Welcome to The Runoff, where Aspen Journalism’s Water Desk provides insider news and water-related updates you won’t read anywhere else under The Briefing and additional context and updates on the most recent reporting from our water desk under The Recap.
In 2025, the Water Desk brought readers authoritative reporting on water quality issues in the Roaring Fork Valley, invasive species, water rights on the Western Slope, and all the drama, policy and politics of the larger Colorado River Basin as the seven states and the federal government figure out a new paradigm for future water management.
Thanks for going deeper with us and for supporting our nonprofit, in-depth, investigative reporting.
– Heather Sackett
Water Desk Editor and Reporter
Little progress on post-2026
After a promising start to the summer with the announcement that the Upper and Lower Colorado River basins had agreed on a post-2026 management framework based on supply instead of demand, progress stalled once again on how reservoirs will be operated and shortages shared on the drought-stricken river. The states missed a Nov. 11 deadline set by the feds, but at least the seven state representatives appeared together on the last panel of the 2025 Colorado River Water Users Association in Las Vegas. With less than two months left to meet a second Feb. 14 deadline set by the feds, Nevada representative John Entsminger said that the best the basin could expect at this late hour is a five-year deal to keep the states out of court.
River District wins state approval for Shoshone
Despite arguments from Front Range water providers, the Colorado River Water Conservation District cleared one hurdle in its campaign to secure one of the largest nonconsumptive water rights for the Western Slope. In November the Colorado Water Conservation Board approved the water rights tied to the Shoshone hydropower plant in Glenwood Canyon to be used for instream flow purposes. The River District has already filed the application in water court, where they expect many entities to file statements of opposition.
Zebra mussels spread
The invasive zebra mussels continued their spread in the Colorado River and adjacent water bodies. Colorado Parks and Wildlife found that a private lake in Eagle County was the source of the mussels, and adult mussels turned up downstream in two lakes in Grand Junction and in the Colorado River, making the stretch of river from the 32 Road Bridge to the Colorado-Utah border officially infested. Grand Valley irrigation companies again treated their systems this fall with a copper solution that kills the mussels, hoping to keep the invasive species from clogging their infrastructure. In October, CPW officials told members of the Water Resources and Agriculture Review Committee that given the scale and complexity of the problem, the cost to address zebra mussels into the future could be significant.
Ongoing sampling on Lincoln Creek
Local governments, state agencies and environmental nonprofits continued working together to collect data and make a plan to address contamination in a high alpine stream above Aspen. Lincoln Creek above Grizzly Reservoir runs a bright orange from acid rock drainage contamination, and the effects can be seen and measured downstream. Rare earth elements found in the creek raised even more questions about the impacts to human and environmental health.
A deep dive into water for recreation
Aspen Journalism, along with KUNC and The Water Desk at CU Boulder, published a three-part series on Colorado’s recreational in-channel diversions or RICDs, which give water rights to recreation and around which many communities – including Pitkin County – have built whitewater parks. The first story looked at whether these unique protections have enough legal muscle; the second explored how the millions spent on RICDs have expanded cultural perceptions of water for recreation; and the third examined the benefits and drawbacks of these water rights for communities.
Conservation conversation continues
Paying irrigators to voluntarily cut back on water use continues to be a controversial topic in Colorado, even as a conservation program for the Upper Basin now seems inevitable. Some are pushing for state action to make a conservation pool in Lake Powell possible, while the River District still warns against potential negative impacts to rural agricultural communities. Recent studies offered lessons for lawmakers and water managers as they plan for a future with less water.
River District polling results
At the fourth quarterly meeting of the Colorado River Water Conservation District, officials released the results of recent polling of their constituents around its 15-county area. The surveys, which are conducted every three years by Denver-based New Bridge Strategy, found that district voters are concerned over issues that impact water supply, like wildfires, droughts and low snowpack. Nearly four in five say Colorado does not have an adequate water supply to meet future needs and they remain concerned about out-of-state investment firms and hedge funds purchasing Colorado water rights (WAM, anyone?) As for perceptions of the River District, about 68% said they had a favorable opinion of the Glenwood Springs-based governmental organization charged with protecting, conserving, using and developing the water of the Colorado River basin. That high public approval rating may be helpful as the River District continues its campaign to secure the Shoshone water rights, the next phase of which is water court.
Are reduced Powell releases coming?
CREDIT: Alexander Heilner/The Water Desk. Credit: Alexander Heilner/The Water Desk
I wanted to go into more detail about a topic that was inspired by a reader question (thanks, Pat Hunter!) and that I touched on in reporting from CRWUA last week. Wayne Pullan, regional director for the bureau’s Upper Basin uttered a couple wonky sentences in his presentation to the Upper Colorado River Commission that could have easily been missed if you weren’t paying close attention: “Planning for this tool was triggered when we reached projected elevations below 3,500 within the next 12 months. We hit that threshold in December and consultation on possible use of 6e of the supplemental EIS has begun.” Pullan was talking about the tools Reclamation has to protect reservoir levels at Lake Powell and the ability to make hydropower. He was specifically referring to the May 2024 Record of Decision for Near-term Colorado River Operations, which is a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency type of management band aid that only applies for one more year until there are new guidelines in place on how to operate Lake Powell releases. The feds are set to release 7.48 million acre-feet out of Powell this year. But the ROD says that if the minimum probable 24-month study projections show Powell dipping below elevation 3,500 in the next 12 months, Interior could reduce releases down to as little as 6 million acre-feet. The December projections did just that. Under the “minimum” possible inflow, Lake Powell would fall below the surface-elevation level of 3,490 feet needed to generate hydropower by October 2026 and stay there until spring runoff. We don’t yet know exactly how reservoir operations will play out in the coming months, but conditions are shaping up like the historically bad years of 2021 and 2022.
B2E funding
Pullan also addressed – but didn’t provide a satisfying answer about – federal funding that was promised for projects on the Western Slope but frozen by the Trump administration. The money was allocated through what the bureau called “Bucket 2, Environmental Drought Mitigation,” or B2E, which is earmarked for projects that provide environmental benefits and address issues caused by drought. It included projects like the River District’s Shoshone water rights acquisition, dam removals and wetlands restoration. Orchard Mesa Irrigation District managed to shake loose its funding to pipe open canals and install new flows meters, but most projects are still in a state of limbo. “With respect to those applications, the department continues to consider how the remaining unspent funding may be best applied, how that funding can be used to yield the most benefit in the time we have left to obligate those funds,” Pullan said at the UCRC meeting last week. “As decisions are made with respect to those funds, we’ll let you know promptly.”
Dancing with Deadpool
A new essay by Brad Udall and Johnathan Overpeck expands on their important study from 2017 (often cited by Aspen Journalism) that showed rising temperatures from climate change have been a main driver of declining river flows since the turn of the century. But it was unclear whether climate change was behind the prolonged drought. Now the two are back with new research that says climate change is also the main culprit behind the precipitation declines the basin has experienced over the past 25 years. The essay was one of eight in a series from Colorado River experts, scholars and scientists called Dancing with Deadpool. The Colorado River Research Group at the University of Colorado’s Getches-Wilkinson Center published the eight chapters in early December. “This new research thus provides yet more confidence that the odds will favor lowered precipitation in the Colorado River headwaters for as long as human-caused warming persists,” the paper reads. But Udall and Overpeck end on a hopeful note: Since humans are causing climate change, humans can halt it.
States repeat talking points with little progress on deal as Colorado River crisis deepens
A question looming over this week’s conference was: Will the federal government step in?
December water forecast a sobering backdrop to Colorado River conference
The high-stakes fourth tool — which water managers across the basin are counting on to rescue reservoirs, set a new management paradigm and provide long-term stability to the system — is new guidelines for how the reservoirs will be operated and shortages shared after 2026.
Conservation studies’ findings have lessons for water managers
But as climate change continues to fuel shortages, makes a mockery of century-old agreements and pushes Colorado River management into crisis mode, the Upper Basin can no longer avoid scrutiny about how it uses water.
State ramps up water measurement on Western Slope
The push for more-accurate measurement comes at a time when there is increasing competition for dwindling water supplies, as well as growing pressure on the Colorado River’s Upper Basin states (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) to conserve water.
State water board votes yes on Shoshone
The CWCB’s decision was a blow to Front Range water providers, who objected to the River District’s having a say over how to manage the water rights, even though they supported the overall goal of protecting flows for the environment.
No deal on Colorado River
Over the past few months, the positions of two of the states — Colorado and Arizona — have emerged as one of the main sources of disagreement.
Protecting the peak on the Crystal
A “peaking” instream-flow water right would keep in the stream all of the water not claimed by someone else during years with high spring runoff, thereby maintaining these periodic floods, which are essential for growing new cottonwoods.
Snowmass Village’s wilderness water source poses unique wildfire risk
“There are some quite vulnerable systems in the Roaring Fork Valley — Snowmass being at the very top of that list — that really need some advance planning,” said a senior hydrologist with Wright Water Engineers.
Boaters, anglers want clarity around public access to Colorado’s streams
The issue of stream access highlights a basic tension in Colorado’s laws and values: Are rivers just another category of property that can be privately owned and fenced off?
Report takes aim at Colorado River water managers’ inaction
This process would be somewhat expedited, unique and, for some, it raises concerns about transparency and whether the public comment periods that are typically a part of an EIS process will be shortened.
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