Colorado River

Jay Weiner, the water attorney for the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe on the Colorado River in Arizona and California, discusses how tribes play a role in Colorado River governance, even if they’re not officially in the closed-door negotiations.

Record-low snowpack across the Upper Colorado River Basin will likely translate to poor conditions for spring runoff, and could mean emergency action to supplement low water levels in Lake Powell.

The seven states that rely on the Colorado River need to figure out who will take cuts to water usage as climate change worsens drought in the basin. The federal government needs to start an environmental review process in order to have any new operating guidelines in place by October.

The federal government manages the biggest dams on the Colorado River, but it hasn’t been taking a forceful role in negotiations between the states on how to allocate increasingly scarce water in the basin.

A lack of snow, compounded by warm temperatures, has plagued Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. That will impact how much water is available come spring runoff.

Experts say the federal government does not want to be the decision maker, and is pushing states to come to an agreement on future water use that will inform the river’s post-2026 operating guidelines. CU Boulder’s Chris Winter weighs in on the Interior’s draft environmental impact statement.

Warm temperatures and a lack of snow have made for an anomalous winter in the Upper Colorado River Basin. While it’s not “the new normal,” winters are certainly warming up due to climate change.

Warmer temperatures in November meant that less snowpack accumulated. But storms did increase soil moisture in the Upper Colorado River Basin, making future precipitation more likely to run off slopesides and boost rivers and streams.

The Colorado River District has cleared an important hurdle in securing the Shoshone water right, which is an in-stream flow agreement with the state. The deal is designed in part to protect Colorado River water levels, and it was approved despite objections from utility companies on the Front Range.

The federal government set a deadline of November 11 for states to have a framework for allocating Colorado River water post-2026. The states missed that deadline, and have failed to produce an agreement.