Negotiations continue between the seven Colorado River basin states over new rules dealing with use of the overallocated river, and the clock is ticking. But one area of those talks that’s not getting a lot of attention is the idea of setting some water aside, and the details of how that might happen. Kathryn Sorensen, director of research at the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy, has been thinking and writing about this and joined The Show to discuss. … “The idea of sort of setting aside pools of water and holding them in Lakes Powell or Mead is not new. It’s actually something we’ve been doing since 2007, and it’s an attempt to sort of separate certain amounts of water from the prior appropriation system, which is the system through which we generally allocate water here in the arid West.”

Other Colorado River Basin news:

• Native American Rights Fund: Report: Tribal interests in the future of the Colorado River
• Havasu News (Lake Havasu City, Ariz.): 5 big questions Arizona leaders will tackle about the Colorado River at this week’s U of A conference
• Aspen Journalism (Colo.): Plan to reopen irrigation ditch has creek’s neighbors on edge
• Audubon: Blog: State investments for a resilient Arizona