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A February deadline for determining future operating guidelines for the West’s two largest reservoirs came and went with no agreement on the table and clear lines drawn in the sand.

A seven-state resolution to how Lake Mead and Lake Powell will be operated when the interim guidelines expire at the end of this year wasn’t reached by Feb. 14, and the lack of a sound technical or legal plan by the Bureau of Reclamation in favor of political rhetoric may propel the situation into increasingly dire straits.

Zoe Mintz reports on water levels throughout California being above average, as snow levels hit below average levels

You might appreciate snowpack as something to sled, ski, or snowboard on. But beyond the slopes, vast masses of snow melt as winter turns to spring, feeding rivers and streams, which go on to hydrate towns and cities and crops. We’re talking incredible amounts of water: California, for instance, gets 30 percent of its supply from the snowpack in its Sierra Nevada mountains.

But across the American west, that bounty is in trouble as the climate quickly changes: The region is currently in the grip of a severe snow drought, as more precipitation falls as rain. At the same time, higher temperatures are desiccating the landscape, fueling massive wildfires once all that snow melts away. Not helping matters is a long history of fire suppression — quickly stamping out blazes has allowed dry vegetation to accumulate, adding yet more fuel to the flames.

Leaders of California, Arizona and Nevada are criticizing the Trump administration’s proposals for water cutbacks along the Colorado River, urging it to take a different approach and avoid a court battle.

The three downstream states said in letters to the Interior Department this week that the agency’s preliminary outline of five options for cuts ignores the foundational “Law of the River” that has underpinned how seven western states operate for more than a century.

The head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is stepping down to become chief executive of an electric company in her native Puerto Rico.

Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement Wednesday that Janisse Quiñones, the DWP’s top executive since 2024, brought “steady leadership and engineering expertise” to the utility. In her new job, Quiñones will work on modernizing Puerto Rico’s electric grid.