Colorado Water Experts Push for Agreement on Managing the Colorado River’s Future

Colorado water and climate experts say it’s time for an agreement in the Colorado River Basin.

Colorado River officials are at odds over how to store and release water in the basin’s reservoirs when the current rules lapse in 2026. State negotiators have publicly stuck close to their original, competing proposals, released early in 2024. Colorado experts watching the process understand the difficulty, but time is of the essence when it comes to a limited natural resource.

“I have no idea what’s going to get them to agreement,” said Jennifer Pitt, the Colorado River program director for the National Audubon Society. “To me, the biggest pressure seems like time is running out.”

“Not only is there this lack of trust, but there almost seems to be this effort to promote your own proposals by denigrating other proposals,” Gimbel said. “That frustrated me to no end. It’s like they have these political rallies.”