Colorado River management plans to be determined by government after negotiations stall

The federal government is stepping in to help resolve a long-running dispute between seven Western states and 30 tribal nations over access to the shrinking Colorado River, as negotiators miss multiple deadlines to reach a new water management agreement.

The river supplies drinking water and irrigation to tens of millions of people across the West, but the system that divides its water, based on agreements more than a century old, is under increasing strain after years of drought and declining reservoir levels.