Western Water Reporting

A U.S. Congress bill focuses on infrastructure. Also, a "shared vision" statement from tribes that live in the Colorado River basin and conservation groups focuses on the environmental issues around water access and aims to give tribes a greater voice.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced two measures today to boost water levels in Lake Powell, keeping them high enough to continue generating hydropower at the Glen Canyon Dam. Both moves are being framed as painful but necessary band-aids. One measure will send water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir to help refill Lake Powell. About 500,000 acre-feet of water will be released from Flaming Gorge Reservoir, which straddles the border between Wyoming and Utah. Another measure will reduce the amount of water sent downstream, withholding supplies from Lake Mead, a reservoir that provides storage for California, Arizona and Nevada.

A new plan will release water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir, a measure designed to boost dropping levels in Lake Powell. The releases come as a response to record lows, which are on course to drop too low to generate hydropower at the Glen Canyon dam. The Drought Response Operations Plan brings together the four states of the upper Colorado River basin – Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico – and the federal government.

Lake Powell is is strained by more than two decades of drought, and its water levels are dipping dangerously low. The reservoir recently passed an important threshold when water levels went below 3,525 feet — the last major milestone before a threat to hydropower generation at the Glen Canyon Dam. What's next for the nation's second-largest reservoir?

The Chimney Hollow reservoir will include the tallest dam built in the U.S. in 25 years, but critics ask if there will be enough water to keep it filled.

Year by year, Rocky Mountain snowpack is shrinking, slowly exhibiting the sting of a warming climate. The way we measure the snow is changing too, as a shifting baseline for what counts as “average” paints a somewhat deceptive picture of how much snow is stored at high altitude.

Tribes, including many of those in the Colorado River basin, have some of the oldest water rights in the region, but often lack the infrastructure to use their full allotments. The new federal money is designed to fund the construction of reservoirs, pumping stations and clean drinking water systems that help tribes use more of the water they’re owed.

In the Colorado River basin, agriculture accounts for about 80% of all the water used. As the river’s supply shrinks, and some farms start to make cutbacks, many are wondering if new technology can help with water conservation. Research suggests that it may not.

In Arizona, fields of crops and a growing sprawl of suburban homes mean a increased demand for water in the middle of the desert. Meeting that demand includes drawing from massive stores of water in underground aquifers. But some experts say groundwater is overtaxed, and shouldn’t be seen as a long-term solution for a region where the water supply is expected to shrink in the decades to come.

Nancy Caywood’s Pinal County farm should have a full field of alfalfa, but since the irrigation district shut off her water because of drought, her fields are empty and dry.