The winter of 2025-2026 has not been sort to the Colorado River. Report-warm temperatures day after day throughout the mountains that feed the river have led to record-low snow ranges. All indications are that spring snowmelt feeding the river shall be scant.
That may be a enormous drawback, as a result of Colorado River reservoirs, which traditionally held huge water reserves, are already depleted, with Lake Powell at 25% and Lake Mead at 34% of capability. That is unhealthy information for folks and birds counting on water from the Colorado River. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), the federal company managing the dams, initiatives that Lake Powell’s water ranges might fall low sufficient to threaten Glen Canyon Dam’s infrastructure, downstream water supply, hydropower, and native wildlife within the Grand Canyon together with the California Condor and the Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo, amongst others.
As this disaster performs out, Reclamation has the tough job of re-tooling systemwide, long-term dam operations on the Colorado River (also known as the “Publish-2026 Tips”). Current guidelines, first set practically twenty years in the past and tweaked repeatedly to maintain up with the declining Colorado River (the results of a hotter and drier local weather), expire on the finish of this yr. As anticipated below this timeline, Reclamation issued a Draft Environmental Impression Assertion (Draft EIS) in late January which laid out potential alternate options for federal administration and solicited feedback from stakeholders. This Draft EIS embraced uncertainty as a central planning situation as they examined totally different approaches below a broad vary of hydrologic circumstances. For a very long time, the expectation was that the seven U.S. states sharing the river (Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming) would develop a consensus-based proposal for Reclamation, however that hasn’t occurred and speak of litigation has elevated.
Reclamation should now work out subsequent steps. The company does have authorized authorities, however these authorized authorities have been crafted way back and don’t essentially spell out take significant motion on this historic disaster. That threatens the water provide for greater than 35 million folks together with the most important cities of the American Southwest, Tribes, hundreds of thousands of acres of irrigated farms and ranches, in addition to the Colorado River itself and each dwelling factor that relies on its habitats, together with a whole lot of chook species just like the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher, Yuma Ridgway’s Rail, and Summer season Tanager.
Audubon submitted formal feedback in response to the Draft EIS, becoming a member of conservation companions to weigh in on what comes subsequent for Reclamation’s consideration (read our comment letter here). Dozens of feedback have been submitted by the Colorado River Basin states, water customers, and different stakeholders making their case with Reclamation that their water uses need to be protected at the expense of others. In its feedback Audubon emphasised the necessity to stabilize the Colorado River system from its headwaters to its delta—a singular, basinwide perspective that urges Reclamation to handle dangers for folks and nature fairly than deferring laborious choices till emergency circumstances drive motion. Our remark letter targeted on constructive engagement noting the Draft EIS’s strengths in its analytical basis whereas figuring out and describing focused refinements that will assist make sure the Ultimate EIS totally informs decision-makers about dangers and real-world penalties. Particularly, Audubon requires:
- Readability and predictability
- Versatile, adaptive instruments for conserving, storing, and managing water
- Environmental stewardship embedded into operations
- Significant and voluntary Tribal participation
- Pathways for advancing in-basin mitigation and resilience-building alternatives
- Pathways for advancing binational cooperation with Mexico
Over the subsequent few months, Reclamation nonetheless has a possibility to steer the Colorado River Basin states into consensus. Whether or not or not they’re profitable (and we hope they’re), someday this summer season we anticipate Reclamation to subject a Ultimate EIS that features refinements to the Draft in addition to a sign of their most well-liked various for Colorado River operations. Within the meantime, it’s pressing Reclamation additionally put together for the water provide emergency that’s unfolding in 2026.
For a lot of the final century, Reclamation was a pacesetter in growing the southwestern United States by harnessing the Colorado River and delivering its water throughout the land. At the moment, Reclamation should lead in a brand new approach, serving to everybody and every part that relies on the Colorado River stay with the river we’ve in a hotter, drier world.
