The future of the Colorado River is in the hands of seven people. They rarely appear together in public. [Last week], they did just that – speaking on stage at a water law conference at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The solution to the Colorado River’s supply-demand imbalance will be complicated. Their message in Boulder was simple: These things take time. “We’re 30 months out,” said John Entsminger, Nevada’s top water negotiator. “We’re very much in the second or third inning of this baseball game that we’re playing here.” The audience was mostly comprised of the people who will feel the impact of their decisions most sharply – leaders from some of the 30 Native American tribes that use Colorado River water, nonprofit groups that advocate for the plants and animals living along its banks, and managers of cities and farms that depend on its flows.

Related Colorado basin water supply articles: 

• The Colorado Sun: “It’s not an ideal world” – States talk Colorado River future, hang-ups in negotiations at CU conference
• Colorado Politics: Colorado River states clash over management, future of reservoirs
• The Atlantic: Phoenix – The most American city
• Arizona Daily Star: A water supply used for Arizona’s suburban
• High Country News: Blog - Water inequality on the Colorado River