As hot temperatures sweep across Utah and water supplies continue to drop, states and the federal government are launching a new effort to better measure how much water evaporates from major reservoirs upstream of Lake Powell. The Bureau of Reclamation partnered with scientists and Upper Basin states, including Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming, to launch a new evaporation study at Flaming Gorge, Blue Mesa and Navajo reservoirs — key water storage projects in the Upper Colorado River Basin. … Reclamation is sending up to 1 million acre-feet of water from Flaming Gorge to prop up Lake Powell, which forecast models show will reach levels that threaten hydropower production and could damage dam infrastructure by early next year.

Other Colorado River management news:

• KJZZ (Phoenix): Scottsdale is defending its water future in the face of big Colorado River cuts
• ABC News: Lake Powell reaching critically low elevation levels, nearing ‘dead power pool,’ experts say
• The Guardian (U.K.): A journey down one of the last wild rivers in the American west: ‘The bullseye will always be on its back’
• The Guardian (U.K.): Stateside podcast: The western US is running out of water. What happens next?
• The Land Desk: Blog: Lake Powell’s bad math persists; USFS greenlights Ariz. mine; Ariz. river runs dry
• Ben Harding: Blog: 危机 (Crisis)