Denver • Seven U.S. states in the Southwest that depend on the overtaxed Colorado River have reached tentative agreements on how to manage the waterway amid an unprecedented drought, officials said Tuesday.
The announcement was a long-awaited step toward preserving the river, which supports 40 million people and 6,300 square miles (16,300 square kilometers) of farmland in the U.S. and Mexico.
"We have, after many years of discussion and negotiation, a real milestone," said James Eklund, a water lawyer who represents Colorado in the interstate negotiations on the river.
A nearly two-decade-long drought has drained the river's two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, to alarmingly low levels.