After a promising step in talks about the future of the Colorado River, the seven states that use its water appear to be hitting more hurdles. They’re arguing over exactly how much water each state will get from the shrinking river. A few weeks ago, researcher John Fleck at the University of New Mexico said he saw a “glimmer of hope” in those negotiations. But now, that glimmer is gone. Fleck says states are falling back into rivalries that go back more than a century, and they’re afraid to make compromises. “This new method has a lot of promise, but as we work out the details, we’re seeing that those old problems are surfacing again, and the negotiations as a result, just don’t seem to be going as well as we had hoped they were,” Fleck says.

Other Colorado River Basin news:

• KJCT (Grand Junction, Colo.): Colorado Basin Roundtable takeaway
• KLAS (Las Vegas, Nev.): Crucial decision on Las Vegas water coming in August; are Lake Mead projections reliable?
• FOX5 (Las Vegas, Nev.): Latest Bureau of Reclamation report makes grim predictions about future levels at Lake Mead