{"id":581749,"date":"2026-04-13T14:27:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T14:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/581749\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T14:27:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T14:27:35","slug":"its-incredibly-bad-no-end-in-sight-to-colorado-river-water-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/581749\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It’s incredibly bad\u2019: No end in sight to Colorado River water crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The outlook for the Colorado River, and Lake Powell in particular, continues to worsen due to an historically warm winter and dismal snowpack.<\/p>\n

Projections show that Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona border could drop low enough this year that it stops producing hydroelectric power at the Glen Canyon Dam. If it drops even lower, the dam is in danger of structural failure.<\/p>\n

Wyoming relies on some of that hydroelectric power, according to state officials. The state will also play a major, legally obligated role in trying to help prevent such a catastrophe. Primarily, the Bureau of Reclamation will release extra water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir \u2014 potentially 1 million acre feet, which is more than a quarter of its storage capacity of about 3.8 million acre-feet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition to recreation and economic impacts at Flaming Gorge on the Wyoming-Utah border \u2014 boat ramps may be rendered inoperable \u2014 Wyoming officials worry about potential mandatory water use reductions in the southwest corner of the state, as well as potential legal entanglements over a seven-state negotiation that has so far failed to resolve how stakeholders will share the pain of a declining Colorado River.<\/p>\n

\"\"Buckboard Marina owner Tony Valdez, seen here Sept. 26, 2022, says he\u2019s made continual adjustments to boat docks to keep up with lowering water levels at Flaming Gorge Reservoir. (Dustin Bleizeffer\/WyoFile)<\/p>\n

Adding to frustrations and fears, the water crisis is so severe and crashing so rapidly that stakeholders can\u2019t even track \u2014 with confidence \u2014 its extent.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though these projections are painting an incredibly dire picture for us, we need to be mindful that runoff might even be worse than what\u2019s being projected,\u201d Wyoming Senior Assistant Attorney General Chris Brown said Friday, adding that dry soil throughout the region is a wildcard in water calculations. \u201cIt\u2019s bad. It\u2019s incredibly bad what we\u2019re seeing in the Upper [Colorado River] Basin right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown joined Wyoming State Engineer Brandon Gebhart Friday at a Wyoming Colorado River Advisory Committee meeting to provide an update on the crisis (click here<\/a> to see a slidedeck presented at the meeting).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe information we\u2019re getting is evolving just about as quickly as the hydrology is declining, so we\u2019re trying to react to what we\u2019re seeing in almost real time,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWe don\u2019t know what\u2019s actually going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"This graphic depicts the \u201cprobable\u201d water year for the Colorado River Basin in 2026. (Bureau of Reclamation)<\/p>\n

An extra release from Flaming Gorge, which will begin on or before May 1, is a certainty, according to Wyoming water officials. That\u2019s because the reservoir was specifically built to serve as a sort of water bank to ensure legally obliged deliveries to downstream states Nevada, Arizona and California. Among four storage reservoirs in the upper basin, Flaming Gorge has the most \u2014 and the most legally unrestricted \u2013 water to send downstream to Lake Powell.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the low-hanging fruit,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIt\u2019s the biggest, by far, and it\u2019s got the most available water.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reservoir also played a vital backup role for Lake Powell a few years ago. Colorado River authorities released an extra volume of about 465,000 acre-feet of water from Flaming Gorge in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But this year, even considering decreased releases from Lake Powell to help maintain Glen Canyon dam\u2019s functionality, \u201canything we do as far as upstream [extra water] releases is not going to be enough,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

If the climate and hydrology crisis in the Colorado River Basin persist, how many times can water authorities go back to the well, so to speak, before it runs dry? After extra releases this year, it will take time to replenish Flaming Gorge. What if 2027 is another bad year, and beyond that?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something that we\u2019re certainly incredibly mindful of,\u201d Brown said, adding that those are questions still unanswered in failed negotiations to update the drought management plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked about a potential legal strategy regarding continual demands for extra releases from Flaming Gorge, Brown said, \u201cThat would require going into executive session.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The outlook for the Colorado River, and Lake Powell in particular, continues to worsen due to an historically…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[243421,192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-581749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-colorado-river-crisis","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}