As Deadline Approaches, Colorado River Stewards Debate How to Share Water

It’s crunch time for negotiators from California and six other Western states trying to strike a deal before Feb. 14 on how to share the dwindling Colorado River. But four days of talks in a Salt Lake City conference room earlier this month did not appear to have sparked a breakthrough.

“We got tired of each other,” Utah’s negotiator, Gene Shawcroft, said last week at a public board meeting, days after the meeting ended. “And two of the days, we made some progress, but one day we went backwards almost as much progress as we made in two and a half days.”