The seven states that make up the Colorado River basin failed to reach an agreement this week on a plan to reduce their consumption of the river's water by up to a third of its annual average flow—a plan the US Interior Dept. told them to submit by Jan. 31 to avoid cuts that will be imposed by the federal government.

According to a report in the Washington Post, six of the seven states—Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming—agreed to a framework to reduce water usage by 2M acre-feet, the minimum the Interior Dept. says is needed to avoid a "doomsday" scenario in which 25M people in the Southwest are unable to get water from the drought-stricken system.

At Tuesday's deadline, the group of six states submitted their plan, which requires the largest water users in the system—California and Arizona—to make the lion's share of the cuts. In a letter to the Interior Department, they said they're willing to negotiate directly with the federal government to finalize their plan.