Name: Water uncertainty looms after missed Colorado River deadline
Uploaded: 2025-11-14T09:04:03.113Z
Duration: 2 min 7 s
Description: There’s looming uncertainty over water distribution from the Colorado River among several Southwestern states in the United States after a missed deadline this week (November 11). With current guidelines expiring at the end of 2025, talks are reportedly continuing but no agreement has been reached.

There’s looming uncertainty over water distribution from the Colorado River among several Southwestern states in the United States after a missed deadline this week (November 11). With current guidelines expiring at the end of 2025, talks are reportedly continuing but no agreement has been reached.

Colorado

A missed deadline for a new water-sharing agreement among seven southwestern U.S. states has created uncertainty over the future management of the Colorado River, which supplies water to about 40 million people. The states, divided into upper and lower basins, have been unable to reach consensus on how to address declining river flows and reservoir levels caused by a prolonged drought.

The current agreement, which governs operations at key reservoirs like Lake Powell and Lake Mead, expires at the end of 2025. Without a new deal, experts warn that reservoir levels could drop to the point where hydropower cannot be produced, and water releases may be halted, with disruptions likely to be felt by 2027 if no resolution is reached.

Water uncertainty looms after missed Colorado River deadline

A missed deadline in the U.S. this week has caused uncertainty over how several southwestern states will share water from the Colorado River. The river provides water to about 40 million people in the region. They are split between the upper basin states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, and the lower basin states of Arizona, California, and Nevada. Sarah Porter from the Keil Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University's Marson Institute explains the issue. We're seeing declining flows in the river. We've been in a prolonged drought. People call it a mega drought. So we have less water from the river to deal with, which creates a precarious situation with the reservoirs, and the seven states have been negotiating to come up with new guidelines for how to operate the system to keep the reservoirs functional and to spread shortage when there's not enough water to be distributed. From the perspective of the lower basin, the upper basin isn't willing to take cuts. And so there's an impasse between the upper basin and the lower basin. According to Porter, the states first began managing the river's water through an agreement in 1922. Over the years, they have updated the deal to address the changing resources provided by the Colorado River and reservoirs at Lake Powell and Lake Mead. The current agreement expires at the end of 2025, and the federal government asked the states to agree on new ones by November 11th. That deadline passed without a breakthrough, although talks are reportedly ongoing. If there's no agreement, then there's a likelihood of the reservoir levels getting to low levels that are to a point where hydropower can't be produced, and in the worst case scenario, so low that water couldn't be released from the reservoirs. The current agreement includes plans for 2026, but nothing beyond that. Porter said any disruption would be felt closer to 2027.

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