Concerningly low amounts of water are flowing from Rocky Mountain snowpack this spring, a summer of drought looms across swaths of the West, and the negotiators tasked with devising a sustainable long-term water plan for the 40 million people who rely on the Colorado River are running out of time. Commissioners from the seven states in the Colorado River Basin — Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, California and Nevada — must create a plan that will govern how those states divvy up the river’s water after the current guidelines expire at the end of 2026. As the river shrinks due to drought and climate change, the negotiators must decide who will take less water — and they need to do so in the next few months. … The negotiators, who met in Las Vegas this week, have repeatedly said they are committed to finding a consensus solution, but have not yet done so and have already blown past previous deadlines set by federal authorities more than a year ago.

Other Colorado River Basin news:

• Big Pivots: Blog: Sharing risk on the Colorado River
• John Fleck at Inkstain: Blog: Colorado River Basin Reservoir Storage: where do we stand?
• Inside Climate News: Gila River tribes intend to float solar panels on a reservoir. Could the technology help the Colorado River?
• The Aspen Times (Colo.): Aspen’s outdoor water waste can impact Roaring Fork River
• Pilot & Today (Steamboat, Colo.): $5 million federal funding freeze threatens to sink city (Yampa River) restoration project