lake powell
-
Federal ideas reflect little progress toward solving Colorado River crisis
The clock is ticking for the Colorado River, but solutions on how to save the river basin, which provides water to 40 million people in seven states and Mexico, still appears to be elusive, at least from the federal government. However, proposed solutions are starting to bubble up through Colorado agriculture’s community, including projects that…
-
Reclamation: Upper Basin reservoirs insufficient to save Lake Powell
Flaming Gorge Reservoir, which Bureau of Reclamation officials have used twice during the past two years to add water to the rapidly deteriorating Colorado River system, likely has only enough water left for two more emergency releases, according reclamation officials. Last summer, the Bureau of Reclamation ordered the release of 125,000 acre-feet of water from…
-
Ignored for decades, Colorado River tribes fight for their water rights
MONUMENT VALLEY, Utah • Navajo Nation residents in pickup trucks rumbled along dusty dirt roads in the ethereal painted desert of Monument Valley in August to a well where they fill up water tanks, sometimes multiple times a day. The well spigot in the dirt parking lot next to a shuttered post office in Goulding, Utah, is…
-
Drought threatens Colorado River hydropower, major source of renewable energy
PAGE, ARIZ. • Soulful notes from a Native American flute float over the vast valley on the backside of the Glen Canyon Dam, which interrupts the once mighty Colorado River. At the tourist overlook, a teen — his phone in hand, playing the music — hops from one phyllo-layered sandstone outcropping to another, where river, rock…
-
With the feds ‘light’ on steps, Colorado’s water experts explore challenges, opportunities
Several of Colorado’s water experts on Thursday noted that the federal government’s plan for tackling dwindling Colorado River reservoirs is “light” on the next steps but that the river’s condition also offers opportunities to boost resiliency among Western states. “It’s a dismaying time, but one full of opportunity,” said attorney James Eklund of Sherman &…
-
Why California was spared and Arizona hammered: A brief history of Colorado River agreements
Tuesday’s announcement by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation that it would require Arizona and Nevada to reduce their annual allocation of water from the Colorado River came as no surprise to most water experts. The reductions announced by Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton have been part of a long-standing agreement, known as the interim guidelines, since…
-
Monsoon moisture takes a little out of the drought, water watchers say
The early arrival of summer monsoons in late June has been a welcome sight for a parched state, but the rains have not been enough to put an end to the drought. Colorado water watchers from federal and state agencies and local water providers, known as the Water Availability Task Force, couldn’t have been happier…
-
Federal government’s ‘underwhelming’ plan for the Colorado River falls short of goal
For 62 days, the seven states of the Colorado River faced a mandate to come up with a plan to conserve 2 to 4 million acre-feet of water by 2023. Failing to do so, Commissioner Camille Touton of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation warned, would mean the federal government exercising its authority to come up with…