Colorado’s top river negotiator heads to Washington as states face deadline for post-2026 rules

High-level talks set in Washington as basin states seek a path forward

Colorado’s lead negotiator on Colorado River issues, Rebecca Mitchell, is traveling to Washington, D.C., for federal-level meetings aimed at breaking an impasse among the seven basin states over how to manage the river after current operating rules expire in 2026. The talks come as the U.S. Department of the Interior presses the states to narrow differences on a framework for managing releases from Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the river system’s two largest reservoirs and the core of its interstate water accounting.

Mitchell serves as Colorado’s commissioner to the Upper Colorado River Commission, a role to which she was appointed by Gov. Jared Polis. Colorado elevated the position to a full-time post in 2023, reflecting the growing intensity of negotiations as drought, reduced runoff, and longstanding demand pressures strain the system.

What is driving the urgency

The governing framework known as the 2007 Interim Guidelines is scheduled to end in 2026, requiring new rules to determine how much water is released and how shortages are handled. Federal planners have been running a multi-year environmental review process to support those post-2026 decisions.

On Jan. 9, 2026, the Bureau of Reclamation released a draft Environmental Impact Statement laying out five operational alternatives for the period after 2026 and opened a public comment period that began after publication in the Federal Register on Jan. 16, 2026. The comment window is set to close on March 2, 2026. Reclamation has said it has not identified a preferred alternative and expects any eventual agreement to draw from elements of the options analyzed.

Key fault lines: Upper Basin and Lower Basin approaches

Negotiations have repeatedly stalled over how to structure reductions when supplies are insufficient. Upper Basin states (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming) and Lower Basin states (Arizona, California, and Nevada) have advanced different concepts for triggering and distributing cuts, including disagreements over how to account for evaporation and system losses and how to define “use” in a river with large reservoirs and complex storage arrangements.

Public remarks from negotiators in late January underscore the divide. Mitchell has argued for supply-based operations rather than frameworks driven by demand or historical entitlement. Lower Basin representatives, including California’s lead negotiator J.B. Hamby, have emphasized the goal of reaching a negotiated compromise to avoid protracted conflict.

What happens next

The Washington meeting is designed to elevate talks beyond technical staff work and move toward political decisions that could unlock a draft agreement. Federal officials have signaled that a decision framework for operations after 2026 must be in place before Oct. 1, 2026, the start of the 2027 water year.

• Seven basin states are attempting to align on a shared proposal for post-2026 operations.
• Reclamation’s draft EIS sets out alternatives but does not pick a preferred plan.
• Without consensus, the federal government retains authority to set operating rules, a prospect that has long raised the risk of litigation among states and water users.

The negotiations are focused on reconciling demands with hydrologic reality, while preserving the reliability of supplies for cities, farms, Tribes, and power generation tied to Lake Powell and Lake Mead.

Mitchell’s trip to Washington places Colorado at the center of the latest push to narrow the remaining gaps, as deadlines tied to federal planning and the post-2026 transition approach.