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The Latest Breaking News from Colorado River

The Colorado River drought crisis: 5 essential reads

A 23-year western drought has drastically shrunk the Colorado River, which provides water for drinking and irrigation for Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California and two states in Mexico. Under a 1922 compact, these jurisdictions receive fixed allocations of water from the river – but now there’s not…

The Conversation

Mark Gongloff: The Colorado River is drying up while states bicker

Feisty sports matches need referees to take control early or risk mayhem on the field. In the furious battle over the rights to dwindling Colorado River water — a game with life-or-death stakes — the U.S. government has let things get out of hand. It’s only just now starting to…

Tribune News Service

States face unprecedented water cuts under Biden admin Colorado River crisis plan

The administration outlined options for making cuts to the Colorado River as supplies dwindle.

Axios

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US considers imposing Colorado River water cuts to western states

Depending on the plan, either California would be the most affected, or Arizona and Nevada would be parched

The Guardian - US

US presents proposals for major water cuts on Colorado River

LOS ANGELES — The federal government on Tuesday laid out two options for preventing the Colorado River’s depleted reservoirs from falling to critically low levels, saying it could either impose cuts across the Southwest by following the water-rights priority system or by using an across-the-board percentage.

Los Angeles Times

In Colorado River talks, still no agreement about water cuts

The Biden administration has evaluated how seven Western states that are reliant on the dwindling water supply from the Colorado River could dramatically cut their water use in the basin

The Independent UK

Drought-ravaged Colorado River gets relief from snow. But long-term water crisis remains

LOS ANGELES — Four months ago, the outlook for the Colorado River was so dire that federal projections showed imminent risks of reservoirs dropping to dangerously low levels.

Los Angeles Times

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Tribe, US officials reach deal to save Colorado River water

A Native American tribe in Arizona has reached a deal with the U.S. government not to use some of its Colorado River water rights in return for $150 million and funding for a pipeline project

The Independent UK

Adam Minter: Farmers can’t keep hogging the water in parched Southwest

The lush lawns and green golf courses of Southern California are an emblem of the desert Southwest’s dependence on the Colorado River. But they’re just a small part of the demands placed on this crucial water resource in times of both drought and plenty. The far bigger part, as much…

Tribune News Service

SCOTUS hears Navajo water rights case

The Biden administration told justices it doesn't have an obligation to bring more water to the reservation

Salon

The Supreme Court wrestles with questions over the Navajo Nation's water rights

Almost a third of the reservation's 170,000 residents lack access to clean, reliable drinking water. The tribe wants to be able to represent itself in litigation over the Colorado River.

WEKU

Supreme Court seems split in Navajo Nation water rights case

The Supreme Court appears to be split in a dispute between the federal government and the Navajo Nation over water from the drought-stricken Colorado River

The Independent UK

California's desert farmers defend their river rights

El Centro (United States) (AFP) - A blanket of crops covers the floor of the Imperial Valley in southern California, a patchwork of vibrant greens given life by the Colorado River in a landscape bleached by the desert sun.

AFP

Feds want justices to end Navajo fight for Colo. River water

The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide a critical water rights case in the arid Southwest

The Independent UK

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The Independent UK

Feds spend $2.4 million on cloud seeding for Colorado River

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation granted $2.4 million Thursday for cloud seeding in the Upper Colorado River Basin

Tribune News Service

Supreme Court to hear arguments on Navajo Nation water needs

WASHINGTON — The Navajo Nation will argue Monday at the Supreme Court that the United States must meet the water needs of their reservation in Arizona, amid long-standing tensions about how to apportion the dwindling flow of the Colorado River.

The Independent UK

Las Vegas water agency seeks power to limit residential use

Nevada lawmakers are considering a significant shift in water use for Las Vegas, one of the driest major metropolitan areas in the U.S. The water agency managing the city's Colorado River water supply is seeking authority to limit what comes out of residents' taps

Tribune News Service

States struggle to find Colorado River cuts as Lake Mead shrinks

LAS VEGAS — Getting states to agree to use less water is hard. Doing so in a matter of months is near impossible.

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The Independent UK

In dry West, farmers balk at idling land to save water

With drought, climate change and overuse of the Colorado River leading to increasingly dire conditions in the West, the federal Bureau of Reclamation is looking at fallowing as a way to cut water use

Los Angeles Times

Commentary: California and its neighbors are at an impasse over the Colorado River. Here’s a way forward

California and the other Colorado River Basin states are at odds over how to halt the precipitous decline of Lake Mead. The impasse reflects a century of failure to take a basic step left undone by the original Colorado River Compact.

Tribune News Service

‘A nice sign’: Big Rockies snowpack may boost Lake Mead

LAS VEGAS — It’s not even March yet, but the mountains that feed the Colorado River already have seen more snow this winter than they normally would through an entire snow season.

Los Angeles Times

Editorial: An unfair plan to cut California’s use of Colorado River water

The immediate question before the seven states that use rapidly vanishing Colorado River water is not how to renegotiate the century-old agreement and accompanying laws that divvy up the supply.

Los Angeles Times

As the Colorado River shrinks, federal officials consider overhauling Glen Canyon Dam

LOS ANGELES — The desiccation of the Colorado River has left Lake Powell, the country’s second-largest reservoir, at just 23% of capacity, its lowest level since it was filled in the 1960s.

Tribune News Service

Can Western states agree on the future of the Colorado River?

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Western state water officials will spend the next few months trying to agree on how to divvy up water from the Colorado River, which sustains a region of 40 million people across seven states but has been devastated by the worst drought in more than a…

Los Angeles Times

As Colorado River shrinks, water evaporation becomes critical to California’s future supplies

LOS ANGELES — Much of the Colorado River’s water is diverted from reservoirs and transported in canals to the farmlands and cities of the desert Southwest. But some of the water also ends up going elsewhere — vanishing into thin air.

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Bureau of Reclamation

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the Interior Department

The University of Idaho

29 stories

Reclamation

16 stories

the University of Utah

14 stories

the Bureau of Reclamation

13 stories

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