This month’s withdrawal of President Trump’s nominee to head the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) provides an opportunity, not just for a new nominee but for a new approach to the whole Colorado River management mess. It is an opportunity the White House and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum should take very seriously.
The nominee’s withdrawal, due to the skepticism of Upper Basin senators, highlighted the deteriorating relationship between BOR and the states.
In fact, BOR under Trump has thus far taken essentially the same tack as under Presidents Obama and Biden, namely threatening the states – including those in the Upper Basin – with a federal takeover if they don’t produce an “acceptable” plan to reduce their use of water. As negotiations between the seven Colorado River states have ground almost to a standstill, they are being reminded of a November “deadline” to submit a “preliminary assessment” of their ability to reach consensus. If the states notify BOR by November 11 that a consensus agreement is unlikely, the agency says it will develop a federal plan for river management.
Why would the states write such a “notification” when doing so would invite a federal takeover? The “deadline” is artificial, invented by BOR with no legal basis. The agency also presumes an October 1, 2026 “deadline” for final implementation of new operating guidelines, so it wants details ironed out by June. Yet the current Colorado River operating agreements (the 2007 Interim Guidelines and the 2019 Drought Contingency Plan) do not expire until December 31, 2026, making BOR’s “deadlines” entirely arbitrary.
The Administration, which is making sweeping changes across almost every other Department, has an opportunity to redirect years of command-and-control federal threats on the Colorado River, in several important ways:
First, the Upper Colorado River Commission, not the federal government, manages water allocations in the Upper Basin (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico). It is composed of representatives of the four states, and chaired by a federal representative appointed by the president. President Trump left the position vacant his entire first term and has yet to make an appointment this term. That leaves his Administration with no seat at that important table.
Second, despite years of threats and deadlines, BOR has so far decided against risking litigation from the Upper Basin, and instead reduced water in the Lower Basin states of Nevada and Arizona. Each time, BOR gave California a complete pass on any obligation for conservation. Again for 2026, Arizona and Nevada will get 18 and 7 percent cuts respectively, with California seeing no reduction at all. Why would California conserve water, knowing the feds will protect its water before everyone else’s? BOR should insist, as Upper Basin states have for years, that California shoulder at least a proportionate share of the burden – especially as the state that has overused its entitlement for decades. No more free passes for California.
Third, BOR must stop releasing more water from Lake Powell than flows in. Upper Basin state negotiators, especially Colorado’s Becky Mitchell, have correctly proposed that the Upper- and Lower-Basin split should be based on a percentage of the natural flow of the river, not fixed amounts of water. This “water year” BOR released 7.2 million acre-feet from Lake Powell, while inflows totaled 4.95 million. The Lower Basin got 2.25 million acre-feet more than nature provided, at Upper Basin expense. The Lower Basin continues to demand further reductions in the Upper Basin, and BOR must stop shilling for them.
Finally, the President highlighted California’s appalling water mismanagement during the devastating L.A. fires. He and Burgum could force California to take desalination seriously. Over 18,000 desalination plants provide water for 300 million people worldwide, and California has 840 miles of Pacific coastline. Yet all of California’s tiny desalination plants combined produce less than a tenth of the water that will fit in Blue Mesa Reservoir. And the only major desalination project proposed in recent years (which would have produced 50 million gallons a day) was rejected by the California Coastal Commission amid opposition from a handful of neighbors – whose water supply was not at risk. Nobody in the Upper Basin, whose water supply is, got a say in that. California still claims the technology just isn’t good enough yet.
Jebel Ali desalination plant outside Dubai produces 587 million U.S. gallons per day, 10 times larger than the rejected California plant.
California does not have a water problem. Its problem is political laziness, the arrogance of assuming it can ignore the shrinking river by forcing everyone else in the West to cut back. That said, BOR’s budget for 2025 is almost $2 billion, a significant portion of which could actually help solve this problem. How about the federal government fast-tracking California’s desalination projects, instead of threatening other states that are not the problem?
Greg Walcher is one of the most recognized and respected national leaders in natural resources policy.
