Arizona’s Lake Powell is in trouble. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation modeling shows the reservoir dropped roughly 36 ft between December 2024 and December 2025, a decline that is no longer a warning but an operating condition engineers are designing around. The drop is compressing the margin between routine operations and hard infrastructure limits at Glen Canyon Dam as negotiations over post-2026 Colorado River operating rules remain unresolved. … Basin representatives have asked Reclamation to evaluate protecting Lake Powell elevations near 3,490 ft and to study infrastructure modifications that would allow releases below that level. Any such work would represent a new class of climate-driven capital investment at one of the federal government’s most critical water and power assets.

Other Colorado River Basin news:

• ABC7 (Denver, Colo.): This is the driest start to our snow season ever, but experts are not yet concerned
• KJZZ (Phoenix): Optimism about Colorado River seems in short supply — but not at this Utah storytelling event
• FOX21 (Colorado Springs, Colo.): Video: Colorado River negotiations