A landmark deal was reached to protect the Colorado River — after a year of the administration and seven states stumbling through a process that officials on all sides described, at times, as dysfunctional.
On Jan. 26, they gathered at Woolley’s Classic Suites, a hotel near the Denver airport. Interior had asked for proposals on potential cuts by the following week. Six of the states were coalescing around a plan that would assign cuts based on evaporation of the river, an approach that would hit California particularly hard.
Lopez said there was “definitely a lot of tension” in that Denver meeting; another negotiator described the mood as “acrimonious.” The two states that had the most to lose from big cuts, Arizona and California,By February, the talks appeared stuck. With multiple missed deadlines, White House officials had also becoming increasingly concerned by the process, and wanted answers from Interior on how the department planned to reach a deal.
In an interview, Beaudreau said that during those calls, he stressed solving the Colorado River crisis “is the highest priority in the department.”476-page draft environmental review “Everyone hated them for some reason,” said one state negotiator, who conceded it was an effective negotiating tactic by the federal government. “That’s actually right where you want to be if you’re pushing people to get together.”
“We both wanted to see if we could get the ball rolling again in a more positive direction. And that’s what started it,” Buschatzke recalled. On April 21, John Entsminger, Southern Nevada Water Authority’s general manager, presented the Lower Basin’s proposal to Beaudreau and Touton at his offices in Las Vegas. The response was not good. The Interior officials opposed the idea of abandoning the federal review process and the request for compensation for all water savings. Beaudreau and Touton walked out to confer but eventually came back, according to two people familiar with the meeting.
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