By Nick Peters

A February deadline for determining future operating guidelines for the West’s two largest reservoirs came and went with no agreement on the table and clear lines drawn in the sand. 

A seven-state resolution to how Lake Mead and Lake Powell will be operated when the interim guidelines expire at the end of this year wasn’t reached by Feb. 14, and the lack of a sound technical or legal plan by the Bureau of Reclamation in favor of political rhetoric may propel the situation into increasingly dire straits. 

The deadline was met instead with grandstanding and threats of federal intervention by the Lower Basin states (Arizona, California and Nevada) while the Upper Basin states (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) held a firm position: 

“We’re being asked to solve a problem we didn’t create with water we don’t have.” 

Such was the statement issued by Becky Mitchell, Colorado’s commissioner to the Colorado River Upper Basin Commission, following the impasse. As the second largest water provider in the state, Colorado Springs Utilities supports Commissioner Mitchell’s stance because we have been living the reality of less water in the Colorado River Basin for years. 

Colorado Springs sources half its water supply from this basin. When we consider our ability to reuse these transbasin supplies, they account for 70% of our total water use. This year, which is shaping up to have the lowest snowpack on record, we expect to receive 30% of our average yield from these water rights. In contrast, Lake Powell remains scheduled to release 7.48 million acre-feet of water to the Lower Basin, even though it would exceed the inflow and drop the reservoir to historically low levels.

We take cuts from Mother Nature most years, as does every other Colorado River water rights holder in the Upper Basin. The Basin has continued to produce less water since the Colorado River Compact was implemented in 1922, especially in the last few decades as drought has gripped the West. Yet, the Upper Basin has never failed to send the Lower Basin their required amount under the Compact. This, even as we were hardening water conservation programs in Colorado Springs and adapting our water planning to the reality of Colorado River Basin hydrology. 

In contrast, the Lower Basin continued to draw more from Lake Powell based on contracts, not actual water supply. When that storage ran low, they pulled from Lake Mead, and when it reached critical levels, water from federally managed reservoirs in the Upper Basin — including Blue Mesa in Colorado — was released in 2022 as a stopgap measure. These upstream reservoirs are meant to be accessed during times of drought to help the Upper Basin achieve its deliveries to Lake Powell; instead, they were used to increase releases out of Lake Powell for continued overuse by the Lower Basin. The release from Blue Mesa provided a very short-term fix for Lake Mead but resulted in considerable economic and environmental impact to Gunnison County. 

It’s plain: the precarious situation facing the Basin today was fueled by overuse in the Lower Basin. Despite this culpability, in a release sent the day before the Feb. 14 deadline the Lower Basin governors touted the “cuts” they have offered to take while still planning for Lake Powell to release the scheduled amount of water to them this year. They have simply rebranded their lack of accounting for evaporation losses in Lakes Mead and Powell as “conservation.” 

Arizona’s more pointed digs that national security could be at risk should the reservoirs fall below critical levels is tone deaf to Colorado Springs’ support of five military bases and associated national security economy. Yet we manage our water system to ensure security for all our customers, even in times of shortages. 

Colorado cannot succumb to political pressure on this matter. The Bureau of Reclamation should not be swayed by special interests and grandstanding but instead must remain focused on decisions that protect storage in Lake Mead and Lake Powell. A short-term deal that rides on the backs of Colorado water users and that will never resolve the core issue of overuse in the Lower Basin is not in the best interest of Colorado Springs or the rest of the basin. 

Unlike the Lower Basin, there is no upstream valve for us to open when snowpack is scarce and rain doesn’t fall. We’ve had no other choice than to adapt our water planning and related decisions to the changing hydrology in the Basin. It’s time for the Lower Basin states to do the same. 

Nick Peters is the chief system planning and projects officer for Colorado Springs Utilities.