Colorado's Attorney General prepares for legal battle over water rights for 40 million people

Attorney General Phil Weiser went before state lawmakers this week and made it clear he's not holding his breath for a new Colorado River Compact.

"The reason it's hard to get a deal is you need two parties living in reality and if one party is living in La La Land, you're not going to get a deal," Weiser said.

"Arizona has continued ship alfalfa to Saudi Arabia, which is a classic example of what we should not be doing with water from the Colorado River."

The 1922 compact determines how water is allocated to Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, California, and Nevada. It expires this year and, if the states can't agree on a new deal, the federal government will do it for them.

State Sen. Dylan Roberts says that will almost certainly result in a wave of litigation.

"Is Colorado ready for that?" Roberts asked Weiser. "Are we ready to battle this out amongst six other states, or the Upper Basin verse the Lower Basin in court?"

For the last two years, the legislature has provided additional funds for water law attorneys in the AG's office. Weiser says he's hired the best.

"We've built up our team to be ready for this moment," he said.

A legal showdown is more and more likely after two years of negotiations with no agreement. Roberts says while California and Arizona are using more water than they're allotted, Colorado is using less due to conservation efforts. He worries the federal government will use that as rationale to cut Colorado's supply.

"It could potentially be years of legal fights against much more populous states like California and Arizona that have strong legal teams and a lot of resources to battle. And then a contentious federal government has not been treating Colorado well as of late. And so there's no reason to expect that to be different in this scenario, too."