What a federal plan to reallocate the Colorado River's water means for western statesNPR's Rob Schmitz speaks with Russ Schumacher, professor at Colorado State University, about a new government proposal to reallocate water from the Colorado River among Western states who rely on it. SCHUMACHER: In the West with water in the Colorado River Basin, there's a somewhat complicated compact that was established a little over 100 years ago about who gets to use how much water in the Colorado River. SCHMITZ: OK.SCHUMACHER: It's divided between the Upper Basin states - which are Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico - and the Lower Basin states - California, Arizona, Nevada. And the plan that was released by the federal government indicates that the Lower Basin states especially would be subject to reductions in use of Colorado River water. SCHUMACHER: The negotiations, or some of the tension over the years, have been that generally the Lower Basin states have been using more of their allocation, whereas the Upper Basin states haven't.