Colorado scientist Brad Udall spent hours digging — with frustration — through the federal government’s 700-page proposal for managing key dams and reservoirs in the Colorado River Basin over the next three years.

“I just wish they would really simply say, ‘And here’s how the system would perform under these really bad years we’ve seen over the last 23 (years),’” said Udall, senior water and climate research scientist at Colorado State University. “If they would do that, you would see that this system crashes.”