I appreciated Roerink's description of negotiations. A transcript would have been nice, but based on my own experience when everyone must make concessions, it's

I appreciated Roerink's description of negotiations. A transcript would have been nice, but based on my own experience when everyone must make concessions, it's easier if they can compromise behind a closed door. > “Everything blew up” in negotiations last week, Kyle Roerink, executive director at the Great Basin Water Network, told The Hill in an interview. > “You had some parties bringing a good chunk of water to the table. Others didn’t even want to be bothered with coming to the table with anything meaningful,” Roerink said. As a result, as of Monday evening, the states had not reached an agreement “as the nation’s largest reservoirs rapidly deplete themselves.” > Roerink called the breakdown a microcosm of the poor relations among stakeholders on the river. The major players, whom he dubbed the “water buffaloes,” have “touted their ability to collaborate and coordinate and negotiate in a civilized manner, but if the last week is any indicator, folks are not singing ‘Kumbaya,’ they are sharpening their knives,” he said. > Rather than negotiate towards a mutually beneficial agreement, he said, parties have been focused on reaching an arrangement that benefits them at the expense of others. > “What we are seeing is a situation where folks are talking about for legislation, litigation, other tactics to try and get the best deal, they believe, for their respective constituencies,” he said. “But I think one way to describe what we’re seeing so far is that there are entities out there that think this is a zero-sum game.”