Begun, the water wars have.
State negotiators embroiled in an impasse over how to manage the imperiled Colorado River were unable to agree on a plan before a federally set deadline on Tuesday, thrusting deliberations deeper into uncertain territory.
Stakeholders have spent months working to iron out contentious disagreements over how to distribute water from this sprawling basin – which supplies roughly 40 million people in seven states, 5.5m acres of farmland, dozens of tribes and parts of Mexico – as the resources grow increasingly scarce.
Long-term overuse and the rising toll from the climate crisis have served as a one-two punch that’s left the system in crisis.
Enough progress was made to warrant an extension, according to a joint statement issued by federal officials and representatives from the seven western states. But the discussions – and the deadline set for them – were set to an urgent timeline; current guidelines are expiring and a new finalized agreement must be put in place by October 2026, the start of the 2027 water year.
They’ll keep adding magic water to the equation because Trump says climate change is a hoax, so the water must still be there hiding. And they’ll agree to take whatever water is supposed to go to the tribes and Mexico and use it to build another country club golf course in the desert.
