It’s coming down to the wire for the seven Colorado River states to comply with a federal deadline to submit a plan for how to divvy up the river over the next 20 years.

The contentious, closed-door process has been drawn out over multiple years as the outlook for levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell continue to nosedive . But the states seem poised to miss Tuesday’s deadline from the Trump administration’s Interior Department, ushering in a more possible scenario in which the feds could intervene and progress could be delayed by a lengthy court battle .

All seven states are meeting Tuesday until about 3 p.m., said Bronson Mack, a spokesman for the Southern Nevada Water Authority. The agency’s general manager, John Entsminger, is Nevada’s governor-appointed negotiator.

The major sticking

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