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Topic: Colorado River

Overview April 24, 2014

Colorado River

Colorado RiverServing as the “lifeline of the Southwest,” and one of the most heavily regulated rivers in the world, the Colorado River provides water to 35 million people and more than 4 million acres of farmland in a region encompassing some 246,000 square miles.

From its headwaters northwest of Denver in the Rocky Mountains, the 1,450-mile long river and its tributaries pass through parts of seven states: Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico,  Nevada, Utah and Wyoming and is also used by the Republic of Mexico. Along the way, almost every drop of the Colorado River is allocated for use.

The Colorado River Basin is also home to a range of habitats and ecosystems from mountain to desert to ocean.

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Aquafornia news July 5, 2022 Colorado Public Radio

Colorado’s water leader thinks most of the needed Colorado River cuts should be made by Arizona, Nevada and California

Last month, the federal government dropped a bombshell on the states that share the Colorado River. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation gave Colorado and the other six states in the basin just two months to come up with a plan to drastically reduce the amount of river water they use. If they don’t, the federal government has threatened to use its emergency authority to make the cuts it feels are necessary. … Becky Mitchell, the commissioner of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, .. said most of that responsibility should be on the states in the lower part of the river basin: Arizona, Nevada and California. 

Related articles: 

  • Las Vegas Review-Journal: Lake Mead water decline: 5 things to know
  • The Associated Press: World War II-era boat emerges from shrinking Lake Mead 
  • Salt Lake Tribune: The West’s water crisis so many have been warning about is here, by Matt Rice, regional director of American Rivers.
  • Phoenix Business Journal: City of Phoenix forgoes more water from Lake Mead in wake of declining levels
  • Utah State University: How Dry Can the Colorado River Basin Get?
  • Arizona Daily Star: New developments in Tucson may face tougher water-saving measures
  • Read more
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Aquafornia news July 1, 2022 Arizona Republic

Will the Colorado River dry up? What we know about looming water cuts

The seven states that rely on the Colorado River must come up with a plan to cut 2 to 4 million acre-feet of water use. By mid-August. And if they don’t, the federal Bureau of Reclamation will act for them. It’s a massive amount of water to find in a short amount of time. And there are more questions than answers about what this entails. But let’s walk through what we know. Could the Colorado River dry up? Maybe. Depending on how you define “dry up.”

Related articles: 

  • KUNC – Greeley, Colo: Colorado’s water shortages are already here and getting worse, according to updated state plan
  • KNAU -Flagstaff, Ariz: Humpback chub threatened by exotic fish slipping through Glen Canyon Dam
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Aquafornia news June 30, 2022 LAist

Morning brief: Recycled wastewater, eco-friendly city vehicles, green schoolyard update

I’ve got a question for you: would you drink sewer water? Yeah, I’m not sure I would. But recycled wastewater might be in all our futures. To understand why, my colleague Erin Stone has a pretty enlightening story you need to read. We all know California has a water problem. The Colorado River, where we get most of our water in Southern California, is going through a “megadrought,” the worst in 1,200 years. Greenhouse gases just make it worse. As temperatures rise, less snow falls. That means there’s less snow melt to fill up our rivers and reservoirs. 

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Aquafornia news June 29, 2022 Audubon

Blog: Ring the alarm – Today’s water crisis isn’t a fire drill

News headlines in mid-June captured what Audubon’s Western Water team knows well: the Colorado River Basin and Great Salt Lake are in trouble—both facing historically unprecedented risks. Both may be headed towards ecological disasters, years in the making, the result of a pernicious combination of climate change aridifying the region and water management that does not adequately prioritize the environment. In the Colorado River Basin and at Great Salt Lake, warming temperatures and declining river flows threaten people and nature. And, we know there’s significant quality wildlife and bird habitat still worthy of attention and investments.

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Aquafornia news June 29, 2022 Arizona Republic

Pipelines? Desalination? Turf removal? Arizona commits $1B to augment, conserve water supplies

The Colorado River’s precipitous decline pushed Arizona lawmakers to deliver Gov. Doug Ducey’s $1 billion water augmentation fund — and then some — late Friday, their final night in session. Before the votes, the growing urgency for addressing the state’s oncoming water shortage and the long timeline for approving and building new water projects nearly sank the legislation. 

Related articles: 

  • Environmental Defense Fund: Arizona Legislature Approves Historic Funding for Water Projects But Fails to Protect Rural Groundwater
  • Arizona Republic: Opinion – Arizona has not set aside $1 billion for water – yet
  • Arizona Public Media: ASU online water tool updates help Arizonans learn about waterways
  • Read more
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Aquafornia news June 29, 2022 Mother Jones

This Democrat wrote a water recycling law. It could benefit her financially

As a member of Congress from the nation’s driest state, Rep. Susie Lee has a major stake in the health of the Colorado River Basin, which is currently enduring historic drought. … In office, Lee has pushed for federal funding for an array of “common-sense solutions” to the crisis—including water recycling … Last year, she authored a measure that will make hundreds of millions of dollars available for water recycling projects. But Lee’s interest in this issue appears to be more than simply political. The two-term Democrat also has a portion of her considerable personal wealth invested in a company that stands to benefit from the water recycling legislation she has championed. 

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Aquafornia news June 28, 2022 Arizona Daily Star

Feds seek ideas on how to manage a drier Colorado River

For many decades, the Colorado River was managed with the attitude that its water levels would remain roughly stable over time, punctuated by alternating wet and dry periods. But in the face of possibly the river’s driest period in 1,200 years, a new approach is now needed to managing the river’s reservoirs — one that can account for “deep uncertainty” about future climate and runoff conditions, says the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. And for the next two months, the bureau wants to hear from the public about how it should go about operating reservoirs including Lake Mead, Lake Powell and other parts of the river system under such conditions.

Related articles: 

  • Newsweek: U.S. megadrought is worst for over 1,000 years: How long could it last?
  • Esquire: Lake Mead Could Soon Be a ‘Dead Pool.’ It’s Already a Pool of the Dead.
  • Farm Progress: Utah urges water conservation this summer
  • ABC 15 – Arizona: Where does your water come from? A look at Mesa, Scottsdale and Tempe supplies 
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Aquafornia news June 28, 2022 The Washington Post

Researchers hope new tools can forecast rainfall or wildfire season severity months in advance

In the parched southwestern United States, few forecasts are as important as the future height of Lake Mead, which tells federal authorities how much water to release to the 20 million people living downstream of the giant reservoir. This year, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is testing out a new tool it hopes will make those projections a little better: A model that can predict — months in advance — the summer rainfall associated with the North American Monsoon. 

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Aquafornia news June 27, 2022 Arizona PBS

Saudi water deal threatening water supply in Phoenix

Arizona is leasing farmland to a Saudi water company, straining aquifers, and threatening future water supply in Phoenix. Fondomonte, a Saudi company, exports the alfalfa to feed its cows in the Middle East. The country has practically exhausted its own underground aquifers there. In Arizona, Fondomonte can pump as much water as it wants at no cost. Groundwater is unregulated in most rural areas of the state. Fondomonte pays only $25 per acre annually. The State Land Department says the market rate is $50 dollars per acre and it provides a 50% discount because it doesn’t pay for improvements. 

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Aquafornia news June 27, 2022 Arizona Daily Star

Arizona to spend $1 billion seeking new water sources

Gov. Doug Ducey is expected to sign legislation as early as this week to spend $1 billion looking for long-term sources of new water for Arizona. State lawmakers finally lined up the votes for the plan Friday, the last day of their 2022 session. … The plan requires that 75% of the funding be spent to acquire water from outside of the state, which could include building a plant to desalinate water from the Sea of Cortez in Sonora. State officials have also mentioned exploring the possibility of a pipeline from the Mississippi River. 

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Aquafornia news June 27, 2022 Salt Lake Tribune

Fill Lake Powell? Coalition calling for more water to be stored in the reservoir faces tough road ahead

As federal officials and the seven states in the Colorado River basin are negotiating the largest cuts to water use in the region’s history, a coalition of recreational users on Lake Powell are calling on water managers to partially refill the nation’s second-largest reservoir. In 2019, the 4.3 million recreational users who visited Lake Powell generated $420 million in economic activity, according to the Blue Ribbon Coalition, which announced a campaign to “Fill Lake Powell” earlier this month. The reservoir dropped by 100 feet between its high in 2019 and its low this year, and only two of the 11 boat ramps on the lake are currently open, though it still boasts well over a thousand miles of shoreline.

Related articles: 

  • Las Vegas Review-Journal: Nevada conserves water, but big cuts to the river still may come
  • The Week: John Oliver explains the ’stupid’ causes and dire consequences of the massive Western U.S. water crisis
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Aquafornia news June 24, 2022 Nevada Independent

‘A subtraction problem:’ A shrinking Colorado River faces sharp, sudden cuts

Within the next two months, Colorado River negotiators face a daunting task: Develop ways to reduce use by an enormous amount, or the federal government will make the cuts on its own. Earlier this month, the federal government told the seven states in the Colorado River Basin that reservoir levels are so low they face a pressing crisis that warrants large-scale conservation, even as water users negotiate long-term operating guidelines for a shrinking river in an arid future.

Related articles: 

  • Imperial Valley Press: Major Colorado River water reductions cause major concern for locals
  • U.S. Bureau of Reclamation: Reclamation welcomes public input on development of future Colorado River operations during historic drought
  • ABC News: Water levels at Lake Mead dangerously close to hitting ‘dead pool’ status
  • 12 News – Phoenix: Lawmakers rewrite Ducey’s plan for $1 billion for new water
  • Read more
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Aquafornia news June 24, 2022 Colorado Sun

Tree rings show Colorado River Basin drought could get much worse

What two stooped and warped sentinels in the Great Basin are telling us is a scary story, with a twist of possible redemption.  Approximately 1,800 years after popping out of the ground as seedlings, live bristlecone pines are still talking to us nearly 2 millennia later. … Rings from trees that were alive in the west’s Great Basin in the second century A.D. show a devastating 24-year drought back then that makes our current 22-year Western drought look positively moist, the research shows. The tree rings and other evidence from caves and bogs show the drought cut 32% from the average flow of the Colorado River at Lees Ferry, in northern Arizona near the beginning of the Grand Canyon. 

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Aquafornia news June 23, 2022 High Country News

In the wake of fires and floods

The simple truth is that farmers, collectively, are the thirstiest Colorado River gulpers by far. It’s no wonder then that Patrick O’Toole, a Wyoming rancher and president of the Family Farm Alliance, feels like he and his compatriots have a target painted on their backs. He warned that taking water off the farm will send food production overseas and devastate family farms, large and small. … What he didn’t say is that a lot of those farmers aren’t raising food; they’re growing alfalfa and other hay crops, and an awful lot of that hay gets shipped overseas. But whether we’re talking about fields of alfalfa or potatoes being fallowed, real people will be forced to pay the price of a changing climate.

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Aquafornia news June 23, 2022 AZ Big Media

Here’s why the smell of desert rain may be good for your health

Desert dwellers know it well: the smell of rain and the feeling of euphoria that comes when a storm washes over the parched Earth. That feeling – and the additional health benefits that come with it – may be the result of oils and other chemicals released by desert plants after a good soaking, new University of Arizona research suggests. … [Gary Nabhan, a research social scientist at the UArizona Southwest Center] is lead author of two new studies … that explain how volatile organic compounds that evolved to protect plants from damaging solar radiation, heat waves, drought stress and predatory animals may also have health benefits for humans. 

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Aquafornia news June 23, 2022 E&E News

Even in a ‘megadrought,’ some eye new or expanded Colorado River dams

Even as a persistent drought strangles the Colorado River and threatens the viability of giant reservoirs and dams erected decades ago, Western states and local governments are eyeing more projects to tap the flow of the 1,450-mile river and its tributaries. Whether those potential new reservoirs or other diversions would further tax an already overwhelmed system, or actually help states and municipalities adapt to a changing climate while making better use of their dwindling supplies, is a point of contention between environmentalists and water managers. 

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Aquafornia news June 23, 2022 KSL.com

Latter-day Saints leaders announce water use cutbacks in the West amid drought

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is cutting back on watering lawns and landscapes at temples, meetinghouses and other buildings across the West in an effort to conserve water amid a worsening regional drought. … Officials said the church already switched to water-wise irrigation systems and low-flow plumbing systems for new projects beginning in the early 2000s, and that it is working to retrofit other properties that pre-date that time period. They plan on expanding the use of smart controllers, hydrometers, rain sensors, drip irrigation and use of secondary or reclaimed water to help water lawns and landscapes effectively.

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Aquafornia news June 23, 2022 Los Angeles Times

Water is flowing again in Mexico’s dry Colorado River Delta

Beside a canal that runs through farmland, rushing water roared through an irrigation gate and flowed down a concrete culvert toward a wetland fringed with cottonwoods and willows. For decades, so much water has been diverted to supply farms and cities that the Colorado River has seldom met the sea and much of its delta in Mexico has been reduced to a dry riverbed, with only small remnants of its once-vast wetlands surviving. Over the past eight weeks, water has been flowing in parts of the delta once again, restoring a stretch of river in Mexico where previously there had been miles of desert sand.

Related article:

  • Western Water Rewind: Water-Starved Colorado River Delta Gets Another Shot of Life from the River’s Flows
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Aquafornia news June 23, 2022 The San Diego Union-Tribune

Column: Summertime is no cure for the environmental blues

News about the environment rarely is good these days, but a string of grim developments locally, regionally and internationally cast a particular pall over the otherwise sunny arrival of summer. Beaches from Imperial Beach north to Coronado were closed because of sewage discharges from Tijuana. The Colorado River’s reservoirs are so low that severe water cuts are on the horizon for much of the southwestern United States. And another climate conference, this one in Germany, pretty much went nowhere. All of this is bad, though all is not lost.
-Written by U-T columnist Michael Smolens.

Related article: 

  • New York Times: What Are the Dirtiest Beaches in California?
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Aquafornia news June 23, 2022 Fresh Water News 

60 days and counting: Colorado River cutbacks achievable, experts say, as long as farm interests are on board

Colorado River Basin states will succeed in complying with an emergency federal order that came just last week to slash water use by millions of acre-feet, experts said, but it will take time plus major deals with farm interests and tribal communities, and will likely require that the basin, whose flows and operational structure were divided by the 1922 Colorado River Compact, be united and managed as one entity. … The states have 60 days to come up with a water reduction plan. Kenney’s comments came June 17 at the Getches-Wilkinson Law Conference on Natural Resources at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Related articles: 

  • NBC News: Lake Mead nears dead pool status as water levels hit another historic low
  • Colorado Sun: Opinion - Rethink how water is used in the West
  • Western Farm Press: Opinion: Can we curtail a Colorado River catastrophe?
  • ABC 15 -Phoenix: More Valley communities implement drought management plans
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Aquafornia news June 22, 2022 Reuters

Las Vegas declares turf war on lawns as drought worsens

Las Vegas is ripping up millions of square feet of grass - including greenery along the iconic strip – as the city struggles with a decades-long drought made worse by climate change. Lawmakers last year outlawed turf that is only decorative, and property owners across the city are replacing grass with a mix of artificial turf and desert-friendly plants. The law does not apply to golf courses or private houses, but new homes are not allowed to use real grass.

Related articles: 

  • Fox 10 – Phoenix: Lake Mead - Drought-stricken reservoir near Vegas hits new lowest level since 1930s
  • KTAR: Chandler is latest Valley city to take water management action
  • Western Water Rewind: As Climate Change Turns Up The Heat in Las Vegas, Water Managers Try to Wring New Savings to Stretch Supply
  • Read more
  • View Original Article
Aquafornia news June 22, 2022 KUNC

Deepening fissures define rural southern Arizona’s fight over groundwater rules

It’s already dry in southern Arizona’s Sulphur Springs Valley and it’s getting drier. The underground aquifer that lies beneath the desert used to be much higher, but as it drops the ground above it becomes unstable. Residents … are seeing the wells they use to pump water for their basic needs — to take showers and wash their hands — dry up as large farming operations move in and drill deeper. … Groundwater management isn’t just an Arizona problem. Colorado’s legislature just voted last month to put $60 million towards groundwater sustainability. California and Nevada have also struggled with the issue.

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  • View Original Article
Aquafornia news June 21, 2022 The Tribune

Opinion: The Colorado River Compact hasn’t aged well

The Colorado River Compact turns 100 this year, but any celebration is damped down by the drying-up of the big reservoirs it enabled. The Bureau of Reclamation’s “first-ever” shortage declaration on the river acknowledges officially what we’ve known for years: the Compact and all the measures augmenting it, collectively known as The Law of the River, have not prevented the river’s over-development. 
-Written by George Sibley, a contributor to Writers on the Range, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively discussion about Western issues. 

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Aquafornia news June 21, 2022 KUNC

In the face of climate change, beavers are engineering a resistance

In the foothills of Boulder County, Colorado, there’s a kind of secret water park. It’s a sprawling network of pools, channels and waterfalls. Neck-deep ponds, rushing streams and cascades twice the height of a person are a stark contrast to the dry, brushy terrain on the canyon slopes above. But these features weren’t built by humans. This marshy mosaic is a paradise for beavers, and one of hundreds of thousands just like it across the American West. The animals create messy wetlands as safe places to live, and a new paper explains how their handiwork is also a powerful tool in fending off the harms of climate change.

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Aquafornia news June 20, 2022 Los Angeles Times

Monday Top of the Scroll: As Colorado River reservoirs drop, states urged to ‘act now’

With the Colorado River’s depleted reservoirs continuing to drop to new lows, the federal government has taken the unprecedented step of telling the seven Western states that rely on the river to find ways of drastically cutting the amount of water they take in the next two months. The Interior Department is seeking the emergency cuts to reduce the risks of Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the country’s two largest reservoirs, declining to dangerously low levels next year.

Related articles: 

  • Las Vegas Review-Journal: Feds - Lake Mead could become ‘useless’ without major water use cuts
  • KUNC: Under federal pressure, Colorado River water managers face unprecedented call for conservation
  • CNN: The Southwest’s unchecked thirst for Colorado River water could prove devastating upstream
  • CPR News: Colorado River states need to drastically cut down their water usage ASAP, or the federal government will step in
  • Arizona Republic Editorial: Why Arizona lawmakers must act now – and do something big – on water  
  • Read more
  • View Original Article
Aquafornia news June 17, 2022 Colorado Sun

New Mexico reaches $32M settlement over 2015 mine spill near Silverton

New Mexico and the U.S. government have reached a $32 million settlement over a 2015 mine spill that polluted rivers in three western states. Similar environmental accidents will be intolerable in the future as the region grapples with shrinking water supplies amid drought and climate change, the governor said Thursday. … The spill released 3 million gallons (11 million liters) of wastewater from the inactive Gold King Mine in southwestern Colorado, sending a bright-yellow plume of arsenic, lead and other heavy metals south to New Mexico, through the Navajo Nation and into Utah through the San Juan and Animas rivers.

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Aquafornia news June 17, 2022 Fox 10 - Phoenix

Arizona farmers stretched thin as drought plagues the Southwest

Major water cutbacks loom as Colorado River levels continue to decline in the Southwest. For the Arizona Farm Bureau, the idea of cutting more water for farmers here in the state is a big concern.  Many that rely on the Colorado River for their crops have already been cutting down on their water usage, lowered the amount of acreage they’re using and have found more efficient irrigation methods. … The Arizona Farm Bureau says that normally farmers in the state can rely on other regions to help with supplies, but this time it’s different - the drought is widespread in the Southwest, and other states are feeling the strain too.

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Aquafornia news June 17, 2022 CNN

Southwest drought persisted as Yellowstone flooded

The West saw an aspect of the climate crisis play out this week that scientists have warned of for years. In the middle of a prolonged, water shortage-inducing megadrought, one area, Yellowstone, was overwhelmed by drenching rainfall and rapid snowmelt that — instead of replenishing the ground over a matter of weeks or months — created a torrent of flash flooding that ripped out roads and bridges and caused severe damage to one of the country’s most cherished national parks. In the meantime, drought conditions persisted in the Southwest, where water is desperately needed to replenish the country’s largest reservoirs, and provide relief to regions tormented by record-setting wildfires.

Related article: 

  • USA Today: Photos - National Parks being threatened by climate change
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Aquafornia news June 17, 2022 Los Angeles Times

These five people could make or break the Colorado River

Alex Cardenas. J.B. Hamby. Jim Hanks. Javier Gonzalez. Norma Sierra Galindo. … They’re the elected directors of the Imperial Irrigation District, or IID, which provides water to the desert farm fields of California’s Imperial Valley, in the state’s southeastern corner. They control 3.1 million acre-feet of Colorado River water — roughly one-fifth of all the Colorado River water rights in the United States. And if you live in Southern California — or in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Denver or Salt Lake City — the future reliability of your water supply will depend at least in part on what IID does next.

Related articles: 

  • Fronteras: Arizona cities are cutting back on water. This water law expert says it could make a difference
  • Salt Lake Tribune: Opinion, by Bruce Babbitt and Brian Richter - Saving the Colorado River
  • Pew Charitable Trust: Feds will cut states’ access to Colorado River water
  • Read more
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Aquafornia news June 16, 2022 Northern California Water Association

Blog: New watershed framework

If Congress had not summarily dismissed John Wesley Powell’s vision of watersheds in the American West in the late 1890s, we would not find ourselves trying to retrace our steps to that pivotal moment. One stroke of a pen unleashed generations of silos that continue to allow for the exploitation of our most precious natural resources and the perpetuation of both embedded and overt inequities. The elegance of Powell’s watersheds was in the revolutionary concept of integrating land and water, something unheard of in his era. Connecting the two would not have been a silver bullet, but it would have made it much harder to justify siloing naturally interdependent systems.

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Aquafornia news June 16, 2022 Arizona Daily Star

Big Colorado River water cuts needed next year, top US official warns

The largest single batch of water-use cuts ever carried out on the Colorado River is needed in 2023 to keep Lakes Mead and Powell from falling to critically low levels, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation commissioner told a congressional hearing Tuesday. Between 2 million and 4 million acre-feet of water use must be cut for 2023 across the river basin to cope with continued declines in reservoir levels, said Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton. This comes as the West continues to struggle with ongoing conditions of “hotter temperatures, leading to early snowmelt and dry soils, all translated into low runoff and the lowest reservoir levels on record,” Touton said.

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  • The Colorado Sun: Colorado River water use may have to be slashed by a quarter to avert crisis, federal official warns
  • Axios: Drought-hit Colorado River water supplies near “moment of reckoning”
  • USA Today: ‘The moment of reckoning is near’: Feds warn huge cuts needed to shore up Lake Mead, Colorado River
  • Audubon: New Dire Colorado River Warnings from the Federal Government
  • Jfleck at inkstain: Touton - On the Colorado River, we need to cut an additional 2 to 4 million acre feet of use. Now.
  • Agri-Pulse: Reclamation weighs emergency measures to save key reservoirs  
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Aquafornia news June 16, 2022 Colorado Sun

Opinion: Tribal Nations must be at the table to find water solutions

In southwestern Colorado, multiple years of hot and dry conditions have drained many of our reservoirs. This year we expect that a section of the Pine River, which runs through the heart of the Southern Ute Reservation, will run completely dry due to dry conditions and irrigation diversions by Tribal and non-Tribal irrigators. Unfortunately, what’s happening with the Pine River is becoming all too common across the Colorado River Basin and the West. Scientists have concluded that the ongoing severe drought conditions we’re facing are primarily due to climate change.
-Written by Celene Hawkins, the Colorado and Colorado River Tribal Engagement Program director for The Nature Conservancy; and Lorelei Cloud, of the Southern Ute Indian Reservation and Council Member for the Southern Ute Indian Tribal Council. 

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Aquafornia news June 15, 2022 The Associated Press

Biologists try to save ancient fish as Colorado River fades

Barrett Friesen steers a motorboat toward the shore of Lake Powell, with the Glen Canyon Dam towering overhead. Pale “bathtub rings” line the canyon’s rocky face, starkly illustrating how water levels have slumped in the second-largest U.S. reservoir amid rising demand and a multi-year drought. The Utah State University graduate student and colleagues are on a mission to save the humpback chub, an ancient fish under assault from nonnative predators in the Colorado River. 

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Aquafornia news June 15, 2022 Desert Research Institute

New research: Study explores uncertainties in flood risk estimates

Flood frequency analysis is a technique used to estimate flood risk, providing statistics such as the “100-year flood” or “500-year flood” that are critical to infrastructure design, dam safety analysis, and flood mapping in flood-prone areas. But the method used to calculate these flood frequencies is due for an update, according to a new study by scientists from DRI, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Colorado State University. Floods, even in a single watershed, are known to be caused by a variety of sources, including  rainfall, snowmelt, or “rain-on-snow” events in which rain falls on existing snowpack.

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  • Arizona Republic: Forecasting the monsoon is complicated. Climate change made it a whole other game
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Aquafornia news June 15, 2022 Los Angeles Times

Wednesday Top of the Scroll: Major water cutbacks loom as shrinking Colorado River nears ‘moment of reckoning’

As the West endures another year of unrelenting drought worsened by climate change, the Colorado River’s reservoirs have declined so low that major water cuts will be necessary next year to reduce risks of supplies reaching perilously low levels, a top federal water official said Tuesday. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said during a Senate hearing in Washington that federal officials now believe protecting “critical levels” at the country’s largest reservoirs — Lake Mead and Lake Powell — will require much larger reductions in water deliveries. … The needed cuts, she said, amount to between 2 million and 4 million acre-feet next year.

Related articles: 

  • Colorado Newsline: Federal agency warns Colorado River Basin water usage could be cut as drought worsens
  • Desert Sun: Feds float drastic measures to stanch California’s water crisis
  • U.S. Bureau of Reclamation: Statement of Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton
  • Colorado Sun: Opinion – A Colorado foundation gives it all away — now — to battle the climate crisis
  • Business Wire: Metropolitan General Manager Issues Statement on Need to Respond to Declining Colorado River Conditions
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Aquafornia news June 14, 2022 AZ Big Media

Here’s a look at the impact of Arizona drought

Lower rainfall and higher temperatures have created ideal conditions to exacerbate Arizona’s longstanding drought. Entering 2022, more than half of the state remains in severe drought status and an additional 10% is enduring extreme drought. So, what is the impact of the Arizona drought? These conditions — including the drop in levels at crucial water sources such as Lake Mead and the Colorado River — drive the research of doctoral student Zhaocheng Wang, who is studying hydrosystems engineering in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, one of the seven Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University.

Related article: 

  • Deseret News: Drought intensifies in Utah and the West amid searing heat, no rain
  • Arizona Capitol Times: Opinion – It’s time for Legislature to protect water for all Arizonans
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Aquafornia news June 14, 2022 Los Angeles Times

The Colorado River: Where the West quenches its thirst

The Colorado River begins in the Rocky Mountains, collecting snowmelt as it meanders through an alpine valley. Across a vast swath of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, the river grows as it takes in major tributaries: the Gunnison, the Dolores, the Green and others. The Colorado River Basin encompasses more than 246,000 square miles in seven U.S. states and northern Mexico. … Water diverted from the river flows from taps in Denver, Phoenix and Las Vegas and throughout much of Southern California, supplying nearly 40 million people. About 70% of the water diverted from the river in the U.S. is used for agriculture … The region’s heavy use of the river is colliding like never before with the climate, which is growing hotter and drier.

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Aquafornia news June 13, 2022 Modern Farmer

Can dryland farming help growers endure increasing heatwaves and drought?

Increasingly, the Sonoran and other dry places are showing us what a heat-and-drought-riddled future has in store for more of our food systems. These examples suggest that deep knowledge of dryland farming practices could blunt the impacts, giving some farmers a workable path forward. Whether conventional agriculture is willing to learn anything at all from these systems, however, is the question. 

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Aquafornia news June 13, 2022 Colorado Sun

The Ute Mountain Ute can’t access their Colorado River water rights. Here’s how the tribal chairman is trying to change that

The Ute Mountain Ute tribe has rights to Colorado River water that it can’t access and unresolved water rights claims in New Mexico and Utah. Tribal Chairman Manuel Heart, who views the future of the tribe’s water supply as a critically important topic, is set on securing those resources. But in a Colorado River Basin that is already over-allocated and deep in a two-decade drought, it won’t be easy.  

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Aquafornia news June 13, 2022 Axios

U.S. heat wave: 100 million face weather alerts in South ahead of shift East

Nearly 100 million people are facing heat warnings and advisories across the U.S. this week due to an early season heat wave that saw high-temperature records set from California to Texas over the weekend. The latest: At least three wildfires ignited in drought-stricken Southern California on Sunday, per NBC News. San Bernardino County’s Sheep Fire, which ignited Saturday, has swollen to 990 acres in size and was 5% contained, according to Inciweb. Blazes also erupted in drought ravaged Arizona and New Mexico, which has already been hit by a series of devastating fires this year that resulted in President Biden approving a disaster declaration in May.

Related article: 

  • Washington Post: Extreme heat in southwest raising fears of health problems
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Aquafornia news June 13, 2022 Las Vegas Review-Journal

Drought, dry conditions push Lake Mead to lowest level on record

As the western megadrought worsens, the nation’s largest reservoir hit a new worrisome milestone this week. Lake Mead now sits just 29 percent full, dropping below 30 percent for the first time since the reservoir was initially filled more than 80 years ago, according to the most recent weekly report released this week by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. … Beyond the rising temperatures and dwindling water supply in the Colorado River, the Bureau of Reclamation recently implemented a plan to hold back 480,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell that would normally be released downstream and to Lake Mead, a measure taken to ensure that Glen Canyon Dam can continue to generate electricity …

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  • KSRO – Sonoma: Are Rising Water Prices Amid The Western Megadought Inevitable? Yes, But It’s Complicated, Experts Say
  • Channel 3 – Las Vegas: Laughlin becomes new lake hotspot as Lake Mead water levels drop and temperatures rise
  • The Desert Review: Two decade drought makes for a thirsty land
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Aquafornia news June 13, 2022 Aspen Times

Declining levels at Lake Powell increase risk to humpback chub downstream

As climate change continues to shrink the nation’s second-largest reservoir, water managers are scrambling to prevent the release of an invasive fish into the Grand Canyon. Smallmouth bass, a voracious predator and popular game fish, have been introduced into reservoirs throughout the Colorado River basin, including Lake Powell. The looming problem now is that as lake levels drop to historically low levels, the invasive fish are likely to escape beyond Glen Canyon Dam, threatening endangered fish in the canyon, whose populations have rebounded in recent years. 

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Aquafornia news June 10, 2022 The Pew Charitable Trusts

Blog: To protect and restore rivers, states can use ‘outstanding’ policy designation

For millennia, healthy, free-flowing rivers across the U.S. have helped people, wildlife, and habitats thrive. But today, too many of those rivers are blocked by dams or threatened by pollution, development, and climate change. Fortunately, state and Tribal governments can use a policy tool to help protect and restore waterways. June is National Rivers Month, making it an ideal time for those officials to list more of our country’s rivers as “Outstanding.” … Nevada is home to some spectacular freshwater, from Lake Tahoe and Pyramid Lake to Marys River—home to native Lahontan cutthroat trout—and the thermal springs of the Muddy River, which support wildlife found nowhere else in the world. 

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Aquafornia news June 10, 2022 Colorado Public Radio: 

Colorado’s water future could look more like Arizona’s. That means a lot less snow and water for the Colorado River. 

Parts of Colorado and other Rocky Mountain states could be facing a water future that more closely resembles Arizona, new federal research finds. The drier and warmer conditions could mean less snow accumulates in the mountains of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming and melts into a water system that feeds the Colorado River, researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Earth and Environmental Sciences division found. Warmer temperatures have already contributed to a 20 percent drop in the flow of the Colorado River since the 1900s, which supplies millions of people across the West with water and hydroelectric power. 

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  • Circle of Blue: What happens if Glen Canyon Dam’s power shuts off?
  • Axios: New Colorado River drought discovery sheds light on current event
  • Earth.org: The Looming Colorado Water Shortage Crisis 
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Aquafornia news June 9, 2022 Courthouse News Service

Thursday Top of the Scroll: Scientists find the Colorado River was blighted by a worse drought in the 2nd century

While the current drought afflicting the Colorado River Basin is the worst since federal scientists began keeping records, a new study using paleoclimatic data discovers it is not the worst drought in the region’s recent geological history.  Researchers at the Bureau of Reclamation published the study Thursday in Geophysical Research Letters, a peer-reviewed geoscience journal. They used paleoclimatic evidence like tree rings and indicators in bogs and caves to reconstruct stream flows; the researchers found evidence of a devastating drought that struck the Colorado River Basin in the second century.

Related article: 

  • U.S. Bureau of Reclamation: New study finds extreme, severe drought impacting the upper Colorado River basin in the second century
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Aquafornia news June 9, 2022 Arizona Republic

Opinion: Why is almost no one planning for a future without Lake Mead?

You’d think that, given how dangerously low Lake Mead is getting, we’d have a good idea of what life might look like without that water. Yet few major players are modeling for a future without Colorado River water – or even a future in which we are asked to live on markedly less of it. Ironically, the deeper the lake plunges, the more reluctant water managers seem to be about fleshing out the worst-case scenario. That’s a mistake.
-Written by Joanna Allhands, Arizona Republic columnist.

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  • The Aspen Times: Opinion, by Allen Best: Reinterpreting the Colorado River Compact for the 21st century
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Aquafornia news June 8, 2022 The New York Times

More than 22 million in Southwest brace for dangerous heat

Dangerous and potentially deadly heat will settle over the Southwestern United States for the next several days, with temperatures in some locations expected to break records and exceed 110 degrees. More than 22 million people in California, Nevada and Arizona are under some sort of heat-related alert through at least part of the weekend, the National Weather Service said. … It’s going to be dry and very hot. An excessive heat warning was in effect through Sunday night for the San Diego area, where temperatures were forecast to reach 117 degrees. 

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Aquafornia news June 8, 2022 Gizmodo

Colorado will look like a different state by 2080

Colorado is going to become hotter, dryer, and a lot less skiable in just a few decades, according to new research. The study, published in Earth and Space Science, used climate models to forecast the future of snow in Colorado, finding that the state is set to lose 50% to 60% of its snow by 2080, thanks to climate change-related drought conditions. Nearby states Wyoming and Utah are also likely to become less snowy and more arid, too.

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Aquafornia news June 8, 2022 E&E News

Arizona prepares to break open its Water Bank

In late April 1996, Lake Powell sat at an elevation of 3,673 feet — just 27 feet below its maximum capacity. At that time of plenty, Arizona lawmakers worried that the state wasn’t using its full share of Colorado River water. Instead of potentially ceding those flows to California, the state opened a kind of liquid piggy bank, storing away a share of its water for an uncertain future. In the first year of operations, the Arizona Water Banking Authority set aside 300,000 acre-feet of water. After 25 years, its savings balance — stored underground in facilities across the state — has grown to 3.75 million acre-feet.

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Aquafornia news June 8, 2022 Civil Eats

A growing movement to reclaim water rights for indigenous people

In recent years, the hashtag #LandBack has surfaced across Indigenous platforms to signify a need to reclaim ancestral landscapes and protect the sacred and cultural resources they contain. Across the American Southwest, however, there has been an even deeper call to action: “We can’t have #LandBack without #WaterBack” reads the poster material for the Pueblo Action Alliance’s #WaterBack campaign. Between Arizona and New Mexico alone, 43 federally recognized tribes call the desert landscape home. However, their ways of life have been challenged by centuries of colonization and resource exploitation, resulting in large cities siphoning water from reservations … 

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Aquafornia news June 8, 2022 The Denver Channel

Scientists, agriculturalists sound alarm for federal action on Western drought

The federal government needs to take quick and decisive actions and work through regional, state and local partnerships to address the worsening drought and water conditions in Colorado and the West, a panel of water scientists and agriculturalists told a Senate subcommittee chaired by Colorado’s Michael Bennet Tuesday. … The megadrought in the West is the worst it has been in 1,200 years, scientists have determined. [Andy Mueller, the general manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District] said there is only about 34% of storage capacity left in the reservoirs along the river, and that hotter temperatures in the area have exacerbated the drought and water shortages.

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Aquafornia news June 7, 2022 jfleck at inkstain

Blog: A hundred years ago in Colorado River Compact negotiations: the Supreme Court Breaks the logjam

With a single statement, the United States Supreme Court changed the direction and tone of the compact negotiations: [T]he waters of an innavigable stream rising in one state and flowing into a state adjoining may not be disposed of by the upper state as she may choose, regardless of the harm that may ensue to the lower state and her citizens. In a unanimous ruling, on June 5, 1922, the court issued its decision in Wyoming v. Colorado, ruling that Colorado could not develop waters of the Laramie River in a manner that ignored and injured downstream senior appropriators in Wyoming. The decision, and its clear implications for the development of the Colorado River, echoed around the West. 

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Aquafornia news June 7, 2022 The Denver Post

Colorado will lose half its snow, drying out, becoming more like Arizona, federal scientists conclude

Parts of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah are drying out due to climate-driven changes in stream flows, and these states will shift to become more like the most arid states of the Southwest, federal researchers found in a scientific study published this week. The lead author of the study said Colorado will experience a 50% to 60% reduction in snow by 2080…. For Colorado and surrounding “upper [Colorado River] basin” states, the scientists projected wide shrinking of snow, leading to less spring snow melting followed by decreasing water in streams, especially in the Rocky Mountains. 

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  • Clean Technica: This TikToker Will Hike The Colorado River To Raise Awareness About Its Decline & Drought
  • Salt Lake Tribune: We should not let fear guide our decisions
  • KRDO – Colorado Springs: $1.9M invested for drought preparedness and mitigation across Colorado
  • ABC 15 – Arizona: Phoenix urges reduced water usage as some supplies are cut
  • Union of Concerned Scientists: Water, Wildfire, and Climate Change
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Aquafornia news June 7, 2022 Arizona Central

Opinion: Rural Arizona needs Legislature’s help to stop a water crisis

Three long years. That’s how long residents in our three counties – Mohave, Coconino and Yavapai – have been urging the state Legislature to pass bills finally giving rural Arizonans the authority to control our water futures. And yet, folks in Phoenix have sat on their hands, letting whoever can drill the deepest well win while watching homeowners’ wells go dry and our rivers decline. We are fed up waiting for the Legislature to act against unfettered groundwater pumping in rural Arizona.
-Written by Travis Lingenfelter, Patrice Horstman and Donna Michaels, who respectively serve on the county board of supervisors in Mohave, Coconino and Yavapai counties. 

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Aquafornia news June 6, 2022 BBC News

Drought-stricken US warned of looming ‘dead pool’

[Lake Mead's] water level is now so low that bodies of murder victims from decades back, once hidden by its depths, have surfaced. … While the dead bodies are fuelling talk about Las Vegas’ mob past, water experts warn of even more worrisome consequences. If the lake keeps receding, it would reach what’s known as “dead pool” – a level so low the Hoover Dam would no longer be able to produce hydropower or deliver water downstream.

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  • Axios – Phoenix: More cities in the Valley expected to enact drought plans
  • Circle of Blue: Blog – Federal Water Tap, June 6: White House Links Water and National Security
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Aquafornia news June 6, 2022 Fox 5

Experts hope cloud seeding will help with Colorado’s drought

Experts are hoping that a weather modification program will increase water from snow storms, possibly ending Colorado’s drought.  Andrew Rickert is spearheading cloud seeding in the state. He leads Colorado’s weather modification program.  In Western states, some water providers, ski areas and power companies have all injected silver iodide droplets into winter clouds for decades. In those areas, the winter snows that collect on mountain ranges provide upward of 70 percent of annual precipitation. The idea is that the droplets provide a nucleus within a cloud around which water can coalesce, forming snowflakes.

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Aquafornia news June 6, 2022 Arizona Daily Sun

Opinion: Arizona brewers need legislature to lead on water policy

As members of the craft brewing community, it’s tempting to remind people that we, a $1.2 billion small business sector in Arizona, are wholly dependent on adequate and reliable water supplies. We could also remind you that our agricultural partners who provide us with the ingredients we need to brew are reliant on the same. … We are calling on our elected officials to take action during this legislative session. Legislators are currently negotiating the Arizona Water Authority, a proposal to invest more than $1 billion into various projects to boost Arizona’s water reliability and find new water supplies.
-Written by Nick Irvine, Marketing Director with Drinking Horn Meadery in Flagstaff; and Scott Stocking, owner of Mudshark Pizza Inc., a brewery and family of restaurants in Lake Havasu City.

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Aquafornia news June 3, 2022 KSL - Salt Lake City

The West is already burning, and experts worry it’s about to get worse

Extensively dry conditions across the West have already resulted in a rash of fires in Arizona and New Mexico at the tail end of meteorological spring. … [T]he snowpack collection near Truckee, California, in the Sierra Nevada explains a lot of what happened over the winter. The area by Lake Tahoe entered the new year well above average only to drop below average by the start of February and end up below average by the time it melted early. Utah’s statewide snowpack followed this model, too.

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  • Voice of San Diego: Conditions are Ripe For High Wildfire Season Come September
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Aquafornia news June 3, 2022 E&E News

Could the Colorado River Compact adapt to go with the flow?

Dwindling flows in the Colorado River Basin are stirring discussions about whether a 100-year-old agreement that governs how that water is divided needs to be overhauled. But there may be another option: don’t rewrite the law, instead reinterpret it. Despite its status as the cornerstone of the “Law of the River” — the various agreements that dictate how the water is managed between seven basin states and Mexico — some key provisions in the Colorado River Compact remain unsettled.

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  • PBS: Megadrought causes perilously low water levels at Lake Mead 
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Aquafornia news June 2, 2022 CNBC

Why hydropower is the world’s most overlooked renewable

Hydropower is by far the largest renewable worldwide, producing over twice as much energy as wind, and over four times as much as solar. And pumping water up a hill, aka “pumped storage hydropower”, comprises well over 90% of the world’s total energy storage capacity.  But in spite of hydropower’s outsize impact, we don’t hear much about it in the U.S. While the past few decades have seen wind and solar plummet in price and skyrocket in availability, domestic hydropower generation has remained relatively steady, as the nation has already built hydropower plants in the most geographically ideal locations.

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Aquafornia news June 2, 2022 CNN

A massive rockfall crashed down on Lake Powell. Record-low water levels from drought could be to blame

Memorial Day boaters captured the scene on video as a massive rockfall crashed into the waters of Lake Powell. The dramatic rockslide happened on the Utah side of the lake — the second largest reservoir in the country — where water levels have continued to plunge due to the unrelenting drought conditions gripping much of the West. … Tyler Knudsen, a senior geologist with the Utah Geological Survey, said it’s difficult to say this early whether the Memorial Day rockfall is linked to the ongoing drought, since rockslides can be triggered by several other external factors — including rainfall, earthquakes, and daily temperature fluctuations. 

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Aquafornia news June 1, 2022 EurekAlert!

New research: The history of Lake Cahuilla before the Salton Sea

Today, the Salton Sea is an eerie place. Its mirror-like surface belies the toxic stew within. Fish skeletons line its shores and the ruins of a once thriving vacation playground is a reminder of better days. But long before agricultural runoff bespoiled the Salton Sea, the lakebed it now occupies was home to a much larger body of water known as Lake Cahuilla. The lake was six times the area of the Salton Sea and once covered much of Mexicali, Imperial and Coachella valleys. 

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Aquafornia news June 1, 2022 Salt Lake Tribune

What will happen if the Glen Canyon Dam stops generating power?

Low tide usually arrives every 12 hours on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park. River runners who pull their rafts onto gently sloping sand beaches to camp may awake to find their boats stranded far above the waterline by morning. Rocks that disappear in certain rapids at high tide become major obstacles when the water is low, and most rafters carry a tide chart in their boats’ dry boxes alongside their map. Unlike ocean tides, however, the river’s regular fluctuations have nothing to do with the gravitational pull of the moon. They are driven by the power demands of the Southwest.

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  • Colorado Sun: How much water is lost in the transfer between Flaming Gorge and Lake Powell?
  • Arizona Daily Sun: Boaters, bugs, and the uncertain future of the Colorado River
  • The Irish Times: Vanishing reservoir lakes herald America’s future water crisis 
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Aquafornia news June 1, 2022 Colorado Public Radio

Native American tribes secure spots on the Colorado nonprofit water policy board for the first time

The Colorado Water Congress has voted to expand its board to include representatives of Native American tribes for the first time. The water congress was created in the late 1950s by then-Gov. Steve McNichols and Attorney General Duke Dunbar, to bring the entire water community together as a group to make recommendations to state leaders about water issues that needed to be addressed in Colorado.  Executive Director Doug Kemper said the nonprofit group has about 350 organizations as members, ranging from water utilities like Denver Water to agricultural and environmental groups.

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  • KUNC: Access to clean water, rights to Colorado River are high priorities for tribes
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Aquafornia news May 31, 2022 Nevada Public Radio

Former Southern Nevada Water Authority chief ‘very worried’ about Lake Mead level

Lake Mead, the lifeblood of the West, is at an all-time low. And just this week, officials said it will fall by one-third of its current level by the end of 2023. Inch by inch, the lake is falling…. The falling lake level was anticipated, but how fast it’s dropping is the current problem. For Pat Mulroy, that means she’s “very worried.” She led the Southern Nevada Water Authority for nearly 30 years, and now she’s the senior fellow for climate adaptation and environmental policy at the UNLV Boyd School of Law.

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  • E&E News: Southwest megadrought pushes hydropower to the brink 
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Aquafornia news May 31, 2022 CNN

Disaster upon disaster: Wildfires are contaminating the West’s depleting water with ashy sludge

Officials in Las Vegas, New Mexico, had barely finished battling the massive Calf Canyon-Hermits Peak wildfire earlier this month before they had to point their defenses toward another threat: the ash-filled erosion that could pollute their water…. Megafires aren’t just burning down homes, trees and wildlife in the West. They’re also destabilizing the soil. When it rains, thousands of tons of charred sediment flow into rivers and reservoirs used for drinking water…. “It’s literally like tasting dirt,” said Andy Fecko, general manager at the Placer County Water Agency in Auburn, California, a city that sits between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe.

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Aquafornia news May 31, 2022 KJZZ

Ducey in Israel for trade, water, security talks

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey is in Israel for five days of talks with political and business leaders of the Middle Eastern country. … Ducey has touted Israel’s water desalination technology as a way to augment Arizona’s supplies, which are endangered by long-term drought and climate change. He wants the state Legislature to approve a $1 billion investment for boosting the state’s water supply this year. Key to that plan is a desalination plant that could cost more than five times that amount.

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Aquafornia news May 31, 2022 Voice of San Diego

Wastewater recycling made sewage valuable. Now East County and San Diego are fighting over it

The city of San Diego pursued its massive wastewater-to-drinking water recycling program, in part, because the federal government said it had to. Millions of gallons of undertreated sewage enters the Pacific Ocean through the city’s aging Point Loma treatment plant on the regular; Pure Water is the region’s first step toward a solution. But now, a bloc of eastern San Diego County water agencies is building their own recycling project because, they say, the cost of buying imported water from the drought-ravaged Colorado River is unsustainable.

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Aquafornia news May 27, 2022 8 News Las Vegas

Hoover Dam power production down 33%, official says

Power production at Hoover Dam is down about 33% and will continue to drop as the “megadrought” affecting the Southwest continues, according to a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokesman. The declining level at Lake Mead is the reason, according to Doug Hendrix, Deputy Public Affairs Officer with the Bureau of Reclamation’s Lower Colorado Regional Office. At full capacity, the turbines at the dam can produce 2,074 megawatts, but as the water level has declined during the drought, power production has been affected and efficiency of the power plant is down 33%. 

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  • Reuters: California drought could nearly halve hydropower output, boost electricity prices
  • Axios: California and the West face a summer of power outages
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Aquafornia news May 27, 2022 Earth.com

Colorado high school is fighting to save razorback suckers

Palisade High School, a twenty minute drive from where I live in Colorado, has something unusual – a fish hatchery. When I read about this, I had to visit the school to see for myself. Razorback suckers (Xyrauchen texanus), the only fish raised at Palisade’s hatchery, once lived throughout the Colorado River Basin from Wyoming to Baja California, Mexico. As is typical of many fish native to the western US, damming of rivers, introduction of non-native sport fishes and irrigation channels have taken a toll. The critically endangered fish is still found in small and fragmented populations throughout the Colorado River Basin …

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Aquafornia news May 27, 2022 The Packer

Western senators moving to drought-proof future water supply

A group of senators has introduced the Support to Rehydrate the Environment, Agriculture and Municipalities, or STREAM, Act. The bill would increase water supply and modernize water infrastructure throughout the West. The three senators, all from states affected by the current drought, include Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.). … Infrastructure improvements and additions work toward a long-term solution. And it’s important to think urgently, said the release.

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Aquafornia news May 27, 2022 CNN

Friday Top of the Scroll: Lake Mead water level running well below predictions, could drop another 12 feet by fall

Federal officials have a sobering forecast for the Colorado River Basin: Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir which serves millions of people in the Southwest, will likely drop another 12 feet by this fall. It’s far below what the outlooks were predicting as of last year. The latest forecast from the US Bureau of Reclamation shows the reservoir plummeting from its current elevation of around 1049 feet above sea level to around 1037 feet by this September. One year after that, in September 2023, it suggests Lake Mead will be 26 feet lower than its current level — just 19% of the lake’s full capacity and a level that would trigger the most severe water cuts for the Southwest.

Related article: 

  • Arizona Republic: Metro Phoenix cities cut back on water as Colorado River deplete
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Aquafornia news May 26, 2022 High Country News

Unprecedented fire, wind and snowmelt in the Southwest

It is mid-May, and a couple of days ago, the Hermits Peak Fire in northern New Mexico reached 299,565 acres in size, surpassing the 2012 Whitewater-Baldy Fire as the state’s largest wildfire on record. … It is mid-May, and a dozen other fires have already charred tens of thousands of acres across the West … It is mid-May, and the spring winds have been relentless … It is mid-May, and the temperature in Phoenix has reached 105 degrees Fahrenheit two days in a row.

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Aquafornia news May 26, 2022 CNN

Lake Mead boats emerge as water level drops to 1,050 feet

The water level in Lake Mead — the nation’s largest reservoir — dropped below 1,050 feet elevation for the first time last week, a critical milestone that signals more stringent water cuts are around the corner for the Southwest…. As of Tuesday, Lake Mead’s level was around 1,049 feet above sea level…. If the lake’s water level is expected to stay below 1,050 feet by January 2023, the more significant Tier 2 shortage would be implemented. Additional cuts — each tier with rising impact on agriculture and municipal water use — are expected if Lake Mead continues to fall. 

Related article: 

  • Las Vegas Sun: Officials explain ‘dead pool’ and how to stop it in Mead
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Aquafornia news May 25, 2022 Colorado Sun

Residents question collateral from Unaweep Canyon hydropower plan

A few months ago, [Paul] Ashcraft and several of his neighbors at the highest point in Unaweep Canyon saw a plan proposed by Xcel Energy to build a hydro power plant that will help the company reach its renewable energy goals. The plan put a 75-foot dam holding back the edge of an 88-acre reservoir in Ashcraft’s front yard. The proposal also puts his neighbors’ homes and Colorado 141 underwater. The plan would move water between a reservoir on BLM land on top of the cliffs and a reservoir on private land on the valley floor.

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Aquafornia news May 25, 2022 KNAU Arizona Public Radio

Failing septic systems on Navajo Nation an increasing concern

Navajo Nation leaders say failing septic and solid waste systems are becoming an increasing concern in many areas of the reservation. One tribal lawmaker has gathered nearly 170 accounts from residents of Blue Gap, Many Farms and other chapters about deficient sanitation facilities in homes. Officials say it’s a serious environmental contamination issue that threatens land and water and creates significant health risks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Aquafornia news May 25, 2022 KYMA - Yuma, AZ

Southwest water shortage expected to get worse

A “Tier 1″ shortage was triggered by Lake Mead falling below 1,075 feet of water this past year.  This means less Colorado River water is flowing into Arizona. Historic drought conditions are impacting critical infrastructure that provides water and power to the region, like the Hoover Dam, and Lakes Mead and Powell…. For now, [Bureau of Reclamation official Dan] Bunk says Yuma and its agricultural industry remain unaffected by the tier one shortage. But the future is unknown.

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Aquafornia news May 25, 2022 The Associated Press

Explainer: How cities in the West have water amid drought

As drought and climate change tighten their grip on the American West, the sight of fountains, swimming pools, gardens and golf courses in cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Boise, and Albuquerque can be jarring at first glance. Western water experts, however, say they aren’t necessarily cause for concern. Over the past three decades, major Western cities — particularly in California and Nevada — have diversified their water sources, boosted local supplies through infrastructure investments and conservation, and use water more efficiently. 

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Western Water April 29, 2022 Nick Cahill Colorado River Basin Map Layperson's Guide to Water Recycling WESTERN WATER-As Drought Shrinks the Colorado River, A SoCal Giant Seeks Help from River Partners to Fortify its Local Supply By Nick Cahill

As Drought Shrinks the Colorado River, A SoCal Giant Seeks Help from River Partners to Fortify its Local Supply
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Metropolitan Water District's wastewater recycling project draws support from Arizona and Nevada, which hope to gain a share of Metropolitan's river supply

Metropolitan Water District's advanced water treatment demonstration plant in Carson. Momentum is building for a unique interstate deal that aims to transform wastewater from Southern California homes and business into relief for the stressed Colorado River. The collaborative effort to add resiliency to a river suffering from overuse, drought and climate change is being shaped across state lines by some of the West’s largest water agencies.  

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Announcement January 20, 2022

A Week Left to Apply for Our Inaugural Colorado River Water Leaders Class
Foundation launching new program modeled after successful California program

California Water Leaders at Palo Verde DamThere is just about a week left to apply for our inaugural Colorado River Water Leaders program in 2022, which marks the 100th anniversary of the Colorado River Compact.

The biennial program is modeled after our highly successful Water Leaders program in California, now 25 years strong.

Our Colorado River program will select rising stars from the seven U.S. states and tribal nations that rely on the river - California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico – to participate in the seven-month class designed for working professionals. Class members will explore issues surrounding the iconic Southwest river, deepen their water knowledge and build leadership skills. 

Get more information, tuition costs and application materials here to apply by the Jan. 28 deadline.

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Western Water January 14, 2022 Douglas E. Beeman Colorado River Basin Map By Douglas E. Beeman

As the Colorado River Shrinks, Can the Basin Find an Equitable Solution in Sharing the River’s Waters?
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: Drought and climate change are raising concerns that a century-old Compact that divided the river’s waters could force unwelcome cuts in use for the upper watershed

Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell, a key Colorado River reservoir that has seen its water level plummet after two decades of drought. Climate scientist Brad Udall calls himself the skunk in the room when it comes to the Colorado River. Armed with a deck of PowerPoint slides and charts that highlight the Colorado River’s worsening math, the Colorado State University scientist offers a grim assessment of the river’s future: Runoff from the river’s headwaters is declining, less water is flowing into Lake Powell – the key reservoir near the Arizona-Utah border – and at the same time, more water is being released from the reservoir than it can sustainably provide.

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Tour March 16, 2022 - 7:30am - March 18, 2022 - 6:30pm Nick Gray

Lower Colorado River Tour 2022
Field Trip - March 16-18

The lower Colorado River has virtually every drop allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.

The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.

Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
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Western Water December 10, 2021 Douglas E. Beeman Colorado River Basin Map WESTERN WATER-A Colorado River Veteran Takes on Top Water & Science Post at Interior Department By Douglas E. Beeman

A Colorado River Veteran Takes on the Top Water & Science Post at Interior Department
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Tanya Trujillo brings two decades of experience on Colorado River issues as she takes on the challenges of a river basin stressed by climate change

Tanya Trujillo, Assistant Interior Secretary for Water and Science For more than 20 years, Tanya Trujillo has been immersed in the many challenges of the Colorado River, the drought-stressed lifeline for 40 million people from Denver to Los Angeles and the source of irrigation water for more than 5 million acres of winter lettuce, supermarket melons and other crops.

Trujillo has experience working in both the Upper and Lower Basins of the Colorado River, basins that split the river’s water evenly but are sometimes at odds with each other. She was a lawyer for the state of New Mexico, one of four states in the Upper Colorado River Basin, when key operating guidelines for sharing shortages on the river were negotiated in 2007. She later worked as executive director for the Colorado River Board of California, exposing her to the different perspectives and challenges facing California and the other states in the river’s Lower Basin.

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Announcement December 9, 2021

Apply for Our Inaugural Colorado River Water Leaders Class
Foundation to launch new program during the 100th anniversary of the Colorado River Compact; join Dec. 21 virtual Q&A session

California Water Leaders at Palo Verde DamKnown for our popular Water Leaders program in California – about to mark its 25th anniversary – we are now launching a Colorado River Water Leaders program in 2022, the 100th anniversary of the Colorado River Compact.

The biennial program will select rising stars from the seven U.S. states that rely on the river – California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico – to participate in the seven-month class designed for working professionals. Class members will explore issues surrounding the iconic Southwest river, deepen their water knowledge and build leadership skills. 

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Western Water August 27, 2021 Layperson's Guide to the Colorado River Delta Water-Starved Colorado River Delta Gets Another Shot of Life from the River’s Flows By Gary Pitzer

Water-Starved Colorado River Delta Gets Another Shot of Life from the River’s Flows
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Despite water shortages along the drought-stressed river, experimental flows resume in Mexico to revive trees and provide habitat for birds and wildlife

Water flowing into a Colorado River Delta restoration site in Mexico.Water is flowing once again to the Colorado River’s delta in Mexico, a vast region that was once a natural splendor before the iconic Western river was dammed and diverted at the turn of the last century, essentially turning the delta into a desert.

In 2012, the idea emerged that water could be intentionally sent down the river to inundate the delta floodplain and regenerate native cottonwood and willow trees, even in an overallocated river system. Ultimately, dedicated flows of river water were brokered under cooperative efforts by the U.S. and Mexican governments.

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Western Water June 25, 2021 Colorado River Basin Map As Climate Change Turns Up The Heat in Las Vegas, Water Managers Try to Wring New Savings to Stretch Supply By Gary Pitzer

As Climate Change Turns Up The Heat in Las Vegas, Water Managers Try to Wring New Savings to Stretch Supply
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: Rising temperatures are expected to drive up water demand as historic drought in the Colorado River Basin imperils Southern Nevada’s key water source

Las Vegas has reduced its water consumption even as its population has increased. Las Vegas, known for its searing summertime heat and glitzy casino fountains, is projected to get even hotter in the coming years as climate change intensifies. As temperatures rise, possibly as much as 10 degrees by end of the century, according to some models, water demand for the desert community is expected to spike. That is not good news in a fast-growing region that depends largely on a limited supply of water from an already drought-stressed Colorado River.

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Western Water May 21, 2021 Colorado River Bundle Layperson's Guide to the State Water Project MWD's Jeff Kightlinger Reflects On Building Big Things, Essential Partnerships and His Hopes For the Delta By Gary Pitzer

MWD’s Jeff Kightlinger Reflects On Building Big Things, Essential Partnerships and His Hopes For the Delta
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Veteran Water Boss, Retiring After 25 Years With SoCal Water Giant, Discusses ‘Permanent’ Drought, Conservation Gains & the Struggling Colorado River

Jeff Kightlinger, longtime general manager of Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.When you oversee the largest supplier of treated water in the United States, you tend to think big.

Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California for the last 15 years, has focused on diversifying his agency’s water supply and building security through investment. That means looking beyond MWD’s borders to ensure the reliable delivery of water to two-thirds of California’s population.

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Western Water November 20, 2020 Colorado River Bundle By Gary Pitzer

Milestone Colorado River Management Plan Mostly Worked Amid Epic Drought, Review Finds
WESTERN WATER SPOTLIGHT: Draft assessment of 2007 Interim Guidelines expected to provide a guide as talks begin on new river operating rules for the iconic Southwestern river

At full pool, Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States by volume. but two decades of drought have dramatically dropped the water level behind Hoover Dam.Twenty years ago, the Colorado River Basin’s hydrology began tumbling into a historically bad stretch. The weather turned persistently dry. Water levels in the system’s anchor reservoirs of Lake Powell and Lake Mead plummeted. A river system relied upon by nearly 40 million people, farms and ecosystems across the West was in trouble. And there was no guide on how to respond.

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Western Water November 6, 2020 Colorado River Basin Map By Gary Pitzer

A Colorado River Leader Who Brokered Key Pacts to Aid West’s Vital Water Artery Assesses His Legacy and the River’s Future
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Terry Fulp, regional Reclamation director, urges continued collaboration and cooperation to meet the river's tough water management challenges ahead

Terry FulpManaging water resources in the Colorado River Basin is not for the timid or those unaccustomed to big challenges. Careers are devoted to responding to all the demands put upon the river: water supply, hydropower, recreation and environmental protection.

All of this while the Basin endures a seemingly endless drought and forecasts of increasing dryness in the future.

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Western Water September 11, 2020 Colorado River Bundle By Gary Pitzer

The Colorado River is awash in data vital to its management, but making sense of it all is a challenge
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: Major science report that highlights scientific shortcomings and opportunities in the Basin could aid water managers as they rewrite river's operating rules

The Colorado River threading its way through a desert canyon near Lee Ferry, Arizona. Practically every drop of water that flows through the meadows, canyons and plains of the Colorado River Basin has reams of science attached to it. Snowpack, streamflow and tree ring data all influence the crucial decisions that guide water management of the iconic Western river every day.

Dizzying in its scope, detail and complexity, the scientific information on the Basin’s climate and hydrology has been largely scattered in hundreds of studies and reports. Some studies may conflict with others, or at least appear to. That’s problematic for a river that’s a lifeline for 40 million people and more than 4 million acres of irrigated farmland.

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Aquapedia background September 4, 2020 Colorado River Bundle

Colorado River Compact

Signing of the Colorado River Compact in 1922.The Colorado River Compact of 1922 divided the river into two basins: The Upper Basin (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) and the Lower Basin (Arizona, California and Nevada), established the allotment for each basin and provided a framework for management of the river for years to come.

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Western Water July 17, 2020 Colorado River Bundle Long Criticized For Inaction At Salton Sea, California Says It’s All-in On Effort To Preserve State’s Largest Lake Gary Pitzer

Long Criticized For Inaction At Salton Sea, California Says It’s All-In On Effort To Preserve State’s Largest Lake
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Dust suppression, habitat are key elements in long-term plan to aid sea, whose ills have been a sore point in Colorado River management

The Salton Sea is a major nesting, wintering and stopover site for about 400 bird species. Out of sight and out of mind to most people, the Salton Sea in California’s far southeast corner has challenged policymakers and local agencies alike to save the desert lake from becoming a fetid, hyper-saline water body inhospitable to wildlife and surrounded by clouds of choking dust.

The sea’s problems stretch beyond its boundaries in Imperial and Riverside counties and threaten to undermine multistate management of the Colorado River. A 2019 Drought Contingency Plan for the Lower Colorado River Basin was briefly stalled when the Imperial Irrigation District, holding the river’s largest water allocation, balked at participating in the plan because, the district said, it ignored the problems of the Salton Sea.  

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Western Water June 12, 2020 Colorado River Basin Map A Key Player On Colorado River Issues Seeks To Balance Competing Water Demands In The River's Upper Basin Gary Pitzer

A Key Player On Colorado River Issues Seeks To Balance Competing Water Demands In The River’s Upper Basin
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Colorado’s water chief Becky Mitchell, now the state’s point person on the Upper Colorado River Commission, brings decades of water know-how to state, interstate assignments

Becky Mitchell, director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board since 2017 and the state’s representative to the Upper Colorado River Commission.Colorado is home to the headwaters of the Colorado River and the water policy decisions made in the Centennial State reverberate throughout the river’s sprawling basin that stretches south to Mexico. The stakes are huge in a basin that serves 40 million people, and responding to the water needs of the economy, productive agriculture, a robust recreational industry and environmental protection takes expertise, leadership and a steady hand.

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Western Water May 15, 2020 Colorado River Basin Map Gary Pitzer

Questions Simmer About Lake Powell’s Future As Drought, Climate Change Point To A Drier Colorado River Basin
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: A key reservoir for Colorado River storage program, Powell faces demands from stakeholders in Upper and Lower Basins with different water needs as runoff is forecast to decline

Persistent drought in the Colorado River Basin combined with the coordinated operations with Lake Mead has left Lake Powell consistently about half-full. Sprawled across a desert expanse along the Utah-Arizona border, Lake Powell’s nearly 100-foot high bathtub ring etched on its sandstone walls belie the challenges of a major Colorado River reservoir at less than half-full. How those challenges play out as demand grows for the river’s water amid a changing climate is fueling simmering questions about Powell’s future.

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Tour May 20, 2021 - 2:30pm - 5:30pm Nick Gray Learn About Infrastructure and Environmental Restoration During Lower Colorado River Tour

Lower Colorado River Tour 2021
A Virtual Journey - May 20

This event explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.

The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour. 

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Western Water January 16, 2020 Douglas E. Beeman Layperson's Guide to Groundwater Douglas E. Beeman

Water Resource Innovation, Hard-Earned Lessons and Colorado River Challenges — Western Water Year in Review
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK-Our 2019 articles spanned the gamut from groundwater sustainability and drought resiliency to collaboration and innovation

Smoke from the 2018 Camp Fire as viewed from Lake Oroville in Northern California. Innovative efforts to accelerate restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires. Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address persistent challenges facing the Colorado River. 

These were among the issues Western Water explored in 2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed them.

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Western Water December 13, 2019 Colorado River Basin Map Gary Pitzer

Can a Grand Vision Solve the Colorado River’s Challenges? Or Will Incremental Change Offer Best Hope for Success?
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: With talks looming on a new operating agreement for the river, a debate has emerged over the best approach to address its challenges

Photo of Lake Mead and Hoover DamThe Colorado River is arguably one of the hardest working rivers on the planet, supplying water to 40 million people and a large agricultural economy in the West. But it’s under duress from two decades of drought and decisions made about its management will have exceptional ramifications for the future, especially as impacts from climate change are felt.

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Western Water December 13, 2019 Jenn Bowles Jennifer Bowles

Exploring Different Approaches for Solving the Colorado River’s Myriad Challenges
EDITOR’S NOTE: We examine a debate that emerged from our Colorado River Symposium over whether incrementalism or grand vision is the best path forward

Jenn Bowles, Water Education Foundation Executive DirectorEvery other year we hold an invitation-only Colorado River Symposium attended by various stakeholders from across the seven Western states and Mexico that rely on the iconic river. We host this three-day event in Santa Fe, N.M., where the 1922 Colorado River Compact was signed, as part of our mission to catalyze critical conversations to build bridges and inform collaborative decision-making.

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Western Water September 12, 2019 Layperson's Guide to the Colorado River Colorado River Basin Map Gary Pitzer

Could “Black Swan” Events Spawned by Climate Change Wreak Havoc in the Colorado River Basin?
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Scientists say a warming planet increases odds of extreme drought and flood; officials say they’re trying to include those possibilities in their plans

Runoff from what some describe as an "epic flood" in 1983 strained the capacity of Glen Canyon Dam to convey water fast enough.  The Colorado River Basin’s 20 years of drought and the dramatic decline in water levels at the river’s key reservoirs have pressed water managers to adapt to challenging conditions. But even more extreme — albeit rare — droughts or floods that could overwhelm water managers may lie ahead in the Basin as the effects of climate change take hold, say a group of scientists. They argue that stakeholders who are preparing to rewrite the operating rules of the river should plan now for how to handle these so-called “black swan” events so they’re not blindsided.

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Announcement September 11, 2019

Save The Dates For Next Year’s Water 101 Workshop and Lower Colorado River Tour
Applications for 2020 Water Leaders class will be available by the first week of October

Dates are now set for two key Foundation events to kick off 2020 — our popular Water 101 Workshop, scheduled for Feb. 20 at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, and our Lower Colorado River Tour, which will run from March 11-13.

In addition, applications will be available by the first week of October for our 2020 class of Water Leaders, our competitive yearlong program for early to mid-career up-and-coming water professionals. To learn more about the program, check out our Water Leaders program page.

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Western Water August 8, 2019 Colorado River Basin Map Gary Pitzer

A Rancher-Led Group Is Boosting the Health of the Colorado River Near Its Headwaters
WESTERN WATER SPOTLIGHT: A Colorado partnership is engaged in a river restoration effort to aid farms and fish habitat that could serve as a model across the West

Strategic placement of rocks promotes a more natural streamflow that benefits ranchers and fish. High in the headwaters of the Colorado River, around the hamlet of Kremmling, Colorado, generations of families have made ranching and farming a way of life, their hay fields and cattle sustained by the river’s flow. But as more water was pulled from the river and sent over the Continental Divide to meet the needs of Denver and other cities on the Front Range, less was left behind to meet the needs of ranchers and fish.

“What used to be a very large river that inundated the land has really become a trickle,” said Mely Whiting, Colorado counsel for Trout Unlimited. “We estimate that 70 percent of the flow on an annual average goes across the Continental Divide and never comes back.”

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Western Water July 11, 2019 California Water Map

Your Don’t-Miss Roundup of Summer Reading From Western Water

Dear Western Water reader, 

Clockwise, from top: Lake Powell, on a drought-stressed Colorado River; Subsidence-affected bridge over the Friant-Kern Canal in the San Joaquin Valley;  A homeless camp along the Sacramento River near Old Town Sacramento; Water from a desalination plant in Southern California.Summer is a good time to take a break, relax and enjoy some of the great beaches, waterways and watersheds around California and the West. We hope you’re getting a chance to do plenty of that this July.

But in the weekly sprint through work, it’s easy to miss some interesting nuggets you might want to read. So while we’re taking a publishing break to work on other water articles planned for later this year, we want to help you catch up on Western Water stories from the first half of this year that you might have missed. 

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Western Water May 23, 2019 Colorado River Bundle Gary Pitzer

150 Years After John Wesley Powell Ventured Down the Colorado River, How Should We Assess His Legacy in the West?
WESTERN WATER Q&A: University of Colorado’s Charles Wilkinson on Powell, Water and the American West

We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls ride over the river, we know not. Ah, well! We may conjecture many things.

~John Wesley Powell

Explorer John Wesley Powell and Paiute Chief Tau-Gu looking over the Virgin River in 1873.Powell scrawled those words in his journal as he and his expedition paddled their way into the deep walls of the Grand Canyon on a stretch of the Colorado River in August 1869. Three months earlier, the 10-man group had set out on their exploration of the iconic Southwest river by hauling their wooden boats into a major tributary of the Colorado, the Green River in Wyoming, for their trip into the “great unknown,” as Powell described it.

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Western Water May 9, 2019 Layperson's Guide to the Colorado River Colorado River Basin Map Gary Pitzer

With Drought Plan in Place, Colorado River Stakeholders Face Even Tougher Talks Ahead On The River’s Future
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: Talks are about to begin on a potentially sweeping agreement that could reimagine how the Colorado River is managed

Lake Mead, behind Hoover Dam, shows the effects of nearly two decades of drought. Even as stakeholders in the Colorado River Basin celebrate the recent completion of an unprecedented drought plan intended to stave off a crashing Lake Mead, there is little time to rest. An even larger hurdle lies ahead as they prepare to hammer out the next set of rules that could vastly reshape the river’s future.

Set to expire in 2026, the current guidelines for water deliveries and shortage sharing, launched in 2007 amid a multiyear drought, were designed to prevent disputes that could provoke conflict.

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Western Water April 11, 2019 Gary Pitzer

Bruce Babbitt Urges Creation of Bay-Delta Compact as Way to End ‘Culture of Conflict’ in California’s Key Water Hub
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Former Interior secretary says Colorado River Compact is a model for achieving peace and addressing environmental and water needs in the Delta

Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt gives the Anne J. Schneider Lecture April 3 at Sacramento's Crocker Art Museum.  Bruce Babbitt, the former Arizona governor and secretary of the Interior, has been a thoughtful, provocative and sometimes forceful voice in some of the most high-profile water conflicts over the last 40 years, including groundwater management in Arizona and the reduction of California’s take of the Colorado River. In 2016, former California Gov. Jerry Brown named Babbitt as a special adviser to work on matters relating to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the Delta tunnels plan.

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Western Water March 14, 2019 Colorado River Basin Map Gary Pitzer

‘Mission-Oriented’ Colorado River Veteran Takes the Helm as the US Commissioner of IBWC
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Jayne Harkins’ duties include collaboration with Mexico on Colorado River supply, water quality issues

Jayne Harkins, the U.S. Commissioner of the International Boundary and Water Commission.For the bulk of her career, Jayne Harkins has devoted her energy to issues associated with the management of the Colorado River, both with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and with the Colorado River Commission of Nevada.

Now her career is taking a different direction. Harkins, 58, was appointed by President Trump last August to take the helm of the United States section of the U.S.-Mexico agency that oversees myriad water matters between the two countries as they seek to sustainably manage the supply and water quality of the Colorado River, including its once-thriving Delta in Mexico, and other rivers the two countries share. She is the first woman to be named the U.S. Commissioner of the International Boundary and Water Commission for either the United States or Mexico in the commission’s 129-year history.

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Tour March 11, 2020 - 7:30am - March 13, 2020 - 6:30pm Nick Gray New Experience Announced for Lower Colorado River Tour: Topock Gorge Boat Trip Get a 'Hard Hat' Tour of Hoover Dam and Visit Lake Mead on Lower Colorado River Tour Take the Pulse of the ‘Lifeline of the Southwest’ on the Lower Colorado River Tour

Lower Colorado River Tour 2020
Field Trip - March 11-13

This tour explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.

The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour. 

Silverton Hotel
3333 Blue Diamond Road
Las Vegas, NV 89139
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  • Dan Bunk & Mike Bernardo Presentation
  • Seth Shanahan Presentation
  • Chuck Cullom Presentation
  • Vineetha Kartha Presentation
  • Tina Shields Presentation
  • Kevin Hempe Presentation
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Western Water February 28, 2019 Groundwater Education Bundle Gary Pitzer

Imported Water Built Southern California; Now Santa Monica Aims To Wean Itself Off That Supply
WESTERN WATER SPOTLIGHT: Santa Monica is tapping groundwater, rainwater and tighter consumption rules to bring local supply and demand into balance

The Santa Monica Urban Runoff Recycling Facility (SMURRF) treats dry weather urban runoff to remove pollutants such as sediment, oil, grease, and pathogens for nonpotable use.Imported water from the Sierra Nevada and the Colorado River built Southern California. Yet as drought, climate change and environmental concerns render those supplies increasingly at risk, the Southland’s cities have ramped up their efforts to rely more on local sources and less on imported water.

Far and away the most ambitious goal has been set by the city of Santa Monica, which in 2014 embarked on a course to be virtually water independent through local sources by 2023. In the 1990s, Santa Monica was completely dependent on imported water. Now, it derives more than 70 percent of its water locally.

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Western Water January 4, 2019 Douglas E. Beeman Douglas E. Beeman

Women Leading in Water, Colorado River Drought and Promising Solutions — Western Water Year in Review

Dear Western Water readers:

Women named in the last year to water leadership roles (clockwise, from top left): Karla Nemeth, director, California Department of Water Resources; Gloria Gray,  chair, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California; Brenda Burman, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner; Jayne Harkins,  commissioner, International Boundary and Water Commission, U.S. and Mexico; Amy Haas, executive director, Upper Colorado River Commission.The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.

These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.

We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:

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Western Water December 20, 2018 Colorado River Basin Map Gary Pitzer

As Colorado River Stakeholders Draft a Drought Plan, the Margin for Error in Managing Water Supplies Narrows
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: Climate report and science studies point toward a drier Basin with less runoff and a need to re-evaluate water management

This aerial view of Hoover Dam shows how far the level of Lake Mead has fallen due to ongoing drought conditions.As stakeholders labor to nail down effective and durable drought contingency plans for the Colorado River Basin, they face a stark reality: Scientific research is increasingly pointing to even drier, more challenging times ahead.

The latest sobering assessment landed the day after Thanksgiving, when U.S. Global Change Research Program’s Fourth National Climate Assessment concluded that Earth’s climate is changing rapidly compared to the pace of natural variations that have occurred throughout its history, with greenhouse gas emissions largely the cause.

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Western Water November 2, 2018 Colorado River Basin Map Gary Pitzer

As Shortages Loom in the Colorado River Basin, Indian Tribes Seek to Secure Their Water Rights
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: A study of tribal water rights could shed light on future Indian water use

Aerial view of the lower Colorado RiverAs the Colorado River Basin becomes drier and shortage conditions loom, one great variable remains: How much of the river’s water belongs to Native American tribes?

Native Americans already use water from the Colorado River and its tributaries for a variety of purposes, including leasing it to non-Indian users. But some tribes aren’t using their full federal Indian reserved water right and others have water rights claims that have yet to be resolved. Combined, tribes have rights to more water than some states in the Colorado River Basin.

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Western Water September 21, 2018 Colorado River Basin Map California Water Map Gary Pitzer

Despite Risk of Unprecedented Shortage on the Colorado River, Reclamation Commissioner Sees Room for Optimism
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Commissioner Brenda Burman, in address at Foundation’s Water Summit, also highlights Shasta Dam plan

Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda BurmanThe Colorado River Basin is more than likely headed to unprecedented shortage in 2020 that could force supply cuts to some states, but work is “furiously” underway to reduce the risk and avert a crisis, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman told an audience of California water industry people.

During a keynote address at the Water Education Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento, Burman said there is opportunity for Colorado River Basin states to control their destiny, but acknowledged that in water, there are no guarantees that agreement can be reached.

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Western Water September 7, 2018 Colorado River Basin Map Layperson's Guide to the Colorado River Gary Pitzer

Can Steadier Releases from Glen Canyon Dam Make Colorado River ‘Buggy’ Enough for Fish and Wildlife?
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Ted Kennedy, U.S. Geological Survey aquatic scientist

U.S. Geological Survey research ecologist Ted Kennedy collects aquatic invertebrates in the Colorado River below Glen Canyon Dam.Water means life for all the Grand Canyon’s inhabitants, including the many varieties of insects that are a foundation of the ecosystem’s food web. But hydropower operations upstream on the Colorado River at Glen Canyon Dam, in Northern Arizona near the Utah border, disrupt the natural pace of insect reproduction as the river rises and falls, sometimes dramatically. Eggs deposited at the river’s edge are often left high and dry and their loss directly affects available food for endangered fish such as the humpback chub.

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Western Water August 10, 2018 Colorado River Basin Map Layperson's Guide to the Colorado River Gary Pitzer

New Leader Takes Over as the Upper Colorado River Commission Grapples With Less Water and a Drier Climate
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Amy Haas, executive director, Upper Colorado River Commission

Amy Haas, executive director, Upper Colorado River CommissionAmy Haas recently became the first non-engineer and the first woman to serve as executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission in its 70-year history, putting her smack in the center of a host of daunting challenges facing the Upper Colorado River Basin.

Yet those challenges will be quite familiar to Haas, an attorney who for the past year has served as deputy director and general counsel of the commission. (She replaced longtime Executive Director Don Ostler). She has a long history of working within interstate Colorado River governance, including representing New Mexico as its Upper Colorado River commissioner and playing a central role in the negotiation of the recently signed U.S.-Mexico agreement known as Minute 323.

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Western Water June 15, 2018 Jenn Bowles Colorado River Basin Map Layperson's Guide to the Colorado River Jennifer Bowles

Domino Effect: As Arizona Searches For a Unifying Voice, a Drought Plan for the Lower Colorado River Is Stalled
EDITOR'S NOTE: Finding solutions to the Colorado River — or any disputed river —may be the most important role anyone can play

Nowhere is the domino effect in Western water policy played out more than on the Colorado River, and specifically when it involves the Lower Basin states of California, Nevada and Arizona. We are seeing that play out now as the three states strive to forge a Drought Contingency Plan. Yet that plan can’t be finalized until Arizona finds a unifying voice between its major water players, an effort you can read more about in the latest in-depth article of Western Water.

Even then, there are some issues to resolve just within California.

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Western Water June 15, 2018 Layperson's Guide to the Colorado River Colorado River Basin Map Gary Pitzer

As Colorado River Levels Drop, Pressure Grows On Arizona To Complete A Plan For Water Shortages
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: A dispute over who speaks for Arizona has stalled work with California, Nevada on Drought Contingency Plan

Hoover Dam and Lake Mead

It’s high-stakes time in Arizona. The state that depends on the Colorado River to help supply its cities and farms — and is first in line to absorb a shortage — is seeking a unified plan for water supply management to join its Lower Basin neighbors, California and Nevada, in a coordinated plan to preserve water levels in Lake Mead before they run too low.

If the lake’s elevation falls below 1,075 feet above sea level, the secretary of the Interior would declare a shortage and Arizona’s deliveries of Colorado River water would be reduced by 320,000 acre-feet. Arizona says that’s enough to serve about 1 million households in one year.

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Western Water May 18, 2018 Layperson's Guide to Groundwater Gary Pitzer

Could the Arizona Desert Offer California and the West a Guide to Solving Groundwater Problems?
WESTERN WATER SPOTLIGHT: Environmental Defense Fund report highlights strategies from Phoenix and elsewhere for managing demands on groundwater

Skyline of Phoenix, ArizonaAs California embarks on its unprecedented mission to harness groundwater pumping, the Arizona desert may provide one guide that local managers can look to as they seek to arrest years of overdraft.

Groundwater is stressed by a demand that often outpaces natural and artificial recharge. In California, awareness of groundwater’s importance resulted in the landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2014 that aims to have the most severely depleted basins in a state of balance in about 20 years.

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Tour April 11, 2018 - April 13, 2018

Lower Colorado River Tour 2018

Lower Colorado River Tour participants at Hoover Dam.

We explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.

The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.

Hampton Inn Tropicana
4975 Dean Martin Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89118
View map
  • Read more about Lower Colorado River Tour
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Announcement March 28, 2018

Learn About Efforts to Improve Weather Forecasting at San Pedro Drought Workshop
Agenda for April 19 event just posted; check out other topics, speakers

Dramatic swings in weather patterns over the past few years in California are stark reminders of climate variability and regional vulnerability. Alternating years of drought and intense rain events make long-term planning for storing and distributing water a challenging task.

Current weather forecasting capabilities provide details for short time horizons. Attend the Paleo Drought Workshop in San Pedro on April 19 to learn more about research efforts to improve sub-seasonal to seasonal precipitation forecasting, known as S2S, and how those models could provide more useful weather scenarios for resource managers.

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Announcement March 21, 2018

Meager Snowfall in the Rockies Extends Drought Conditions Along Colorado River
Experts offer updates on latest conditions and forecasts during Lower Colorado River Tour April 11-13

A drought has lingered in the Colorado River Basin since 2000, causing reservoir storage to decline from nearly full to about half of capacity. So far this year, a meager snowpack in the Rocky Mountains hasn’t helped much.

In fact, forecasters say this winter will likely go down as the sixth-driest on record for the river system that supplies water to seven states, including California, and Mexico.

On our Lower Colorado River Tour, April 11-13, you will meet with water managers from the three Lower Basin states: Nevada, Arizona and California. The three states are working to finalize a Drought Contingency Plan to take voluntary cuts to keep Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, from hitting critical levels and causing a shortage declaration.

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Announcement March 14, 2018

Improve Drought Preparedness By Digging into the Past at April 19th Workshop in San Pedro
Learn new details about historic droughts in Southern California watersheds and how they provide insight on water management today

Cracked dirt as in a droughtCalifornia’s 2012-2016 drought revealed vulnerabilities for water users throughout the state, and the long-term record suggests more challenges may lie ahead.  

An April 19 workshop in San Pedro will highlight new information about drought durations in Southern California watersheds dating back centuries.

  • Read more
Western Water March 9, 2018 Layperson's Guide to the Colorado River Colorado River Basin Map Gary Pitzer

A Colorado River Raft Trip Offers a Firsthand Lesson in the Power of Nature
ON THE ROAD: Writer Gary Pitzer offers a sense of the Grand Canyon that was first explored by John Wesley Powell

Writer Gary Pitzer at the Grand CanyonMost people see the Grand Canyon from the rim, thousands of feet above where the Colorado River winds through it for almost 300 miles.

But to travel it afloat a raft is to experience the wondrous majesty of the canyon and the river itself while gaining perspective about geology, natural beauty and the passage of time.

Beginning at Lees Ferry, some 30,000 people each year launch downriver on commercial or private trips. Before leaving, they are dutifully briefed by a National Park Service ranger who explains to them about the unique environment that awaits them, how to keep it protected and, most importantly, how to protect themselves.

They also are told about the pair of ravens that will inevitably follow them through the canyon, seizing every opportunity to scrounge food.

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Announcement January 31, 2018

Tour the Lower Colorado River in April and See the ‘Lifeblood of the Southwest’ Up Close
Join us as we visit Hoover Dam and other infrastructure, wildlife refuges, farming regions and the Salton Sea

Tickets are now on sale for the Water Education Foundation’s April 11-13 tour of the Lower Colorado River. 

Don’t miss this opportunity to visit key sites along one of the nation’s most famous rivers, including a private tour of Hoover Dam, Central Arizona Project’s Mark Wilmer pumping plant and the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge. The tour also visits the Salton Sea, Slab City, the All-American Canal and farming regions in the Imperial and Coachella valleys.

  • Read more
Announcement December 21, 2017

River Report Examines Climate Change Impact on Colorado River Basin

Drought and climate change are having a noticeable impact on the Colorado River Basin, and that is posing potential challenges to those in the Southwestern United States and Mexico who rely on the river.

In the just-released Winter 2017-18 edition of River Report, writer Gary Pitzer examines what scientists project will be the impact of climate change on the Colorado River Basin, and how water managers are preparing for a future of increasing scarcity.

  • Read more
River Reports December 19, 2017

Winter 2017-18 River Report
A Warmer Future and Increased Risk

Rising temperatures from climate change are having a noticeable effect on how much water is flowing down the Colorado River. Read the latest River Report to learn more about what’s happening, and how water managers are responding.

  • Read River Report Winter 2017-18 here
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Western Water Magazine December 11, 2017

The Colorado River: Living with Risk, Avoiding Curtailment
Fall 2017

This issue of Western Water discusses the challenges facing the Colorado River Basin resulting from persistent drought, climate change and an overallocated river, and how water managers and others are trying to face the future. 

  • Read more
Tour February 27, 2019 - 7:30am - March 1, 2019 - 6:30pm Nick Gray

Lower Colorado River Tour 2019

This three-day, two-night tour explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.

The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour. 

Best Western McCarran Inn
4970 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89119
View map
  • Warren Turkett
  • Dan Bunk
  • Seth Shanahan
  • Deanna Ikeya
  • Doyle Wilson
  • Gerald Filipiak
  • Sarah Bartlett
  • Tina Shields
  • Read more
Publication March 27, 2017

Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River Delta
Published 2017

The Colorado River Delta once spanned nearly 2 million acres and stretched from the northern tip of the Gulf of California in Mexico to Southern California’s Salton Sea. Today it’s one-tenth that size, yet still an important estuary, wildlife habitat and farming region even though Colorado River flows rarely reach the sea.

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Announcement March 15, 2017

Despite Above-Average Snowfall in the Rockies, Lower Colorado River Likely to Remain in Drought
Experts will update you on the latest conditions and forecasts during our three-day tour

Since 2000, the Colorado River Basin has experienced an historic, extended drought causing reservoir storage in the Colorado River system to decline from nearly full to about half of capacity. For the Lower Basin, a key point has been to maintain the level of Lake Mead to prevent a shortage declaration.

A healthy snowfall in the Rockies has reduced the odds of a shortage this year, but the basin states still must come to terms with a static supply and growing demands, as well as future impacts from climate change.

On our Lower Colorado River Tour, April 5-7, you will meet with water managers from the three Lower Basin states: Nevada, Arizona and California. Federal, state and local agencies will update you on the latest hydrologic conditions and how recent storms might change plans for water supply and storage.

  • Read more
Aquapedia background December 29, 2016

Quagga mussel

Quagga musselsA troublesome invasive species is the quagga mussel, a tiny freshwater mollusk that attaches itself to water utility infrastructure and reproduces at a rapid rate, causing damage to pipes and pumps.

First found in the Great Lakes in 1988 (dumped with ballast water from overseas ships), the quagga mussel along with the zebra mussel are native to the rivers and lakes of eastern Europe and western Asia, including the Black, Caspian and Azov Seas and the Dneiper River drainage of Ukraine and Ponto-Caspian Sea.  

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Western Water Magazine November 16, 2016

Two Countries, One River: Crafting a New Agreement
Fall 2016

This issue of Western Water examines the ongoing effort between the United States and Mexico to develop a new agreement to the 1944 Treaty that will continue the binational cooperation on constructing Colorado River infrastructure, storing water in Lake Mead and providing instream flows for the Colorado River Delta.

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Western Water Excerpt November 10, 2016 Jenn Bowles

Two Countries, One River: Crafting a New Agreement
Fall 2016

As vital as the Colorado River is to the United States and Mexico, so is the ongoing process by which the two countries develop unique agreements to better manage the river and balance future competing needs.

The prospect is challenging. The river is over allocated as urban areas and farmers seek to stretch every drop of their respective supplies. Since a historic treaty between the two countries was signed in 1944, the United States and Mexico have periodically added a series of arrangements to the treaty called minutes that aim to strengthen the binational ties while addressing important water supply, water quality and environmental concerns.

  • Read more
Aquapedia background August 30, 2016

Lake Havasu

Lake Havasu is a reservoir on the Colorado River that supplies water to the Colorado River Aqueduct and Central Arizona Project. It is located at the California/Arizona border, approximately 150 miles southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada and 30 miles southeast of Needles, California.

  • Read more
  • Layperson's Guide to the Colorado River
Aquapedia background August 30, 2016

Lake Mathews

Situated in southwest Riverside County near the Santa Ana Mountains – about 60 miles southeast of Los Angeles – Lake Mathews is a major reservoir in Southern California.

  • Read more
  • Layperson's Guide to the Colorado River
Aquapedia background August 25, 2016

All-American Canal

As one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world, the Imperial Valley receives its water from the Colorado River via the All-American Canal. Rainfall is scarce in the desert region at less than three inches per year and groundwater is of little value. 

  • Read more
Western Water Magazine January 15, 2016

Historic Drought and the Colorado River: Today and Tomorrow
November/December 2015

This issue looks at the historic drought that has gripped the Colorado River Basin since 2000 and discusses the lessons learned, the continuing challenges and what the future might hold.

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Western Water Excerpt January 15, 2016 Jenn Bowles

Historic Drought and the Colorado River: Today and Tomorrow
November/December 2015

The dramatic decline in water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell is perhaps the most visible sign of the historic drought that has gripped the Colorado River Basin for the past 16 years. In 2000, the reservoirs stood at nearly 100 percent capacity; today, Lake Powell is at 49 percent capacity while Lake Mead has dropped to 38 percent. Before the late season runoff of Miracle May, it looked as if Mead might drop low enough to trigger the first-ever Lower Basin shortage determination in 2016.

Read the excerpt below from the Sept./Oct. 2015 issue along with the editor’s note. Click here to subscribe to Western Water and get full access.

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Western Water Magazine June 15, 2015

Countdown at the Salton Sea
May/June 2015

This issue looks at the dilemma of the shrinking Salton Sea. The shallow, briny inland lake at the southeastern edge of California is slowly evaporating and becoming more saline – threatening the habitat for fish and birds and worsening air quality as dust from the dry lakebed is whipped by the constant winds.

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Western Water Excerpt June 12, 2015

Countdown at the Salton Sea
May/June 2015

The clock is ticking for the Salton Sea.

The shallow, briny inland lake at the southeastern edge of California is slowly evaporating and becoming more saline – threatening the habitat for fish and birds and worsening air quality as dust from the dry lakebed is whipped by the constant winds.

(Read this excerpt from the May/June 2015 issue along with the editor’s note. Click here to subscribe to Western Water and get full access.)

  • Read more
Western Water Excerpt December 23, 2014 Jenn Bowles

The Next Steps of the Colorado River Basin Study
November/December 2014

After much time, study and investment, the task of identifying solutions to ensure the long-term sus­tainability of the Colorado River is underway. People from the Upper and Lower basins representing all interest groups are preparing to put their signatures to documents aimed at ensuring the river’s vitality for the next 50 years and beyond.

  • Read more
Tour March 11, 2015 - March 13, 2015 Images from the Lower Colorado River Tour

Lower Colorado River Tour 2015
Field Trip (past)

This 3-day, 2-night tour followed the course of the lower Colorado River through Nevada, Arizona and California, and included a private tour of Hoover Dam.

  • Learn More About the Tour
  • Travel Option for the Lower Colorado River Tour
  • General Tour Information
  • Colorado River Basin: Current Conditions and Operational Update - D. Bunk, USDOI
  • Intentionally Created Surplus (ICS) fact sheet
  • Law of the River fact sheet
  • Imperial Dam fact sheet
  • Integrating Agriculture & Conservation: The IID Case Study - T. Shields, IID
  • Bark Beetles, Dust on Snow, and Management under Uncertainty - R. Smith
  • Current Conditions and Water Supply Outlook for the Colorado River Basin - R. Smith
  • The long perspective on Colorado River flow from tree rings - R. Smith
  • Colorado River Commission - W. Turkett
  • Lake Havasu City Water Supply
  • Read more
Publication August 19, 2014

New Director’s Packet

Newly elected to your local water board? Or city council? Or state Legislature? This packet of materials provides you with the valuable background information you need – and at a special price!

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River Reports June 13, 2014

Cutting Colorado River Use: The California Plan
November/December 1998

This issue updates progress on crafting and implementing California’s 4.4 plan to reduce its use of Colorado River water by 800,000 acre-feet. The state has used as much as 5.2 million acre-feet of Colorado River water annually, but under pressure from Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and the other six states that share this resource, California’s Colorado River parties have been trying to close the gap between demand and supply. The article – delayed to include the latest information from Babbitt’s Dec.

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River Reports June 13, 2014

The California Plan and the Salton Sea
November/December 2001

This issue updates progress on California’s Colorado River Water Use Plan (commonly called the 4.4 Plan ), with a special focus on the Salton Sea restoration/water transfer dilemma. It also includes information on the proposed MWD-Palo Verde Irrigation District deal, the Colorado River Delta, and the legislative debate in the national and state capitals.

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River Reports June 13, 2014

Can California Make the 4.4 Plan Work?
March/April 2003

With passage of the original Dec. 31, 2002, deadline to have a Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA) in place for the Colorado River, California suffered a cutback in the surplus Colorado River flows it had relied upon by years. Further negotiations followed in an attempt to bring the California parties to an agreement. This issue examines the history leading to the QSA, the state of affairs of the so-called 4.4 Plan as of early March, and gives readers a clearer crystal ball with which to speculate about California’s water future on the Colorado River.

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River Reports June 13, 2014

The Ties that Bind: The Evolving Policy of the Colorado River
March/April 2004

This issue of Western Water provides the latest information on some of the philosophical, political and practical ideas being discussed on the river. Some of these issues were discussed at the Water Education Foundation’s Colorado River Symposium, “The Ties that Bind: Policy and the Evolving Law of the Colorado River,” held last fall at The Bishop’s Lodge in Santa Fe, New Mexico – site of negotiations on the 1922 Colorado River Compact.

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River Reports June 13, 2014

Facing the Future: Modifying Management of the Colorado River
January/February 2006

This issue of Western Water explores the issues surrounding and the components of the Colorado River Basin seven-state proposed agreement released Feb. 3 regarding sharing shortages on the river, and new plans to improve the river’s management. The article includes excerpts from the Foundation’s September 2005 Colorado River Symposium held in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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River Reports June 13, 2014

1922-2007: 85 Years of the Colorado River Compact
November/December 2007

This issue of Western Water marks the 85th anniversary of the Colorado River Compact and considers its role in the past and present on key issues such as federal funding for water projects and international issues. Much of the content for this magazine came from the Foundation’s September Colorado River Symposium, The Colorado River Compact at 85 and Changes on the River.

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Product May 29, 2014

Colorado River Facts Slide Card

This card includes information about the Colorado River, who uses the river, how the river’s water is divided and other pertinent facts about this vital resource for the Southwest. Beautifully illustrated with color photographs.

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Product May 29, 2014

Colorado River Compact 75th Anniversary Symposium Proceedings

In 1997, the Foundation sponsored a three-day, invitation-only symposium at Bishop’s Lodge, New Mexico, site of the 1922 Colorado River Compact signing, to discuss the historical implications of that agreement, current Colorado River issues and future challenges. The 204-page proceedings features the panel discussions and presentations on such issues as the Law of the River, water marketing and environmental restoration.

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Video May 22, 2014

Shaping of the West: 100 Years of Reclamation

30-minute DVD that traces the history of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and its role in the development of the West. Includes extensive historic footage of farming and the construction of dams and other water projects, and discusses historic and modern day issues.

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Maps & Posters May 20, 2014

Nevada Water Map
Published 2004

This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, illustrates the water resources available for Nevada cities, agriculture and the environment. It features natural and manmade water resources throughout the state, including the Truckee and Carson rivers, Lake Tahoe, Pyramid Lake and the course of the Colorado River that forms the state’s eastern boundary.

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Maps & Posters May 20, 2014 Colorado River Bundle

Colorado River Basin Map
Redesigned in 2017

Redesigned in 2017, this beautiful map depicts the seven Western states that share the Colorado River with Mexico. The Colorado River supplies water to nearly 40 million people in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and the country of Mexico. Text on this beautiful, 24×36-inch map, which is suitable for framing, explains the river’s apportionment, history and the need to adapt its management for urban growth and expected climate change impacts.

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Publication May 20, 2014

Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law
Updated 2020

The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law, recognized as the most thorough explanation of California water rights law available to non-lawyers, traces the authority for water flowing in a stream or reservoir, from a faucet or into an irrigation ditch through the complex web of California water rights.

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Publication May 20, 2014

Layperson’s Guide to Water Marketing
Updated 2005

The 20-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Marketing provides background information on water rights, types of transfers and critical policy issues surrounding this topic. First published in 1996, the 2005 version offers expanded information on groundwater banking and conjunctive use, Colorado River transfers and the role of private companies in California’s developing water market. 

Order in bulk (25 or more copies of the same guide) for a reduced fee. Contact the Foundation, 916-444-6240, for details.

  • Read more
Publication May 20, 2014

Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River
Updated 2018

Cover page for the Layperson's Guide to the Colorado River .

The Colorado River provides water to 40 million people and 4 million acres of farmland in a region encompassing some 246,000 square miles in the southwestern United States. The 32-page Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River covers the history of the river’s development; negotiations over division of its water; the items that comprise the Law of the River; and a chronology of significant Colorado River events.

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Publication May 20, 2014

Layperson’s Guide to California Water
Updated 2021

The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to California Water provides an excellent overview of the history of water development and use in California. It includes sections on flood management; the state, federal and Colorado River delivery systems; Delta issues; water rights; environmental issues; water quality; and options for stretching the water supply such as water marketing and conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of the guide is a section on the human need for water. 

  • Read more
Photo gallery May 16, 2014

Images from the Lower Colorado River Tour

Copper Basin
  • Read more
Maps & Posters April 17, 2014 California Water Bundle

California Water Map
Updated December 2016

A new look for our most popular product! And it’s the perfect gift for the water wonk in your life.

Our 24×36 inch California Water Map is widely known for being the definitive poster that shows the integral role water plays in the state. On this updated version, it is easier to see California’s natural waterways and man-made reservoirs and aqueducts – including federally, state and locally funded projects – the wild and scenic rivers system, and natural lakes. The map features beautiful photos of California’s natural environment, rivers, water projects, wildlife, and urban and agricultural uses and the text focuses on key issues: water supply, water use, water projects, the Delta, wild and scenic rivers and the Colorado River.

  • Read more
Tour February 26, 2014 Images from the Lower Colorado River Tour

Lower Colorado River Tour 2014
Field Trip (past)

The 2014 tour was held February 26 – 28.

This 3-day, 2-night tour follows the course of the lower Colorado River through Nevada, Arizona and California, and includes a private tour of Hoover Dam.

  • Southern Nevada's Water Needs
  • Colorado River Presentation
  • Atmospheric Rivers and the Colorado Basin
  • Dust on Snow, Bark Beetles and Extreme Events
  • Tree Ring Forecasting
  • Spring 2014 Runoff Outlook
  • Colorado River Basin: Current Conditions and Operarional Update
  • Colorado River Facts
  • Inadvertent Overrun and Payback Policy (IOPP)
  • Law of the River
  • 2014 Forecast of Consumptive Water Use
  • Lake Havasu City Water Supply
  • California Tribal Water Rights
  • IID Imperial Dam
  • IID Water Trasportation
  • Yuma County Ag Stats
  • Acronyms Cheat Sheet
  • The Latest Big Controversy on the Age of the Grand Canyon
  • Read more
Aquapedia background February 11, 2014

Salton Sea

Salton Sea

As part of the historic Colorado River Delta, the Salton Sea regularly filled and dried for thousands of years due to its elevation of 237 feet below sea level.

The most recent version of the Salton Sea was formed in 1905 when the Colorado River broke through a series of dikes and flooded the seabed for two years, creating California’s largest inland body of water. The Salton Sea, which is saltier than the Pacific Ocean, includes 130 miles of shoreline and is larger than Lake Tahoe. 

  • Read more
Aquapedia background February 11, 2014

Quantification Settlement Agreement

The Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA), signed in 2003, defined the rights to a portion of Colorado River water for San Diego County Water Authority, Coachella Valley Water District, Imperial Irrigation District and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

  • Read more
Aquapedia background February 11, 2014

Colorado River Water and Mexico

The Mexican Water Treaty of 1944 committed the U.S. to deliver 1.5 million acre-feet of water to Mexico on an annual basis, plus an additional 200,000 acre-feet under surplus conditions. The treaty is overseen by the International Boundary and Water Commission.

Colorado River water is delivered to Mexico at Morelos Dam, located 1.1 miles downstream from where the California-Baja California land boundary intersects the river between the town of Los Algodones in northwestern Mexico and Yuma County, Ariz.

  • Read more
Aquapedia background February 11, 2014

Colorado River Delta (in Mexico)

The Colorado River Delta is located at the natural terminus of the Colorado River at the Gulf of California, just south of the U.S.-Mexico border. The desert ecosystem was formed by silt flushed downstream from the Colorado and fresh and brackish water mixing at the Gulf.

The Colorado River Delta once covered 9,650 square miles but has shrunk to less than 1 percent of its original size due to human-made water diversions.

  • Read more
Aquapedia background February 11, 2014 Colorado River Basin Map Layperson's Guide to the Colorado River

Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program

The Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program aims to balance use of Colorado River water resources with the conservation of native species and their habitat. A key component of the program is the restoration and enhancement of existing riparian and marsh habitat along the lower Colorado River. 

  • Read more
Aquapedia background February 11, 2014

Lee Ferry

Lee Ferry, the dividing point under the 1922 Colorado River Compact between the Upper Basin and Lower Basin.

Lee Ferry on the Arizona-Utah border is a key dividing point between the Colorado River’s Upper and Lower basins.

This split is important when it comes to determining how much water will be delivered from the Upper Basin to the Lower Basin [for a description of the Upper and Lower basins, visit the Colorado River page].

  • Read more
Aquapedia background February 11, 2014

Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam

The construction of Glen Canyon Dam in 1964 created Lake Powell. Both are located in north-central Arizona near the Utah border. Lake Powell acts as a holding tank for outflow from the Colorado River Upper Basin States: Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

The water stored in Lake Powell is used for recreation, power generation and delivering water to the Lower Basin states of California, Arizona, and Nevada. 

  • Read more
Aquapedia background February 10, 2014

John Wesley Powell

John Wesley Powell (1834-1902) was historic and heroic for being first to lead an expedition down the Colorado River in 1869. A major who lost an arm in the Civil War Battle of Shiloh, he was an explorer, geologist, geographer and ethnologist.

  • Read more
Aquapedia background January 30, 2014

Colorado River Water Use 4.4 Plan

Colorado River Water Use 4.4 Plan

California’s Colorado River Water Use Plan (known colloquially as the 4.4 Plan) intends to wean the state from its reliance on the surplus flows from the river and return California to its annual 4.4 million acre-feet basic apportionment of the river.

In the past, California has also used more than its basic apportionment.  Consequently, the U.S. Department of Interior urged California to devise a plan to reduce its water consumption to its basic entitlement.

  • Read more
Aquapedia background January 30, 2014

Colorado River Timeline

600 Ancestral Pueblo and Hohokam Indians develop water distribution systems.

1500 Spanish explorers introduce livestock and ditch systems called acequias.

1847 Mormons arrive in the Salt Lake Valley; begin cultivating farmland.

1859 Oliver Wozencraft promotes idea of irrigating the Imperial Valley.

1865 Lower Colorado River lands begin to be set aside for American Indians.

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Aquapedia background January 30, 2014

Colorado River 2007 Interim Guidelines And Drought Contingency Plans

In 2005, after six years of severe drought in the Colorado River Basin, federal officials and representatives of the seven basin states — California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming — began building a framework to better respond to drought conditions and coordinate the operations of the basin’s two key reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead.

The resulting Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and the Coordinated Operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead (Interim Guidelines) identified the conditions for shortage determinations and details of coordinated reservoir operations. The 2007 Interim Guidelines remain in effect through Dec. 31, 2025.

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Aquapedia background January 30, 2014 Layperson's Guide to the Colorado River Layperson's Guide to the Colorado River Delta Colorado River Basin Map

Colorado River

Colorado RiverThe turbulent Colorado River is one of the most heavily regulated and hardest working rivers in the world.

Geography

The Colorado falls some 10,000 feet on its way from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of California, helping to sustain a range of habitats and ecosystems as it weaves through mountains and deserts.

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  • Colorado River Timeline
Western Water Magazine November 1, 2013

An Era of New Partnerships on the Colorado River
November/December 2013

This printed issue of Western Water examines how the various stakeholders have begun working together to meet the planning challenges for the Colorado River Basin, including agreements with Mexico, increased use of conservation and water marketing, and the goal of accomplishing binational environmental restoration and water-sharing programs.

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Western Water Magazine November 1, 2012

A Call to Action? The Colorado River Basin Supply and Demand Study
November/December 2012

This printed issue of Western Water examines the Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study and what its finding might mean for the future of the lifeblood of the Southwest.

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Western Water Excerpt November 1, 2012 Gary PitzerRita Schmidt Sudman

A Call to Action? The Colorado River Basin Supply and Demand Study
November/December 2012

The Colorado River is one of the most heavily relied upon water supply sources in the world, serving 35 million people in seven states and Mexico. The river provides water to large cities, irrigates fields, powers turbines to generate electricity, thrills recreational enthusiasts and serves as a home for birds, fish and wildlife.

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Western Water Magazine November 1, 2011

Solving the Colorado River Basin’s Math Problem: Adapting to Change
November/December 2011

This printed issue of Western Water explores the historic nature of some of the key agreements in recent years, future challenges, and what leading state representatives identify as potential “worst-case scenarios.” Much of the content for this issue of Western Water came from the in-depth panel discussions at the Colorado River Symposium. The Foundation will publish the full proceedings of the Symposium in 2012.

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Western Water Magazine November 1, 2010

The Colorado River Drought: A Sobering Glimpse into the Future
November/December 2010

This printed issue of Western Water examines the Colorado River drought, and the ongoing institutional and operational changes underway to maintain the system and meet the future challenges in the Colorado River Basin.

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Western Water Magazine November 1, 2009

The Colorado River: Building a Sustainable Future
November/December 2009

This printed issue of Western Water explores some of the major challenges facing Colorado River stakeholders: preparing for climate change, forging U.S.-Mexico water supply solutions and dealing with continued growth in the basins states. Much of the content for this issue of Western Water came from the in-depth panel discussions at the September 2009 Colorado River Symposium.

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Western Water Magazine September 1, 2008

Just Add Water? Restoring the Colorado River Delta
September/October 2008

This printed copy of Western Water examines the Colorado River Delta, its ecological significance and the lengths to which international, state and local efforts are targeted and achieving environmental restoration while recognizing the needs of the entire river’s many users.

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Western Water Magazine May 1, 2007

The Struggle to Secure Water in the Southwest
May/June 2007

This issue of Western Water asks whether a groundwater compact is needed to manage this shared resource today. In the water-stressed West, there will need to be a recognition of sharing water resources or a line will need to be drawn in the sand against future growth.

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Western Water Excerpt May 1, 2007 Gary PitzerRita Schmidt Sudman

The Struggle to Secure Water in the Southwest
May/Jun 2007

“In the West, when you touch water, you touch everything.” – Rep. Wayne Aspinall, D-Colorado, chair, House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, 1959-1973

Rapid population growth and chronic droughts could augur dramatic changes for communities along the lower Colorado River. In Arizona, California and Nevada, a robust economy is spurring communities to find enough water to sustain the steady pace of growth. Established cities such as Las Vegas and Phoenix continue their expansion but there is also activity in smaller, rural areas on Arizona’s northwest fringe where developers envision hundreds of thousands of new homes in the coming decades.

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Western Water Magazine July 1, 2005

On the Edge: Defusing Tensions on the Colorado River
July/August 2005

With interstate discussions of critical Colorado River issues seemingly headed for stalemate, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton stepped in May 2 to defuse, or at least defer, a potentially divisive debate over water releases from Lake Powell.

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Western Water Excerpt July 1, 2005 Glenn TottenRita Schmidt Sudman

On the Edge: Defusing Tensions on the Colorado River
Jul/Aug 2005

With interstate discussions of critical Colorado River issues seemingly headed for stalemate, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton stepped in May 2 to defuse, or at least defer, a potentially divisive debate over water releases from Lake Powell. In a letter to governors of the seven Colorado River Basin states, Norton preserved the status quo of river operations for five months, giving states and stakeholders a chance to move back from the edge before positions had hardened on two key issues: (1) shortage guidelines for the Lower Basin and (2) Upper Basin/ Lower Basin reservoir operations, particularly at Lake Powell. But Norton served notice that she wants discussions on those two issues to continue, possibly outside of the annual operation plan (AOP) consultation process, which at least one observer described as unwieldy.

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Western Water Magazine March 1, 2002

The Colorado River: Coming to Consensus Inside: A Conversation with Assistant Interior Secretary Bennett Raley
March/April 2002

Drawn from a special Colorado River stakeholder symposium held in January 2002 at The Bishop’s Lodge in Santa Fe, New Mexico, this article provides an overview of several Colorado River issues that may or may not be resolved through consensus. Some of these issues include providing water for the Colorado River Delta, endangered species, dam re-operation and potential future trends around the basin as they relate to the California 4.4 Plan, drought and governance.

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Western Water Excerpt March 1, 2002 Josh NewcomRita Schmidt Sudman

The Colorado River: Coming to Consensus
Mar/Apr 2002

The situation is true anywhere: when resources are stretched, tensions rise. In the arid Southwestern United States, this resource is water and tensions over it have been ever present since the westward migration in the 18th Century. Nowhere in this region has the competition for water been fiercer than in the Colorado River Basin. Whether it is more water for agriculture, more water for cities, more water for American Indian tribes or more water for the environment – there is a continuous quest by parties to obtain additional supplies of this “liquid gold” from the Colorado River. Sometimes the avenue chosen to acquire this desert wealth is the court system, as exemplified by the landmark Arizona v. California dispute that stretched for over 30 years.

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Western Water Magazine November 1, 1999

Managing the Colorado River
November/December 1999

Drawn from a special stakeholder symposium held in September 1999 in Keystone, Colorado, this issue explores how we got to where we are today on the Colorado River; an era in which the traditional water development of the past has given way to a more collaborative approach that tries to protect the environment while stretching available water supplies. Specific topics addressed include the role of the Interior secretary in the basin, California’s 4.4 plan, water marketing and future challenges identified by participants.

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Western Water Magazine November 1, 1999

Managing the Colorado River
November/December 1999

Drawn from a special stakeholder symposium held in September 1999 in Keystone, Colorado, this issue explores how we got to where we are today on the Colorado River; an era in which the traditional water development of the past has given way to a more collaborative approach that tries to protect the environment while stretching available water supplies.

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