A RICD does not necessarily improve river conditions for recreational water users, but it makes sure they don’t get worse in the future.
Category: Water
Our water desk, staffed by Heather Sackett, produces the most authoritative reporting available on Roaring Fork and upper Colorado river basin water policy and politics.
Posted inWater
Plan to reopen irrigation ditch has creek’s neighbors on edge
The issue of who can use water on Canyon Creek gets at a central tension of Western water law: Is water a public resource or a private property right? The answer is both.
Posted inWater
Pitkin County pledges $1 million to Shoshone water rights purchase
In exchange for support of the Shoshone project, Pitkin County will be able to use some water from Grizzly Reservoir, owned by the city of Aspen and the River District, to boost flows in the upper Roaring Fork River.
Posted inWater
Colorado River Basin states have just weeks left to agree on plan
The seven states that use water from the Colorado River – Arizona, California and Nevada comprise the Lower Basin – have just over a month left to agree on how the nation’s two largest reservoirs would be operated and cuts shared in the future before the federal government may decide for them.
Posted inWater
North/south split for Western Slope snowpack and streamflow forecasts
Some recent data has shown a north/south split in streamflow declines, with rivers in the southern half of the upper Colorado River basin losing a larger percentage of flows in the first two decades of the 21st century than rivers in the northern part of the basin.
Posted inWater
Dwindling water supply, legal questions push Colorado River into ‘wildly uncharted territory’
Although the phrase often looms like a threat over Colorado River discussions, there is no agreed-upon definition of the term, what would trigger a compact call nor how one would play out.
Posted inWater
Federal funding pause includes 17 water projects on Western Slope
The uncertainty surrounding B2E funding comes at a crucial time for the Colorado River basin, which has been plagued by drought and dwindling streamflows due to climate change for more than the past two decades.
Posted inWater
Upper Basin water managers want monthly drought meetings with feds
This is a critical time for Colorado River management as the Upper Basin states are in talks with the Lower Basin states (California, Arizona, Nevada) about how the nation’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, will be operated and cuts will be shared after 2026 when the current guidelines expire.
Posted inWater
Colorado lawmakers take aim at turf — again
The bill represents a continuing effort across the Colorado River basin to wring savings from municipal water use in the face of a warming and drying climate.
Posted inWater
Future water conservation program almost guaranteed in Upper Basin
One is a Lake Powell Conservation Account that will store up to 200,000 acre-feet per year from conservation and from quantified but unused tribal water.