The feud within Arizona over who’s in charge of the state’s Colorado River water – the state Department of Water Resources or the Central Arizona Water Conservation District – escalated this week.

This is from an April 25 “cease and desist” letter (obtained by me through a state public records act request) from the Arizona governor’s office and DWR to CAWCD (the entity that operates the Central Arizona Project):

This is super arcane legal stuff, but the underlying conflict has been a serious setback to Arizona’s progress on Colorado River Basin-wide drought contingency planning.

Excellent background in this from Kathleen Ferris.

Click on the “view entire document link” to see the whole letter.