A group* of my Colorado River collaborators has put together what we hope can be a useful set of foundational principles as the basin states and federal leadership search for a path toward a negotiated agreement for post-2026 Colorado River management. They’re based on a number of key premises: The Colorado River Compact will remain …
The Western Water Assessment, a federally funded research and outreach group based at the University of Colorado, sent a note to its stakeholders yesterday informing us that the new administration’s plans to eliminate large swaths of federal climate spending include WWA’s primary funding source: We know that it can be hard to keep track of …
Continue reading ‘Wrecking Ball Report: Western Water Assessment’ »
It’s easy to take for granted the accounting innovations in the Colorado River governance regime’s 2007 guidelines, which have governed river management and the upstream-downstream relationships between the upper and lower basins. “Intentionally Created Surplus” (ICS) is now part of the lexicon, and the idea behind it shows enough promise that it’s at the heart …
Continue reading ‘On the Colorado River, doing the accounting with care’ »
“Everybody keeps hoping that the only way we’re going to really rebuild storage is if we have another ridiculous, gangbuster year like 2023,” said Jack Schmidt, a watershed sciences professor at Utah State University and Director of its Center for Colorado River Studies. But, he continued, “that’s highly unlikely.” Via Anastasia Hufham in the Salt …
Via Annie Snider at Politico: The Trump administration escalated a water fight with Mexico on Thursday, saying it will cut off Colorado River water deliveries to the city of Tijuana. In a post on X, the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said it would deny Mexico’s request to deliver water to Tijuana through …
By Jack Schmidt (1), John Fleck (2), Kathryn Sorensen (3), Eric Kuhn (4), Katherine Tara (2) | March 21, 2025 1 Center for Colorado River Studies, Utah State University 2 Utton Transboundary Resources Center, University of New Mexico 3 Kyl Center for Water Policy, Arizona State University 4 (sort of) retired In Short: Since the …
Continue reading ‘Colorado River Reservoir Storage in Mid-March: Where do we stand?’ »
By Eric Kuhn The Bureau of Reclamation released its March 24-Month study last Friday and just like last month, the forecast is for big trouble in the Colorado River Basin. Under the “Most Probable” scenario, the ten-year cumulative flow at Lee Ferry will drop below 82.5 million acre-feet (the “tripwire”) by the end of Water …
Continue reading ‘The March 24-Month study and the myth of a “Compact Call”’ »
The three Native American tribes in northeast Arizona – Diné, Hopi and San Juan Southern Paiute – are taking another run this year at a water rights settlement that would finally bring water to communities that lack it. An attempt last year failed in the final days of the last administration after Upper Colorado River …
Continue reading ‘Taking another crack at Tribal water in Arizona’ »
Elevated from the comments, observations from former Reclamation manager Doug Blatchford: WHEN I joined the Reclamation team in 2005 as the River Operation Manager on the Colorado River, part of my duties was to prepare a business plan to direct future business decisions based on the operations budget and services required (like delivering water to …
Continue reading ‘Wrecking Ball Report: At Reclamation, a view from the inside’ »
I got a text message yesterday afternoon about this, which is nuts: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Albuquerque District announced today that an unintended water release from Cochiti Dam may increase flood risk on the Rio Grande in the river channel, riverbanks, and floodway. The cause of the unintended water release was a procedural error …