The likelihood of Western states reaching a consensus on a plan for the future of the Colorado River is dimming as time runs out for the negotiators tasked with dividing up the shrinking river relied upon by 40 million people.

“The path to success seems tenuous at this point,” Arizona’s negotiator, Tom Buschatzke, said in an interview this week with The Denver Post. “The discussions continue to revolve around the main issue that we’ve been struggling with for some time since these discussions started.”

Colorado and the six other states in the Colorado River basin for more than a year have failed to agree on how to share the river’s water after current management plans expire at the end of 2026. Little progress has been made on the central question: How should the states divide up the

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