Water officials from the seven states that share water from the Colorado River, the most litigated river in the country, will meet this week to discuss how to save water, prepare for droughts, and what to do when far too many requests are made on too little water.
This is not a problem that will go away.
“We’re looking at a very significant chance of declaring a shortage in the Colorado River basin in 2016,” Michael Connor, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, said in an interview in advance of the conference.
“We really need to get to specifics, technical liabilities and the political feasibility of projects,” he said.