Topic: Western Water Coverage

Cities and agriculture across the West put intense pressure on groundwater supplies. In some regions, there are few rules governing how and when people can pump. That’s true in rural Southern Arizona. Residents there are seeing their wells dry up as big farms move in.

Colorado River water managers are facing a monumental task. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has asked seven western states to commit to an unprecedented amount of conservation and do it before a deadline later this summer. This comes amid shrinking water levels in the nation's largest reservoirs.

Beavers create messy wetlands as safe places to live, and a new paper explains how their engineering is also a powerful tool in fending off the harms of climate change. Their dams, channels and ponds have positive side effects that reduce the damage caused by flood, drought and wildfire.

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.

As a drought-stricken region looks ahead to the summer, climate scientists are keeping an eye on high-mountain snowpack and its path to streams and rivers. Snow at high altitudes makes up the majority of the water in the Colorado River – where this past winter has left low totals.

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's fall to below 3,525 feet puts it at its lowest level since the lake filled after the federal government dammed the Colorado River at Glen Canyon more than a half century ago — a record marking yet another sobering realization of the impacts of climate change and megadrought.

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.

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.