"Top water decision-makers from seven Western states plan to join conservation groups and Indian tribes in San Diego on Tuesday to begin hammering out rules for squeezing every useable drop from the overtaxed Colorado River."

"The work meeting hosted by federal water managers comes amid dire predictions for the waterway. The U.S. interior secretary five months ago issued a call to arms and declared that the river already described as the most plumbed and regulated in the world would be unable to meet demands of a growing regional population over the next 50 years.

'We're looking at a very significant chance of declaring a shortage in the Colorado River basin in 2016,' Michael Connor, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, said in an interview in advance of the conference."

Ken Ritter reports for the Associated Press May 27, 2013. [2]

SEE ALSO:

"U.S. Urges Conservation as Colorado River Hit By Drought" (Los Angeles Times) [3]