The federal agencies responsible for managing the ever-shrinking Colorado River have two new leaders at the helm.

Scott Cameron, who previously served as acting assistant Interior secretary for water and science, will lead the Bureau of Reclamation as acting commissioner. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum appointed him Wednesday through a secretarial order.

The Bureau of Reclamation, which is housed in the Interior Department, oversees dams and water in the West.

That includes the painful process to update the operating guidelines for the Colorado River — where Southern Nevada sources about 90 percent of its water. The decision making is largely left to the seven basin states.

As Burgum’s senior adviser on the Colorado River negotiations that have left states divided with a deadline looming, Cameron has publicly urged the states to come to a consensus. He told negotiators in June that Burgum is willing to step in and make a decision, though experts have cautioned that a lengthy lawsuit could ensue.

The post Cameron was filling will go permanently to Andrea Travnicek, who has experience leading the North Dakota Department of Water Resources and served in the first Trump administration’s Interior Department in various roles.

She was approved in a U.S. Senate vote in mid-September that included a slew of new appointees from a variety of agencies. Nevada’s Democratic Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto, along with the rest of Senate Democrats, voted against approving Travnicek and her fellow nominees.

The news of Cameron’s appointment comes after Ted Cooke, the Trump administration’s pick for Reclamation commissioner, said he was forced to withdraw from consideration.

Cooke, of Arizona, alleged in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal that senators from the Upper Basin — which consists of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming — had intervened in his nomination process because of what officials perceived as bias against them in delivering a seven-state deal.

Contact Alan Halaly at ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X.