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A Major Drought Is Gripping the West. Still, There’s Reason to Be Hopeful the Water Situation Will Improve

/in , , /by /KUER Utahby Pamela McCall

Concerning news about Utah’s extreme drought keeps coming. On Wednesday, Utah’s Department of Natural Resources said the drought continues to have “a stranglehold on the state,” despite wild weather swings that dumped rain in some areas. Washington Post Columnist David Von Drehle recently wrote an opinion piece about the drought gripping the West. He spoke with KUER’s Pamela McCall about the situation.

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Utah is a Leader in Cloud Seeding. Is it Working?

/in , , /by /The New York Timesby Zac Podmore

Utah’s winter sports industry may claim the greatest snow on Earth, but for skiers and water watchers alike, there is hardly ever enough powder.

For nearly 50 years, the second-driest state in the nation has been giving natural winter storms an engineered boost to help deepen its snowpack through a program largely funded by state taxpayers, local governments and water conservancy districts.

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The Water Tap: Utah’s Exceptional Drought Calls for Exceptional Measures. Or Does It?

/in , /by /The Spectrumby Joan Meiners

Last week, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox issued an executive order declaring a statewide drought emergency. In the press release that followed, he urged Utahns to “evaluate their water use and find ways to save not only because of current drought conditions but also because we live in one of the driest states in the nation.”

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Utah Water Legislation Concerns Colorado River Basin States

/in , , /by /KJZZ Arizonaby Ron Dungan

Drought has forced several states to rethink how they use the Colorado River, but Utah is trying to figure out how to get more water out of it. Utah’s plan to build a pipeline from Lake Powell to the St. George area has raised eyebrows from the six other Colorado River Basin states. In September, those states wrote a letter reminding Utah of their history of collaboration. It concluded by saying that the pipeline could result in litigation. Utah’s response was to create a new water board.

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Western States Chart Diverging Paths as Water Shortages Loom

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Sophia Eppolito and Felicia Fonseca

As persistent drought and climate change threaten the Colorado River, several states that rely on the water acknowledge they likely won’t get what they were promised a century ago.

But not Utah.

Republican lawmakers approved an entity that could push for more of Utah’s share of water as seven Western states prepare to negotiate how to sustain a river serving 40 million people. Critics say the legislation, which the governor still must sign, could strengthen Utah’s effort to complete a billion-dollar pipeline from a dwindling reservoir that’s a key indicator of the river’s health.

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Opinion: Utah’s Designs on Colorado River Water Would Ignore the Facts and Evade the Law

/in , , /by /The Salt Lake Tribuneby Claire Geddes
Utah House Bill 297 is a dangerous spending bill that provides its benefactors with exemptions to conflict-of-interest laws that raises serious moral questions about what is happening at the Utah Legislature. The bill creates another heavily-funded and secretive government agency — the Colorado River Authority — that would receive an initial $9 million, plus $600,000 per year thereafter, in addition to collecting unknown sums of money from other agencies.
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Why All that Snow We’re Shoveling May Not Rescue Utah from a Bad Water Year

/in , , /by /The Salt Lake Tribuneby Brian Maffly
Old Man Winter has been busy of late, bringing much-needed relief to Utah’s dangerously low snowpacks. But don’t let the piles of fresh snow fool you. After near-record low precipitation over the past year, Utah water supplies remain in serious trouble even with the recent return of long-absent wet weather.
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Why Utah Lawmakers are Worried About Having Enough Water in the Future

/in , /by /Deseret News (Utah)by Amy Joi O'Donoghue

Utah lawmakers say drought and the dwindling Colorado River make it more important than ever for the state to act now to safeguard its interest in the river.

A bill to set up the Colorado River Authority of Utah passed the House 61-12 Tuesday and will be taken up by a Senate committee for further consideration.

Sponsored by House Speaker Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, HB297 sets up the authority made up of representatives from major water districts in the state, as well as the Colorado River commissioner representing Utah.

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Utah’s Water Year So Far, and Why People Should ‘Think Snow’

/in , , /by /Deseret News (Utah)by Amy Joi O'Donoghue

So far this water year that began Oct. 1 has been treating most of Utah like a miserly scrooge, stingy with storms and the accompanying snow. The southern half of the state, as of Monday, was sitting in the 60% of normal accumulation of snowpack, and the Lower Sevier River Basin at 36% of normal is experiencing abysmally dry conditions.

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2020 Delivers Setbacks For Some Long-Planned Western Water Projects

/in , , /by /KUNC Coloradoby Luke Runyon

2020 has been a tough year for some of the Colorado River basin’s long-planned, most controversial water projects.

Proposals to divert water in New Mexico, Nevada and Utah have run up against significant legal, financial and political roadblocks this year. But while environmental groups have cheered the setbacks, it’s still unclear whether these projects have truly hit dead ends or are simply waiting in the wings.

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