Colorado River

The federal government manages the biggest dams on the Colorado River, but it hasn't been taking a forceful role in negotiations between the states on how to allocate increasingly scarce water in the basin.

A lack of snow, compounded by warm temperatures, has plagued Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. That will impact how much water is available come spring runoff.

Pressure to reach a deal is building. Forecasts for the Colorado River water supply continue to worsen as snowpack lags far behind normal across the West. And negotiators from the basins have said there are "sticking points" that have persisted in recent weeks, even after marathon talks failed to resolve them.

As Basin state governors met in Washington D.C., to try and break the impasse, Colorado’s Attorney General said the state has a deep bench of lawyers to contend with multiple water disputes.

Four days of negotiations in a Salt Lake City conference room earlier this month did not appear to have sparked a breakthrough.

The proposals range from taking "no action" to a scenario that might result in water cuts to the lower basin states of California, Nevada and Arizona. One alternative developed in partnership with conservation groups would incentivize states and water users to proactively conserve the river.

Experts say the federal government does not want to be the decision maker, and is pushing states to come to an agreement on future water use that will inform the river's post-2026 operating guidelines. CU Boulder's Chris Winter weighs in on the Interior's draft environmental impact statement.

Invasive zebra mussels have now infested at least 135 miles of the Colorado River, from the Utah border to Dotsero in western Colorado. And if these tiny pests flow into narrow irrigation pipes and tubes, they threaten to spoil the harvest of Colorado's sweetest crops.

At a key meeting to discuss the river's future management, federal officials lay out tools for dealing with falling reservoir levels.

National monuments across the West do more than preserve iconic landscapes — they also help protect the rivers millions of people rely on for drinking water. But a new analysis warns those protections could weaken under the Trump administration’s push to redraw the boundaries of several monuments.