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Topic: Lake Powell

Overview April 24, 2014

Lake Powell

The construction of Glen Canyon Dam in north-central Arizona also created Lake Powell. Lake Powell serves as a holding tank for the Colorado River Upper Basin States: Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

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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 24, 2022 Fox 10 - Phoenix

Lake Powell, producing energy to millions, majorly threatened by drought conditions

The water crisis in Arizona affects all of us. From our tap water to our crops, even our electricity. The supply is running short, so FOX 10’s Steve Nielsen headed to Lake Powell to investigate our ongoing water crisis and uncover what’s being done to safeguard our most important resource in the desert. … Lake Powell historical data in 2011 shows the water level was at 3,622 feet. It ebbs and flows a little bit every year, but there’s been a steep drop off the last two years. As of May 2022, the water level is sitting at 3,522.

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Aquafornia news May 23, 2022 The New York Times

Bodies pulled from parched Lake Mead stir wise-guy ghosts of Las Vegas

The [discoveries of human remains on the dry bed bed of Lake Mead] come amid the Southwest’s driest two decades in more than a thousand years, as drought-starved bodies of water yield one surprise after another. At Elephant Butte Reservoir in New Mexico, a bachelor party stumbled across a fossilized mastodon skull that is millions of years old. In Utah last year, the receding waters of Lake Powell revealed a car that had plunged 600 feet off a cliff, killing the driver. And as Lake Powell dries up, archaeologists are getting a chance to study newly emerged Indigenous dwellings.

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Aquafornia news May 17, 2022 The Washington Post

Blog: The Colorado River faces a climate change-driven crisis

The Colorado River plays a pivotal role in the American West, supplying water to more than 40 million people, irrigating 5 million acres of farmland, and providing critical habitat for rare fish, birds and plants. But demand for the Colorado’s water far exceeds supply in the fast-growing Southwest, as a climate change-fueled megadrought and rising temperatures place an unprecedented strain on the iconic river, The Washington Post’s Karin Brulliard, Matt McClain and Erin Patrick O’Connor report.

Related article: 

  • Sky-Hi News: Colorado River connectivity channel gets go-ahead after environmental assessment
  • Deseret News: The Latter-day Saint ghost town that keeps emerging from Lake Mead
  • Fox 10 – Phoenix: Lake Mead murder mystery: Bodies found due to low water levels 
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Aquafornia news May 16, 2022 The Washington Post

The Colorado River is in crisis. And it’s getting worse every day

It is a powerhouse: a 1,450-mile waterway that stretches from the Rocky Mountains to the Sea of Cortez, serving 40 million people in seven U.S. states, 30 federally recognized tribes and Mexico. It hydrates 5 million acres of agricultural land and provides critical habitat for rare fish, birds and plants. But the Colorado’s water was overpromised when it was first allocated a century ago. Demand in the fast-growing Southwest exceeds supply, and it is growing even as supply drops amid a climate change-driven megadrought and rising temperatures. States and cities are now scrambling to forestall the gravest impacts to growth, farming, drinking water and electricity, while also aiming to protect their own interests.

Related articles:

  • The Associated Press: Lake Powell to retain water to protect hydropower
  • KUNC: Listen - Climate experts worry about water supplies in Colorado River; a conversation with ‘Life on the Grocery Line’ author Adam Kaat
  • Ten Across: Podcast – Getting honest about the Colorado River crisis with Anne Castle and John Fleck
  • jfleck at inkstain: Sure, dead bodies in Lake Mead, whatever. I remain optimistic.
  • Nevada Current:What is dead pool? A water expert explains
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Aquafornia news May 13, 2022 CBS News

Lake Powell is vanishing with devastating consequences. But it’s bringing a former canyon back to life

Climate change is making the West hotter and drier, threatening the Colorado River system, including the man-made reservoirs of Lake Powell in Utah and Lake Mead in Nevada that provide water for 40 million people in seven states. The National Park Service has been forced to shut down 11 boat ramps at the Lake Powell recreation area, which draws millions of visitors. The critically low lake levels could soon cause the Glen Canyon Dam to stop producing hydropower for more than five million people in six states, forcing them to find alternative sources. 

Related article:

  • Popular Science: Lake Powell’s drought is part of a growing threat to hydropower everywhere
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Aquafornia news May 12, 2022 Los Angeles Times

Far from Lake Powell, drought punishes another Western dam

The electricity generated [at Flaming Gorge Dam], in northern Utah near the Wyoming state line, helps keep the lights on across 10 states. It’s made possible by a dam that interrupts the Green River, which meanders into the Colorado River at Lake Powell hundreds of miles downstream before flowing southwest to Lake Mead — meaning as an Angeleno, I’ve been drinking this water my whole life. … The Biden administration said this month it would release an extra 500,000 acre-feet of water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir over the next year, as part of a desperate effort to stop Powell from falling so low that Glen Canyon Dam can no longer generate power.

Related article: 

  • The Conversation: What is dead pool? A water expert explains 
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Aquafornia news May 9, 2022 Arizona Daily Star

Colorado River’s water deficit keeps growing, with no end in sight

While the seven Colorado River Basin states including Arizona hunt for 500,000 acre-feet a year in water savings in both the Upper and Lower basins, the biggest problem facing the river lurks in the shadows: a supply-demand gap that keeps growing. Over the past five years, the river’s annual water flow, greatly diminished since 2000 compared to 20th century averages, has tumbled even faster. Water demands have also fallen, but not nearly as fast.

Related articles: 

  • Los Angeles Times: Arizona officials warn of risks on Colorado River that could eventually hit California
  • Arizona Daily Star: Water officials share grim outlook for CAP water supply
  • Los Angeles Times: More human remains found in receding Lake Mead
  • Channel 12: Next stage of water restrictions in Arizona could come as soon as August
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Aquafornia news May 9, 2022 Arizona Republic

Opinion: Lake Mead and Lake Powell need drastic action to be saved

For weeks, we’ve been seeing media reports regarding conditions in the Colorado River Basin – specifically with regard to our country’s largest reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, which have dropped to record low elevations. The media have been reporting it accurately. 
-Written by Tom Buschatzke, director of Arizona Department of Water Resources; and Ted Cooke, general manager of Central Arizona Project.

Related article: 

  • Las Vegas Review-Journal: Why the West is running out of water and can’t get more
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Aquafornia news May 6, 2022 The Nevada Independent

Warming is making the West thirstier, researchers say. And it’s stressing water supplies

Over the past four decades, the Western U.S. has demanded more water. And the landscapes — the valleys and mountains and lakes — that make up the region’s arid ecosystems have borne the impacts of increasing water needs in more ways than one. It’s not only fast-growing cities, searching for faraway supplies, that have affected these landscapes. The atmosphere itself has become thirstier, using up, and potentially evaporating, more water from the land beneath it. Researchers describe this as increased evaporative demand …

Related article: 

  • Los Angeles Times: Why California needs more water than ever to end its drought 
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Aquafornia news May 5, 2022 Los Angeles Times

Opinion: GOP denial will add to climate change body count

[Despite] the 99.9% consensus in the science community that the burning of fossil fuel is driving the rise in global temperatures, a 2021 analysis from the Center for American Progress identified “109 representatives and 30 senators who refuse to acknowledge the scientific evidence of human-caused climate change.” These are the people we are depending on to steer the Southwest through its driest period since Vikings roamed the seas. Anyone concerned? Particularly among the 25 million people across three states and Mexico who rely on Lake Mead for water.
-Written by LZ Granderson, LA Times culture and politics columnist.

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Aquafornia news May 5, 2022 E&E News

As Colorado River shrinks, pain of drought to spread

Rolf Schmidt-Petersen knows what can happen when a water shortage hits: Reservoirs shrink and tempers flare. “We had people literally throwing rocks, tomatoes when Elephant Butte went down,” recalled Schmidt-Petersen, director of the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission. He was talking about a 2003 deal to release water from a reservoir in southern New Mexico and drop the lake by about 33 feet to assist farmers in the state and neighboring Texas. … Decades later, the 2.2-million-acre-foot reservoir, part of the Rio Grande Basin, contains only about 260,000 acre-feet of water, according to the Bureau of Reclamation. 

Related articles: 

  • Boulder City Review: Operation begins for Lake Powell conservation effort
  • LAs Vegas Sun: Editorial – As Lake Mead water levels fall, government must rise to the occasion
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Aquafornia news May 4, 2022 The Conversation

Western river compacts were innovative in the 1920s but couldn’t foresee today’s water challenges

In the early 1900s, there was plenty of water to go around. But there weren’t enough dams, canals or pipelines to store, move or make use of it. Devastating floods in California and Arizona spurred plans for building dams to hold back high river flows. … Today the West faces conditions that [water law expert Delph] Carpenter and his peers did not anticipate. In 1922, Hoover imagined that the basin’s population, which totaled about 457,000 in 1915, might quadruple in the future. Today, the Colorado River supplies some 40 million people – more than 20 times Hoover’s projection.

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Aquafornia news May 4, 2022 KUNC

Wednesday Top of the Scroll: Federal government rolls out ‘extraordinary actions’ to prop up Lake Powell

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced two measures [Tuesday] to boost water levels in Lake Powell, keeping them high enough to continue generating hydropower at the Glen Canyon Dam. Both moves are being framed as painful but necessary band-aids, cutting into reserves elsewhere in the region to stave off the worst effects of a decades-long drought that has sapped the nation’s second-largest reservoir. One measure will send water from upstream to help refill Lake Powell. About 500,000 acre-feet of water will be released from Flaming Gorge Reservoir, which straddles the border between Wyoming and Utah.

Related articles: 

  • U.S. Bureau of Reclamation: News release – Reclamation’s drought response actions will boost Lake Powell
  • Associated Press: US to hold back Lake Powell water to protect hydropower
  • Los Angeles Times: As drought crisis deepens, government will release less water from Colorado River reservoir
  • Colorado Public Radio: The federal government will make the unprecedented move to hold back water in drought-stricken Lake Powell
  • Salt Lake Tribune: ‘It feels like a dying reservoir’: Deltas of sediment are pushing into Glen Canyon as Lake Powell disappears
  • Bloomberg Law: Historic Drought Forces Feds to Withhold Water From States (2)
  • Los Angeles Times: Skeleton in barrel revealed by receding waters of Lake Mead are of a gunshot victim, police say
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Aquafornia news May 3, 2022 New York Times

Colorado River reservoirs are so low, government is delaying releases

With long-term severe drought continuing to take a toll on the Colorado River, the federal government is expected to announce that it will retain some water in one of the river’s major reservoirs to temporarily stave off what it called increased uncertainty in water and electricity supplies. … Powell, behind Glen Canyon Dam, currently holds less than one-fourth of the amount it held when it filled after the dam was built in the 1960s.

Related articles: 

  • The Gazette: Two new Colorado River deals give parched Lake Powell temporary relief 
  • 8 News Now: Las Vegas: I-Team - Body found in barrel in Lake Mead may date back to 1980s, more likely to appear as water recedes, Las Vegas police say
  • Los Angeles Times: Drought reveals human remains in barrel at Lake Mead
  • Engineering News Record: Drought Imperils Arizona Hydropower Plant Operations
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Aquafornia news May 2, 2022 Deseret News

Opinion: Is Lake Powell a model of climate change danger? Not entirely

When Hoover Dam was built near Las Vegas in the 1930s creating Lake Mead, and when Glen Canyon Dam was built in the 1950s and ’60s creating Lake Powell, the western United States had for decades been subjected to a wet weather cycle which regularly caused western rivers to flood. This cycle resulted in the building of hundreds of dams to both try and control the flooding, and run the plentiful water out onto the arid land for irrigation.
-Written by Robert E. Bakes, a former Idaho Supreme Court justice.  

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Aquafornia news May 2, 2022 CNN

Lake Powell officials face an impossible choice in the West’s megadrought: water or electricity

Lake Powell, the country’s second-largest reservoir, is drying up. The situation is critical: If water levels at the lake were to drop another 32 feet, all hydroelectricity production would be halted at the reservoir’s Glen Canyon Dam. The West’s climate change-induced water crisis is now triggering a potential energy crisis for millions of people in the Southwest who rely on the dam as a power source. Over the past several years, the Glen Canyon Dam has lost about 16% of its capacity to generate power. The water levels at Lake Powell have dropped around 100 feet in the last three years.

Related articles: 

  • KTLA: ‘The water is not there’: Drought forces Las Vegas to draw from deeper within Lake Mead
  • Salt Lake Tribune: Utah coal plants guzzle water
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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
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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Aquafornia news April 28, 2022 Los Angeles Times

Blog: Follow along on our clean energy tour of the American West

Over the last century, cities including Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas reshaped the American West by building coal plants, hydropower dams and nuclear reactors to fuel their growth. Now those cities are on the verge of doing it again, only this time with solar panels, wind turbines, long-distance transmission lines and lithium mines. These proposals are igniting opposition from conservationists, tribal activists and rural residents looking to protect landscapes and ecosystems — and at times their way of life.

Related articles: 

  • CalMatters: Lower cost, slower gains: California prepares controversial new climate strategy
  • Los Angeles Times: Push to limit California offshore oil after O.C. spill threatened by high taxpayers costs
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Aquafornia news April 28, 2022 Deseret News

Drought in the West threatens future of Glen Canyon dam and Lake Powell

Under the pressures of overuse and climate change, the fate of the entire Colorado River system is being redetermined in real time, amid what scientists think is the worst drought in over 1,200 years.  Now that the reservoir is below 3,525 feet, it has officially crossed the “hydropower buffer” — which forces policymakers to start working on a solution. Every option seems to have immense challenges, with seven states invested in the matter and 40 million people who are directly affected by the Colorado River system’s water.

Related articles: 

  • Water Online: U.S. Interior To Make Unprecedented Change For Colorado River Water Supplies
  • Fronteras: AZ and local leaders to hold roundtable in Yuma on Colorado River needs and shortages
  • CNN: Lake Mead falls to an unprecedented low, exposing one of the reservoir’s original water intake valves
  • The Gazette: Colorado snowmelt is on – and that’s too soon, say water watchers
  • Environmental Defense Fund: Blog: The Colorado River is getting closer to tanking. Can we free ourselves from the long arc of depletion?
  • 9 News – Denver: Watch – Colorado’s drought and wildfire danger is causing ‘climate anxiety’
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Aquafornia news April 26, 2022 Arizona Republic

Feds try to slow quagga mussel spread using science and nature

For the past 15 years, federal agencies have tried to subdue growing populations of quagga mussels, an invasive species that interferes with water infrastructure and threatens ecosystems. Crews tried scrubbing the mollusks off equipment, power washing them off boats and deploying chlorine and UV lights to prevent them from settling in pipes. But the tiny mussels have not only resisted all deterrents, they’ve clogged cooling equipment, reduced water flow to hydropower and even changed the water quality, making it less suitable for native species.

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Aquafornia news April 25, 2022 Audubon

Blog: Stumbling toward “day zero” on the Colorado River

The Colorado River Basin is inching ever closer to “Day Zero,” a term first used in Cape Town, South Africa when they anticipated the day in 2018 that taps would run dry. Lakes Powell and Mead, the Colorado River’s two enormous reservoirs, were full in 2000, storing more than four years of the river’s average annual flow. For more than two decades water users have been sipping at that supply, watching them decline. Long-term drought and climate change is making this issue potentially catastrophic.

Related article: 

  • KTAR Phoenix: Explosive population growth will bring challenges to metro Phoenix’s water future 
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Aquafornia news April 25, 2022 Nevada Independent

Monday Top of the Scroll: Colorado River states agree to federal request to hold back water in Lake Powell

In a letter sent Friday, the seven states that use the Colorado River agreed with the U.S. Department of Interior and recommended that federal water managers take an emergency action aimed at stabilizing a dwindling Lake Powell, one of the main storage reservoirs on the river. Earlier this month, federal water managers warned the states, including Nevada, that they were considering an emergency action to hold water back in Lake Powell, an attempt to stabilize the reservoir at serious risk of losing the ability to generate hydropower and deliver water to Page, Arizona, a city with roughly 7,500 residents, and the LeChee Chapter of the Navajo Nation.

Related articles:

  • KUNC: Amid dropping water levels in Lake Powell, another ’short-term fix’ is on the way
  • Cronkite News: States, feds weigh next steps amid ‘profound concerns’ over dam levels
  • Arizona Daily Star: Ailing Lake Powell to get a short-term fix but warnings continue
  • Jfleck at Inkstain.net: “unless extraordinary circumstances arise” – tweaking Colorado River Basin rules 
  • Read more
  • View Original Article
Aquafornia news April 22, 2022 Colorado Sun

Flaming Gorge to release 500K acre-feet water to protect Lake Powell

Flaming Gorge reservoir in Wyoming will release 500,000 acre-feet of water under a new Drought Operations Plan to help prop up dangerously low water levels at Lake Powell. The plan, approved Thursday by the Upper Colorado River Commission, does not call for any water to be released from Blue Mesa west of Gunnison, but also does not rule out the possibility of that being an option in the future.

Related articles: 

  • Colorado Water Conservation Board: Upper Colorado River Commission Approves Drought Response Operations Plan for 2022
  • jfleck at inkstain: Time to rethink the Upper Basin’s “Bonus Water” contributions to Lake Mead?
  • KJZZ: As northern reservoirs drop, central Arizona reservoirs are 72% full  
  • Read more
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Aquafornia news April 22, 2022 Water Education Colorado

La Niña likely to continue, intensifying drought, wildfires; snowpack hits 91% of average

As warm spring winds whip the Eastern Plains, sapping soils of moisture, and the state’s reservoirs sit at below-average levels, water managers got more bad news Tuesday: this two-year drought cycle could continue through the summer and into the fall leading the state into its third year of below-average snowpack and streamflows and high wildfire danger. Looking ahead the weather pattern known as La Niña, which has created the intense drought of the past two years, is likely to continue, according to Peter Goble, a climate specialist with Colorado State University’s Colorado Climate Center.

Related articles: 

  • Knee Deep Times: How rivers in the sky travel across the ocean
  • NOAA: New global forecasts of marine heatwaves foretell ecological and economic impacts
  • Read more
  • View Original Article
Aquafornia news April 21, 2022 New York Magazine

The multistate battle over the Colorado River

In March, the water level of Lake Powell declined below a threshold at which the Glen Canyon Dam’s ability to generate power becomes threatened, and the Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency that oversees the West’s water infrastructure, is working with the states above Lake Powell to divert more water to keep its dam operational. Meanwhile, the states around Lake Mead have been hashing out the details of a plan to voluntarily curtail their use to prevent even more dramatic cuts to Arizona and Nevada from going into effect next year.

Related article:

  • The Denver Post: Colorado River is America’s most endangered river, environmental group says
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Aquafornia news April 19, 2022 Arizona Daily Star

Feds’ plan for depleted Colorado River helps Powell but hurts Mead

If the federal government goes through with its proposal to cut Colorado River releases from Lake Powell, water users in Arizona, California and Nevada won’t feel it this year — but Lake Mead will. Due to what some observers call an accounting trick, the reduced releases from Lake Powell wouldn’t translate into immediate cuts or deeper water shortages for the three Lower Basin states. Instead, the Interior Department’s plan would lower the already depleted Lake Mead to prop up the even more depleted Lake Powell…

Related articles: 

  • The Denver Channel: Where Colorado’s snowpack stands as water, fire concerns grow
  • Forbes: Western U.S. Drought Approaches Historic Levels – Here’s Why That Matters to You
  • Read more
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Aquafornia news April 18, 2022 12 News Phoenix

Northern Arizona may see drinking water cutoff as Lake Powell continues to dry up

Arizona’s top water official says he never thought this day would come so soon. Federal officials are warning that the West’s escalating water crisis could put some Arizona communities’ ”health and safety” at risk, by cutting off their supply of drinking water.

Related articles: 

  • KUNC: Lake Powell is critically low, and still shrinking. Here’s what happens next
  • Circle of Blue: Federal Water Tap, April 18: ‘Profound Concerns’ With Lake Powell Prompt Feds To Consider More Colorado River Cutbacks
  • Read more
  • View Original Article
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?
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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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 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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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 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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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 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 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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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.

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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. 

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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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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

Water Cycle Poster

Water as a renewable resource is depicted in this 18×24 inch poster. Water is renewed again and again by the natural hydrologic cycle where water evaporates, transpires from plants, rises to form clouds, and returns to the earth as precipitation. Excellent for elementary school classroom use.

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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 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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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.

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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. 

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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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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 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 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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