A member of the Northern Water Board of Directors played a large role at the annual gathering of Colorado River water officials this month in Las Vegas.

Jennifer Gimbel, who represents Larimer County on the Northern Water Board of Directors and is a senior water policy scholar at Colorado State University, moderated a pair of panel discussions at the Colorado River Water Users Association (CRWUA) annual conference about the current state of negotiations on new guidelines for the operations of Lake Powell and Lake Mead.

Gimbel helped negotiators from the Upper Basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming outline their concerns, and in a second panel, did the same for negotiators for the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada.

For the 1,000-plus attendees of the conference, it was an opportunity to learn more about what will guide future discussions about use of Colorado River water throughout the Southwestern United States.

Northern Water is a member of CRWUA and engages with other Colorado River users throughout the year.

In photo from second left: Gene Shawcroft of Utah, Estevan Lopez of New Mexico, Becky Mitchell of Colorado and Brandon Gebhart of Wyoming.