PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                         February 13, 2026

CONTACT: Doug MacEachern or Shauna Evans

PHONE: 602.771.8507 or 602.771.8079

DESPITE NOT ACHIEVING A SEVEN-STATE AGREEMENT IN TIME, ADWR VOWS TO CONTINUE PROTECTING STATE’S COLORADO RIVER RESOURCES

Statement from ADWR Director Tom Buschatzke, Arizona’s Colorado River negotiator:

Phoenix, AZ — Throughout the negotiations of the post-2026 operating guidelines for the Colorado River, Arizona and its Lower Basin partners have offered numerous, good-faith compromises to the representatives of the Upper Basin states. In that time, virtually all of them have been rejected.

We began these discussions with a spirit of collaboration. Two years ago, Arizona, California and Nevada offered to help stabilize the system and address evaporation and system losses. That was rejected as too little, too late. In all, representatives of the Lower Basin states have offered to respond to river shortages with substantial cuts to their Colorado River allocations: 27 percent for Arizona, 17 percent for Nevada and 10 percent for California. Not enough for the other states.

Last summer, we proposed a revolutionary and innovative method of dividing the river’s bounty holistically based on a three-year rolling average of the “natural flows” in the river. That proposal, too, fell on deaf ears in the Upper Basin.

In all this time, Arizona, California and Nevada have received one consistent message from our counterparts in the Upper Basin – there will be no firm commitment to reduce uses in the Upper Basin, no matter how dire the conditions of the river may be. As of today, central Arizona farmers have fallowed nearly half of their land – over 100,000 acres – due to cuts in the state’s Colorado River deliveries.

We have offered to do more. But we simply cannot take on the task of saving this precious river system on our own.

Arizona remains committed to compromise and accommodation. The negotiations may be at an unfortunate stalemate, but they are not at an end – not, at least, if our river partners in the Upper Basin accept the reality that Arizona cannot be asked to sacrifice its water security while receiving virtually nothing in return.

Through it all, these difficult negotiations still reduce to a simple truth: All of those who benefit from the Colorado River’s bounty must share in the responsibility to preserve the river’s health.

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