Western Water Coverage

A federal hydrologist appeared to be momentarily at a loss for words Thursday as he described how dire the latest forecast has gotten for how much water will flow through the Colorado River Basin this summer.

Widespread drought and fears of a power crisis is forcing the Interior Department to start sending billions of gallons of water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir downstream to prop up Lake Powell.

The town of Cave Creek in Arizona is on the front lines of the Colorado River crisis. It will get help from Phoenix before working on long-term fixes.

Invasive species are on the march in the Colorado River, threatening everything from endangered native fish in Arizona to Colorado's juicy Palisade peaches.

Cody Moser with the federal Colorado Basin River Forecast Center said in a monthly briefing Tuesday that just 1.4 million acre feet of Colorado River water is expected to reach Lake Powell through July. That's less than a quarter of what's considered normal.

Estevan López, New Mexico's water negotiator, said talks resumed March 2, and the upper and lower basin states are using a short-term pitch from Nevada as a starting point.

The sluggish Colorado River negotiations have entered a new phase: Long and fiery letter writing.

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.