Trump administration to announce rules for how states will share the Colorado River

+ National Trump administration to announce rules for how states will share the Colorado River July 26, 20268:25 AM ET Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday By Alex Hager Trump administration to announce rules for how states will share the Colorado River Listen &middot; 4:50 4:50 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5904997/nx-s1-9863429" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript This week the federal government is to release new rules for how much water each of the seven states that share the Colorado River will get.

+ Sponsor Message Transcript AYESHA RASCOE, HOST: The Trump administration is expected to announce new rules for the Colorado River this week. They'll say how much water California, Arizona and the five other states that share the river will get. Wildlife advocates worry that the plan isn't taking nature into account, but they say a few tweaks to how the river is managed could really help wildlife and people. KJZZ's Alex Hager reports.

+ (SOUNDBITE OF WATER BUBBLING) ALEX HAGER: Christian Fauser is waist deep in the Colorado River, casting a fishing line into the current. CHRISTIAN FAUSER: All around us are these crazy red rock walls of the beginning of the Grand Canyon. It's really, really a special place. HAGER: But the thing that makes this stretch of river really special is the river itself. FAUSER: We're in crystal clear water with a green bottom, so it's like sitting on top of some turquoise jewel. HAGER: In its desert reaches, the Colorado River doesn't usually look like this. It's usually a murky, muddy, chocolate milk brown. But here in northern Arizona, something's different. FAUSER: A lot of that's due to the reservoir we have up here above the dam and all of this being dam-fed. HAGER: Fauser, who's with the Arizona Wildlife Federation, says it's only flowing so clear because of human intervention. We're right downstream of Glen Canyon Dam, a concrete behemoth that creates Lake Powell and holds back the naturally flowing sediment that turns the river brown. The Colorado is not just a river. In a lot of ways, it gets treated like a plumbing system. Humans have dammed, diverted and divided it to keep the West wet for people. But Sara Porterfield, with the conservation group Trout Unlimited, says its water can work for people and nature. SARA PORTERFIELD: This is not a zero-sum game. HAGER: In fact, she says, it has to do both. PORTERFIELD: Investing in watershed health is not an either-or. We need the system to be healthy from an ecological perspective in order for the rest of it to function. HAGER: She says if the river system isn't flowing and full of life, it can't deliver big amounts of clean water to the places people need it. Environmentalists agree we should leave enough water for the river itself. But as policymakers draw up new rules for managing it in the future, can we? JOHN BERGGREN: That's the one positive thing here is, yes, we absolutely can, and there's a lot of good ideas on the table. HAGER: John Berggren is with the conservation nonprofit Western Resource Advocates. He highlighted some. The first is getting out of crisis mode. Right now, big reservoirs are dangerously low and getting propped up with band-aid fixes. But if you're a manager with a long-term plan, Berggren says... BERGGREN: You can be much more proactive and thoughtful and careful and intentional about how you manage the river and include river health. HAGER: Once you do that, he says, you can release water from big reservoirs more tactically. For example, if you time it right, the same water that flows downstream to cities and crops can make life better for native fish. BERGGREN: They're going to move the water anyway. Let's do it in a way that actually benefits ecological conditions. HAGER: Berggren helped write a proposal suggesting how the federal government could work those ideas into its new rules for managing water. So far, those ideas are not included in the drafts, but he's optimistic they could still be installed in the next few years. But Mike Connor says there's also reason to look beyond that process. MIKE CONNOR: Environmental protection is not a federal priority at this point in time. HAGER: Connor held the top role for Colorado River policy under the Obama administration. He says, the federal government will make sure it follows the law, protects endangered species and that kind of thing. But it won't do much more. But smaller governments can. CONNOR: The innovative approaches to integrate environmental protection, health of the river, and to protect the interests of water users are being developed, I think, at the state, local and tribal level. HAGER: Regardless of their policies for the river, Connor says the feds can make a big difference with their dollars. Big spending under the Biden administration helped those states, tribes, and local groups protect the environment. But that kind of money is not on the table now. Connor says it's worth paying to keep water in the river. It's not just about fish and plants. It's culture for tribes, a huge economy built on recreation, and an escape for people who want to get outside... (SOUNDBITE OF WATER TRICKLING) FAUSER: It smells bad again. HAGER: ...People like Christian Fauser. He says he knows the river he's standing in is a place to fish and part of a bigger system. FAUSER: The more you leave water in the river so that it can function and flow and operate properly, the more that that's going to turn around and feed back and take care of us. HAGER: Fauser says it's taking care of him, teaching patience and how to stand still. For NPR News, I'm Alex Hager in Page, Arizona. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. 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