Click the link to read the article on the Glenwood Springs Post Independent website (Ali Longwell). Here’s an excerpt:
May 13, 2026
A coalition of organizations, tribes, utilities and governments from across the Colorado River basin is asking the federal government for at least $2 billion to address the near-term impacts of the escalating drought and water supply crisis in the West.
“Water Year 2026 is unfolding as one of the most challenging hydrologic years in more than a century of recordkeeping, with exceptionally low snowpack and river runoff and continued stress on an already depleted reservoir system,” wrote the coalition. “Difficult decisions around water supplies will be needed to address the severe shortages and operational risks that threaten the basin and the stability of the entire system.”
The letter was signed by 70 groups that represent water users and interests in all seven states that comprise the Colorado River basin: Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, California and Nevada. The river flows from its headwaters in Grand County down 1,450 miles to the Gulf of California in Mexico, providing water to nearly 40 million people across the seven states, two counties and the 30 tribal nations that fall within the basin. The newly-formed coalition asks Congress to find funding for additional resources to “sustain and scale” the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s existing drought mitigation investments needed to stabilize the system “in a manner that ensures the Basin will do more than simply endure from crisis to crisis.” It requests that the $2 billion be invested in tools that bolster conservation, efficiency and smart, targeted augmentation to develop new water supply sources.