The Biden administration is trying to stage a Hail Mary to save the Colorado River before Trump takes office.

The Biden administration is swimming against the tide to persuade seven Western states to agree to share Colorado River water in a way that protects the river basin and the West’s largest water source, and to do so before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. This was reported by a source familiar with the progress of the negotiations.

It’s a Hail Mary to preserve the vitality of the West under President Joe Biden’s watch and create a sustainable plan to provide drinking water to tens of millions of people, irrigate America’s crops and power homes and industries in the coming years.

But getting all states and stakeholders to agree in just two months on how much water they might be entitled to for decades is highly questionable, if not impossible, multiple sources involved in the negotiations told CNN.

The Biden administration’s long-term goal is the latest step in a water standoff that has simmered between states for years as the West becomes increasingly arid and its water-consuming population soars.

Recent winters have brought much-needed rain and snow, and states have saved billions of gallons of water. However, scientists warn that the basin continues to move in a downward spiral; Rising temperatures have sucked more than 10 trillion gallons of water from the river system between 2000 and 2021, according to UCLA researchers.

If an agreement on these complex territorial negotiations can be completed before Jan. 20 (nearly a year and a half before they were due), it would avoid the spectacle of a Supreme Court battle, a possibility that some basins are already discussing. interested parties.

But after months of disagreement, the seven states surrounding the river, as well as the tribal nations that surround them, remain far apart.

“There aren’t enough drugs in the world for me to reach that conclusion” that consensus could be reached by the end of January, one river stakeholder said.

The states are divided into two factions — upper basin states Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming and lower basin states Arizona, California and Nevada — that disagree over who should bear the brunt of future water cuts if reservoir levels drop. .

“We have big problems between us, the upstream and downstream states,” Arizona’s top water official, Tom Buschatzke, told CNN. “I think that whether or not this is actually possible, I believe that any progress we can make will be carried forward into the next administration.”

A new river management plan is due to be adopted by August 2026, several months before the current agreement expires.

The federal Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation negotiates and has the authority to reach an agreement on behalf of the lower basin states if none can be reached by the deadline.

On Wednesday, the Biden administration proposed five alternative uses for the river after 2026 that would protect water levels and hydroelectric power in Lakes Mead and Powell, which generate power from Glen Canyon and Hoover dams. These options will be reviewed by federal officials through a formal process while negotiations at the state level continue.

“We continue to call on all basin partners to find a consensual agreement that meets the needs of all river users,” White House National Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi said in a statement.

A source familiar with the negotiations told CNN that making these alternatives public is intended to push states toward a quicker deal.

But Buschatzke, Arizona’s top water official, said no one from the Biden administration has told him directly that they want a deal done by the end of Biden’s term.

“We will try to make as much progress as possible in the days that the Biden administration has left,” he said.

There are also unknowns in the new Trump administration. Trump recently named North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as his pick for Interior secretary but has not yet named a nominee to serve as commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, a lesser-known but important role that has jurisdiction over the fate of the Colorado River.

The Biden administration “can start this process and Trump will complete it,” a spokesman for the parties involved said.

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