CHEYENNE - It's hard to overstate the importance of the Colorado River.

The 1,450-mile waterway and its tributaries stretch from their headwaters in the snowy Rocky Mountains to southern California before the river finally runs dry in Mexico.

In doing so, it provides life-sustaining water for nearly 40 million people across seven states, including Wyoming.

But with a historic drought hitting California and much of the Southwest, parts of the river have reached their driest points in hundreds of years.

And this increased demand on the river is causing Wyoming, along with the other western states, to take notice.

"Anything that puts more pressure on the Colorado River should be a concern for all the states, including Wyoming," said Douglas Kenney, who heads the Western Water Policy Program at the University of Colorado-Boulder. "There is only so much water to go around."

Wyoming's water managers say the Cowboy State hasn't been directly affected by the water shortage in the downstream states.

This is because a nearly 100-year-old interstate compact ensures Wyoming can use a predetermined amount of the water that flows through its borders.

"Anytime a drought occurs in our country, it is worth watching," said Harry LaBonde, director of the Wyoming Water Development Commission. "But if you are asking if California is going to demand more water from Wyoming, the answer is no."

LaBonde and other state officials say the western drought, and the threat that the situation could worsen, is still enough of a concern that Wyoming should see the situation as a warning and take steps to safeguard its own water supplies.

This is partly what prompted Gov. Matt Mead to include a plan in his recently announced statewide water strategy to build 10 reservoirs in 10 years.

Nephi Cole, a policy adviser to the governor, said it's important for the state to begin planning these projects, which can take years and millions of dollars to complete, so Wyoming isn't caught off guard in the future.

"The challenge is many times when you need a water project and you realize you are in a really dry year, it is already too late," he said.

Wyoming and the "Law of the River"

Unlike much of southeast Wyoming, several western parts of the state don't have the luxury of being able to rely on plentiful groundwater resources.

That means many municipal water systems, agricultural users and other industries largely depend on the Green River, which is the main tributary of the Colorado River, to meet their needs.

The 730-mile waterway begins in the Wind River Range of Sublette County and travels south into Utah before it connects with the Colorado River.

In total, a drop of water that starts in Wyoming could travel through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and California.

So, who owns that droplet of water?

That hotly contentious question was largely answered by a 1922 interstate deal known formally as the Colorado River Compact. This, combined with a complex series of other compacts, federal laws, court decisions and decrees, make up what is colloquially referred to as "The Law of the River."

The Law of the River allows the four upper-basin states - Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico - to use 7.5 million acre-feet of water per year. But it also requires these states to deliver 75 million acre-feet during any period of 10 consecutive years to California, Nevada and Arizona, which are the three lower-basin states.

It goes on to say that Wyoming is allowed to use 14 percent of the 7.5 million acre-feet of the upper-basin states' allocation. That amount is equal to more than 342 billion gallons - or the equivalent of 517,844 Olympic-sized swimming pools - of water.

"You can think of it as a pie or pizza divided into slices, just not equal sizes," Kenney said.

"Conceptually, that is fine. But where the problem arises is that when you add up what everyone is promised, you realize they were promised (more than there is available) because they used bad assumptions based on that 1922 calculation."

This, along with the Southwest's historic drought and population growth that has occurred through the years, has put a serious strain on the waterway.

The problem is perhaps most visible in Lake Mead. The massive reservoir in Nevada and Arizona, which receives most of its supply from the Colorado River, has hit a historic low as it is now at only 38 percent of capacity, according to a report this week from the Los Angeles Times.

"Everyone is worried, but the states that are most worried at the moment are the ones downstream," Kenney said.

"The ones that pull their water right out of Lake Mead, in particular, are more dependent on the Colorado than others."

Cooperation and tension

David Modeer is the president of the Colorado River Water Users Association, a nonprofit group made up of the states and other groups that rely on the waterway.

He said all seven of the states have been working together through the years on a number of projects to preserve the water supply.

For example, many of the lower-basin states have provided some funding for cloud-seeding projects, which are designed to bring more precipitation, in the Rocky Mountain states.

Modeer said this cooperation is key to finding solutions in the future.

But a natural tension exists between the upper- and lower-basin states as individual states look to protect their own interests.

This can be seen in both Wyoming and Colorado as the two states consider projects that would allow them to store more water within their borders while still complying with the Law of the River.

For Wyoming, Mead's water strategy outlines a goal of completing 10 small reservoirs, each able to hold 2,000 to 20,000 acre-feet of water, in the next decade.

Cole, with the governor's office, said there are about 16 reservoir projects being considered by the state. At least three of those would funnel water off of the Green River.

Cole said the proposed projects would still allow Wyoming to meet its obligations under the Law of the River.

"In Wyoming, as well as the other upper-basin states, the most important thing is to continue to meet our obligations under the Colorado River Compact, and we have never failed to meet that obligation," he said. "So we believe we are well within our legal right with what we are doing."

Modeer said he hopes the upper-basin states consider the timing of these types of projects so they don't exacerbate the drought conditions farther west.

But he acknowledged that states are able to do what they want with their portion of the water.

"As long as they are staying within the use of water that has been afforded under the Colorado River Compact, I don't think there really is a solid argument for them not to do it," he said. "They certainly have the ability and the right."

But there is always the possibility that the federal government could step in and tell the upper-basin states that California and the other lower-basin states deserve more water.

Experts and state officials say this is extremely unlikely - at least in the foreseeable future.

But Congress has the authority to alter the compact if lawmakers choose to do so.

"None of us want to see the Law of the River uprooted and redrawn," Modeer said. "That would have a terrible impact on all the states."

Modeer, along with other experts, say the Southwest drought likely will get worse before it gets better.

But he said he still tries to remains optimistic.

"I would continue to emphasize that the situation doesn't show any signs of improving," he said. "But we have a position that we believe that all the basin states, all seven of them, working together, can find ways to maintain the sustainability on this river system."

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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed that is the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead, Anthropologist