Western Water Coverage

Leaders of environmental groups are issuing fresh warnings this week about the impacts the ongoing gridlock could have in the river basin.

Parks and Wildlife also has plans to install a new $1.3 million dip tank to improve the decontamination of boats visiting the Highline Lake, a large reservoir near Grand Junction, where mussels were detected in 2022.

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.

The announcement from Parks and Wildlife on Wednesday came three months after the Trump administration blocked Colorado's original plan to capture a second batch of wolves in British Columbia and fly them to the state.

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.

The Upper Arkansas Basin in the central part of the state is currently the driest, with about 49% of the normal snowpack.

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.

The personhood designation for the riveris part of a broader "rights of nature" movement that aims to bestow new legal protections on threatened natural resources around the globe.

Drought and steady demand along the Colorado River are draining the nation's second-largest reservoir. Land that was once submerged is now full of beavers and thriving ecosystems.

A group of nonprofits is calling for reductions to water demand, changes at Glen Canyon Dam and more transparent negotiations.