 80 years of inter-basin and international water-sharing agreements.
Staffing changes at the Bureau of Reclamation and Department of the Interior, conflicts around frozen federal water conservation funds, and U.S. denials to deliver water to Mexico have made these negotiations increasingly tenuous in recent weeks.
In the meantime, we’ve selected the following episodes from our archive to help get you up to speed on this topic:
Listen to our first interview with Anne and John, recorded shortly after the first-ever federal shortage declaration was made on the Colorado River (May 12, 2022)
Learn about historic U.S.-Mexico water diplomacy issues related to this week’s unprecedented denial to deliver Colorado River water to Mexico (October 4, 2024)
Hear from experts across the basin about why it has been so difficult to reach consensus on Colorado River conservation and allocation under climate change (March 9, 2023)
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The next episode of Ten Across Conversations will be released on April 10th.
