The policymakers responsible for steering the Colorado River's future say they will forge ahead with ongoing negotiations regardless of shifts in federal leadership, as a deadline to determine long-term conservation strategies looms near.

"Elections don't add water to the river," John Entsminger, Nevada’s lead Colorado River negotiator, told The Hill. "The same problem we were facing on November 4, we're facing today, and it's the same problem we'll be facing into the indefinite future."

"This river has a track record of working across Republican and Democratic administrations and getting big wins for everyone," added Entsminger, who is also the general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

The deadline concerns a long-anticipated update of the Colorado River's operational guidelines, which are set to expire at the end of 2026. These 2007 interim rules govern conservation policies for the over-tapped, 1,450-mile river, which provides water to about 40 million people in the U.S. and Mexico

Ahead of the forthcoming presidential transition, the Biden administration this week propelled the process of determining new guidelines forward — releasing a bullet-point list of five potential alternatives for the watershed's long-term management.

Alongside the publication, Interior Department officials also said they would provide further details about the options in an "alternatives report" next month, with the goal of keeping National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) procedures course.

Speculation abounds as to whether the Biden administration's decision to make the alternatives public at this stage was at all influenced by President-elect Trump's victory in the recent presidential election.

The list of alternatives revealed Wednesday and the forthcoming "alternatives report" are not required by NEPA but instead represent what Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton described in a Wednesday press call as the "collective work" of the agency's staff members.

Officials in March had said they planned to release a NEPA-mandated draft environmental impact statement — which includes analyses of the alternatives — by the end of 2024, but the issuance of that document was since postponed to 2025.

Speaking alongside Touton, Interior Department acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis expressed hope that the publication of alternatives could “keep the process moving and meet the requirement to have this operational plan in place by 2026."

"It's an important transparency opportunity to make sure that everyone is updated and tracking how we are moving along in this moment," Daniel-Davis added.

Figuring out ‘how we’re going to live with less’

Megadrought conditions coupled with overconsumption have become increasing threats to the Colorado River's two key reservoirs — Lake Powell and Lake Mead — and are putting pressure on negotiators to find a way to conserve the river's dwindling reserves of water moving forward.

The states that rely on the river are divided on the best way to do that in the long term,........

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