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Seven Weeks of Near-Record Low Snowfall in the Colorado River Basin Have Water Managers Worried

/in , , /by /The Salt Lake Tribuneby Zak Podmore

The water level in Lake Powell was at a record low when rain and snow began to fall across the Colorado River Basin in October, soaking dry soils ahead of the winter season.

Water managers, who hoped the trend would build into an above-average snow year that might delay a looming water crisis in the Southwest, watched the snowpack drop to near zero in November. Then, after a massive storm cycle brought six feet of snow to parts of the Rockies around the New Year, they again breathed a sigh of relief.

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Climate Change, Drought Are Endangering Hydropower Production From Lake Powell. Is It Time to ‘Balance the Water Budget’?

/in , , /by /The Salt Lake Tribuneby Zach Podmore

The water level in Lake Powell was at a record low when rain and snow began to fall across the Colorado River Basin in October, soaking dry soils ahead of the winter season.

Water managers, who hoped the trend would build into an above-average snow year that might delay a looming water crisis in the Southwest, watched the snowpack drop to near zero in November. Then, after a massive storm cycle brought six feet of snow to parts of the Rockies around the New Year, they again breathed a sigh of relief.

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What Is the Future of Snow? Grappling With Climate Change and Warmer Winters

/in , , /by /The Nevada Independent by Daniel Rothberg

Between the Winter Olympics and our dry January, I’ve been thinking a lot about snow over the last few weeks. Last month, Reno saw no measurable precipitation for the first time since such records were kept. The dry streak has continued past January. And although there have been longer periods of dryness in the region, it’s enough to be noticeable, matched with warm temperatures that make it feel more like spring than winter.

Maybe it’s the weather whiplash that makes it feel especially noticeable. The water year started out strong.

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The Colorado River Basin’s Water Forecast Looked Good in January. Now Everything Has Changed.

/in , , /by /The Colorado Sunby Chris Outcalt

The past 30 days have at least temporarily erased hopes of above-average spring runoff in the Colorado River Basin, according to the February report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Colorado Basin River Forecast Center.

“Very little precipitation during the last three weeks of January, especially across southern Utah and southwest Colorado,” Cody Moser, a hydrologist with the NOAA forecast center, said Monday during a web briefing to review the agency’s latest monthly water-supply report.

The National Resources Conservation Service maintains snow telemetry (SNOTEL) sites across the Colorado River Basin, which automatically report snow depth and quality. Beginning in December, NOAA produces regular reports based on the SNOTEL data, detailing how that snow might translate into streamflow come spring.

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Q&A: David Arend Talks Colorado River Basin Challenges

/in , /by /KUNCby Alex Hager

As the Colorado River shrinks at the hands of a two-decades-long drought, there’s a lot on the line. The water supply for 40 million people, agriculture, wildlife and hydropower generation are all hanging in the balance as the region grapples with a dwindling river.

The federal agency most involved with the Colorado River and water in the West is the Bureau of Reclamation. The agency’s measurements and actions can lead headlines throughout the region — including the shortage declaration that raised national alarm last August.

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As the Colorado River Shrinks, Can the Basin Find an Equitable Solution in Sharing the River’s Waters?

/in , , /by /Western Water (Water Education Foundation)by Douglas E. Beeman

Impacts from climate change and two decades of drought on the Colorado River are fueling fears that states in the Upper Basin – Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming – could be forced to curtail their own water use to fulfill obligations under the century-old Colorado River Compact to send a certain amount of water downstream to the Lower Basin states of California, Arizona and Nevada.

There has never been a so-called “Compact call” on the river. But as evidence grows that the river isn’t yielding the water assumed by the 1922 Colorado River Compact, questions arise about whether a Compact call may be coming, or whether the states and water interests, drawing on decades of sometimes difficult collaboration, can avert a river war that ends up in court.

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Dam Providing Power to Millions Nears Critically Low Water Level

/in , , /by /Roll Callby Benjamin J. Hulac

A federal dam in Arizona that provides electricity to millions of Americans is at risk this year of running out of the minimum level of water required to generate that power.

Glen Canyon Dam, completed in 1963 and brought online two years later, is at 27 percent capacity, the lowest since it was filled, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Tuesday.

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Colorado Had Hottest Six Months in History, New Data Shows

/in , , /by /The Denver Postby Conrad Swanson

The average temperature for the last six months is the hottest recorded in Colorado and the country as a whole, according to data released this week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The next-highest six-month average temperature peak in Colorado came during the 1930s Dust Bowl era, the data shows.

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Desalination Has Guided Water Exchanges for Israel and Jordan. Could It Play a Role in the Colorado River Basin’s Future?

/in , , /by /The Good Men Projectby Sharon Udasin Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

Shattering the stillness of a frigid January moonlit sky, the sunrise’s amber aura glimmers over the Tinajas Altas mountain range — giving way to a sandscape of semi-succulent shrubs.

The sun’s increasingly insistent rays animate an otherwise desolate desert corridor that links the city of Yuma, Arizona, to the San Luis Port of Entry along the U.S.–Mexico border. White school buses shuttle Mexican agricultural workers to Arizonan farm acreage, home to America’s heartland of winter leafy greens. Just a few miles west is the Colorado River, the region’s historic lifeblood — a lifeblood that is so under threat that the Bureau of Reclamation declared its first-ever federal shortage for the basin on Monday.

(Editor’s Note: The interviews for this story took place from fall 2019 to spring 2020 as part of the author’s Ted Scripps Fellowship at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism. The story was supported by The Water Desk, an independent journalism initiative based at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism.)

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Drought and Water Supply: A Year in Review

/in , /by

Drought and water supply in the Southwest U.S. dominated the water news in 2021, from the Colorado River Basin to California.

COVID-19 continued its grasp on all aspects of life in 2021. Even in the face of the pandemic, the work of providing water as an essential service continued for every agency with the responsibility of making sure their constituents have the water they need to sustain their communities, farms and businesses.

Drought: Shortage declaration on Lake Mead

This past year highlighted the challenges statewide and throughout the Colorado River Basin associated with providing that water service in the face of a twenty-year drought on the river, yet agencies continued to meet the demands for water. The critical story of 2021 on the Colorado River was the shortage declaration for the upcoming year on Lake Mead, the reservoir serving the river’s Lower Basin. A key element of this story is that while California is not affected by the current shortage declaration, the Lower Basin is moving forward with steps to try to protect the reservoir from further declarations. The effort to meet water needs is continuing with an eye toward finding resolutions to challenges and to address those challenges in a way that is mutually beneficial.

Water supply: Conserved Water Transfer Agreement

While the drought has been a dominating issue, there are several other critical water matters. An important water story this year was the ramping up of the Conserved Water Transfer Agreement between the Imperial Irrigation District and the San Diego County Water Authority to its full allotment of 200,000 acre-feet per year. The water transfer, which is the cornerstone of the Quantification Settlement Agreement, is provided through a conservation program implemented in the Imperial Valley by IID and the Valley’s farming community and funded by the Water Authority. This water, coupled with 77,700 acre-feet from the lining of the All-American and Coachella Canals, remains an important supply of water for the San Diego community while providing the Valley the funding it needs to implement water conservation.

With the state moving forward with Phase I of its Salton Sea Management Program, there were positive steps toward restoration work at the Salton Sea in 2021. Additionally, the QSA Joint Powers Authority (JPA), made of up IID, SDCWA, the Coachella Valley Water District, and the state, continued its mitigation projects meant to address the specific environmental impacts of the QSA. While challenges continue at the sea, both the state’s restoration work and the separate but complimentary QSA JPA mitigation effort show the sea is a priority issue, and one where all involved will have to continue to monitor to make sure progress continues.

Imperial Valley-Drought-Water Supply-Colorado River Basin-Imperial Irrigation District-QSA

A collage of photographs from the water-related issues covered in the water blog of the Imperial-San Diego Currents website and the Community Spotlight section of the site. Photo: San Diego County Water Authority

Share your stories

Look to this website for more community features as well as water stories in 2022, as there will likely be no shortage of stories to share. This site is meant to be a benefit to the community, so this writer would ask the community that if you have ideas for Community Spotlight stories in 2022, send a message either through this site or directly to the writer, Darren Simon, at . Likewise, if there are questions you have on water matters or would like to see a water-related issue addressed on this site, contact us through the site or the email provided above.

(Editor’s Note: Darren Simon posts stories featuring water issues in the Imperial Valley, the Colorado River Basin and San Diego County, on the website Imperial-San Diego Currents: https://ivsandiegocurrents.org/)