The major expansion of a previous experiment will be one of Colorado’s biggest contributions to emergency use cuts on the troubled waterway
Colorado River Drought Plan
Posted inWater
California releases its plan for Colorado River cuts, evaporation loss not included
California wants cuts based on Lake Mead elevation and not on water lost to evaporation and transportation, which Colorado and other states propose
Posted inWater
Southwest states given more time to agree on water cuts to prevent largest reservoirs from reaching critically low levels
Despite giving states more time to negotiate, federal officials said some cuts were coming to parts of the Colorado River Basin
Posted inClimate, News
Tuesday’s deadline looms for drought-stricken states to cut Colorado River water use
By Sam Metz and Felicia Fonseca, The Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY — Banks along parts of the Colorado River where water once streamed are now just caked mud and rock as climate change makes the Western U.S. hotter and drier. More than two decades of drought have done little to deter the region from […]
Posted inClimate, Economy, Environment, News, Opinion, Outdoors, Water
Analysis: As Colorado River Basin states confront water shortages, it’s time to focus on reducing demand
By Robert Glennon, University of Arizona The U.S. government announced its first-ever water shortage declaration for the Colorado River on Aug. 16, 2021, triggering future cuts in the amount of water states will be allowed to draw from the river. The Tier 1 shortage declaration followed the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s forecast that the water […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Outdoors, Water
Bird count examines what happens when high-country Colorado irrigators use less water
By Heather Sackett, Aspen Journalism KREMMLING — In the gray light of dawn, hundreds of swallows darted over a pool of standing water in an irrigated field along the Colorado River. The birds were attracted to the early-morning mosquitos swarming the saturated landscape. Bill Vetter, a wildlife biologist with Wyoming-based Precision Wildlife Resources, methodically counted […]
Posted inClimate, Coloradans, Environment, News
Western states chart diverging paths as Colorado River water shortages loom
By Sophia Eppolito and Felicia Fonseca, The Associated Press/Report for America SALT LAKE CITY — As persistent drought and climate change threaten the Colorado River, several states that rely on the water acknowledge they likely won’t get what they were promised a century ago. But not Utah. Republican lawmakers approved an entity that could push […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, Growth, News, Outdoors, Wildfire
Climate change ravaged Colorado and the West with heat and drought in 2020. This year may be worse.
If there were any doubts that the climate is changing in the Colorado River Basin, 2020 went a long way toward dispelling them. Unprecedented wildfires, deadly heat waves, withering drought — the many indicators of the climate mayhem that scientists have been warning about for years — ravaged the landscape, claiming dozens of lives and […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Crime and Courts, Economy, Environment, News
Colorado’s ornery, independent water guardians finally agree on one thing: Wall Street can look elsewhere
The calls came in shortly after the story in The New York Times announced Wall Street was on the prowl for “billions in the Colorado’s water.” “Can you help us? How do we get started?” wondered the New York financiers, pals of Andy Mueller, the manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District. “My response […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Newsletters, Outsider
Record low Lake Powell and bad 2021 drought forecast sets stage for water cuts
The dry 2020 and the lack of snow this season has water managers in seven states preparing for the first time for cutbacks outlined in drought contingency plans drafted two years ago. A sobering forecast released this week by the Bureau of Reclamation shows the federally owned Lake Mead and Lake Powell — the nation’s […]