Dusk falls on Lake Powell near Bullfrog Marina on July 15, 2024. A new letter from water policy experts gives negotiators some recommendations on how to sustainably manage the Colorado River in the future. Alex Hager/KUNC
Click the link to read the article on the KUNC website (Alex Hager):
May 3, 2025
This story is part of ongoing coverage of the Colorado River, produced by KUNC in Colorado and supported by the Walton Family Foundation. KUNC is solely responsible for its editorial coverage.
The seven states that use the Colorado River are deadlocked about how to share it in the future. The current rules for dividing its shrinking supplies expire in 2026. State leaders are under pressure to propose a new sharing agreement urgently, so they can finish environmental paperwork before that deadline.
Right now, they donโt appear close to an agreement, so a group of prominent Colorado River experts co-signed a letter outlining seven things they want to see in the next set of rules.
The letter gives a clear, concise list of recommendations for ways to keep taps flowing while protecting tribes and the environment. Whether the states will listen is another matter entirely.
โShared painโ
The letter, written by a group of academics and retired policymakers, makes no bones about it: states need to find a collective solution to their collective problem. And some of them might not be happy.
State leaders have been reluctant to volunteer cutbacks, and have largely stayed divided along a decades-old fault line. On one side, the Upper Basin โ which consists of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico. The other side, the Lower Basin, is made up of California, Arizona and Nevada.
The recent letter is interesting in part because itโs co-authored by people from both sides of the Colorado River debate. Eric Kuhn led an agency that defends Western Coloradoโs water. Kathryn Sorensen led Phoenixโs water department.
The letter was also written by Anne Castle, who has worked in federal water policy positions, and Jack Schmidt, a water researcher at Utah State University. Co-authors John Fleck and Katherine Tara research water policy at the University of New Mexico.
The authors write that states need to engage in some level of โshared pain,โ meaning cutbacks to the amount of water that flows to farms, homes, and businesses.
โโSharedโ,โ the letter writes, โDoes not mean equal, either in amount, triggers, or duration.โ
Water from the Colorado River flows through the East Highline Canal on its way to farms in the Imperial Valley on June 20, 2023. The Colorado River’s single largest user has taken federal money through incentive programs to cut back on water use. Alex Hager/KUNC
The Lower Basin states have already proposed relatively modest cutbacks, and the Upper Basin seems to be digging in its heels on the idea that they should not have to give up any water at all.
This letter pushes back on that stance.
โThere’s lots of wonderful legal arguments about why it shouldn’t be me that needs to use less water,โ Anne Castle, one of the letterโs authors, told KUNC. โBut in order to have a viable and politically viable agreement, everybody has to do a share.โ
Other recommendations
In addition to calling for states to put their heads together, the authors also warned against leaning too hard on federal checks as a way to conserve water. Money from the federal government has been a key part of avoiding catastrophe on the Colorado River in recent years. Hundreds of millions of dollars have gone to big water users, often farmers, as an incentive to use less water.
Those funds have come under threat during President Donald Trumpโs second term. The letter says new rules for the Colorado River โcannot assume that federal taxpayers will reimburse Western water users over the long term to forgo the use of water that does not exist.โ
The letter goes on to advocate for groups that can sometimes be an afterthought in Western water policy. It essentially re-ups an earlier call from a group of tribes in the Colorado River basin, which are asking for a bigger seat at the table after more than a century of exclusion. It also pushes for new rules to be more flexible, which would make it easier to protect river ecosystems. That mirrors similar comments from a group of nonprofits.
The shortest and final recommendation in the letter says that any new Colorado River rules have to make sure thereโs enough water to keep people safe and healthy.
โThere must be absolute protection of domestic water deliveries for public health and safety,โ it reads.
In short, itโs asking to make sure that a worst-case-scenario doesnโt see drinking water reserves go dry, while agriculture and other industries keep their faucets flowing.
โI don’t think that would happen,โ Castle said. โI think the market would intervene and take care of this situation.โ
The reaction
KUNC reached out to top water negotiators in Arizona and Colorado for this story. Their answers fell in line with oft-repeated talking points from each basin.
A spokesman for the Arizona Department of Water Resources wrote that its director, Tom Buschatzke, โagreed with the authors that โevery state and sector of the economy must contribute to the solution to this imbalance.โโ
Water policymakers from (left to right) Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming speak on a panel at the Colorado River Water Users Association conference in Las Vegas on December 5, 2024. The Upper Basin states have been reluctant to volunteer cutbacks ahead of the next set of river-sharing rules. Alex Hager/KUNC
Coloradoโs top water official, Becky Mitchell, wrote that the recommendations overlooked climate changeโs impact on Upper Basin water supplies, and that states already take โmandatory and uncompensatedโ cuts.
โColorado water users do not enjoy a guaranteed delivery of the full amount of their water rights each year,โ she wrote.
Jennifer Gimbel, Coloradoโs former top water official, did not contribute to the letter and also took issue with the suggestion that both basins could afford to make cutbacks.
โAre the authors of the paper thinking that federal law should be enacted to override state law?โ Gimbel wrote to KUNC in an email. โAre they thinking that users in the Upper Basin, who they say should not rely on federal compensation, should just give up their livelihoods voluntarily or be compensated by the state legislatures? I donโt know because they donโt say.โ
A ponderosa pine seedling peeks out of the Hayman-Fire scarred landscape near Cheesman Reservoir. After the fire, Denver Water spent more than 10 years working with volunteers and Colorado State Forest Service crews to plant about 25,000 trees per year on the 7,500 acres of Denver Water property destroyed by Hayman. Photo credit: Denver Water
Forests around the world are taking longer to recover from severe wildfires โ potentially indicating forest decline, according to a new study.ย
The research, published inย Nature Ecology & Evolution, finds a โsignificant increaseโ in the severity of forest fires from 2001-10 to 2010-21 โ especially in western North America, parts of Siberia and south-eastern Australia. It also finds that recovery from large fires has become โmore difficultโ for forests in recent years, particularly in theย boreal forestsย of the far-northern latitudes. Furthermore, fewer than one-third of all forests studied recovered successfully within seven years of a โmegafireโ โ a broadย termย used to refer to extreme fires. A โsurprising discoveryโ was that fire severity had the largest impact on forest recovery โ even more than climate change, one of the study authors tells Carbon Brief.ย
Udall/Overpeck 4-panel Figure Colorado River temperature/precipitation/natural flows with trend. Lake Mead and Lake Powell storage. Updated through Water Year 2024. Credit: Brad Udall
Click the link to read the article on the InkStain website (John Fleck):
April 25, 2025
A group* of my Colorado River collaborators has put together what we hope can be a useful set of foundational principles as the basin states and federal leadership search for a path toward a negotiated agreement for post-2026 Colorado River management. Theyโre based on a number of key premises:
The Colorado River Compact will remain the foundation of the riverโs management, but we have to find a way past the deep disagreement between Upper and Lower basin states on what the Compact actually says.
Colorado River Basin tribes must be essential partners in crafting the next set of guidelines, including through compensation for foregone water use.
Shared pain is essential. The path toward a sustainable river system requires everyone to contribute to the solution to the problem of the river we all share.
Clarence King; Camp near Salt Lake City, Utah. The exploration of the Survey of the Fortieth Parallel. Photo by Timothy H. O’Sullivan, October 1868. By Timothy H. O’Sullivan – Davis, Keith F., Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Jane Lee Aspinwall, Franรงois Brunet, John P. Herron, Mark Klett, and Juliรกn Zugazagoitia. Timothy H. O'Sullivan: The King Survey Photographs. Yale University Press Mass. Published:2011., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56679730
For several years I served on the board of a rural school district, and every year, when our draft budget was presented at our monthly public meeting, the audience would fill with people concerned about higher taxes. Seniors on fixed incomes spoke about the precarity of their budgets, while people of significantly greater means railed against โirresponsibleโ spending. As a board, we were trying to keep class sizes small enough for good learning outcomes and to avoid having to cut art and music and Spanish classes. I typically let the more senior board members handle the tough questions, but one year, as a young mom, I felt compelled to speak on behalf of the intergenerational social contract: the idea that when we were in school, we benefited from the investment of the generations before us, and it is therefore our moral obligation as adults today to invest in schools for the generations coming after us.
The intergenerational social contract is an old idea, far older than the U.S. government, Social Security and Medicare. It is not about entitlement. Itโs about intergenerational caretaking โ the recognition that there are no isolated moments of history, that we are obliged to pass on a world of hope and possibility to future generations. Indigenous communities have always understood this, which is why traditional ecological knowledge is increasingly being looked to for ways of managing the land for long-term health and sustainability. Itโs a line of thinking that respects, and assumes a responsibility to, future inhabitants of Earth.
The intergenerational social contract also applies to public lands. Land-management agencies in the U.S., including the Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior and the Forest Service, have a legal responsibility to manage lands and resources with the future in mind. The words โto the benefit of present and future generationsโ are all over the charters and laws governing these agencies. Current proposals to sell off public land are not only a blatant violation of the social contract, but a violation of the very idea of public land. Transferring a public good into private hands is a crime against future generations.
The reckless actions of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), as charted by Jonathan Thompson in this issue, are another blatant assault on the public good, slashing budgets for public land and firing its caretakers. Cutting funds for cancer and climate research is an assault on present and future generations, as is defanging the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. This activity should be considered un-American: enriching the wealthiest while stealing from the everyday Americans of today, tomorrow and as long as our republic shall stand.
Young Montanans, including Rikki Held, center, sued their state government and won a key ruling forcing the state government to consider greenhouse gas emissions when reviewing proposed development projects. William Campbell/Getty Images
An ancient legal principle has become a key strategy of American children seeking to reduce the effects of climate change in the 21st century. A defeat at the U.S. Supreme Court in March 2025 has not stopped the effort, which has several legal actions continuing in the courts.
The legal basis for these cases is called the โpublic trust doctrine,โ the principle that certain natural resources โ historically, navigable waters such as lakes, rivers and streams and the lands under them โ must be maintained in government ownership and held in trust for present and future generations of the public.
For the past decade, a nonprofit called Our Childrenโs Trust has argued for a 21st-century interpretation of the public trust doctrine to support lawsuits against state and federal agencies and officials, seeking to force them to take specific actions to fight climate change. Our Childrenโs Trust has focused on children, saying they are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change because their futures, which the public trust doctrine protects, will be lived in an unsafe and unhealthy climate unless governments take action. Children around the world have filed similar lawsuits against their governments on alternate legal grounds, including claims of constitutional and human rights violations.
Initial uses of the public trust doctrine in the US
The U.S. Supreme Court first endorsed the public trust doctrine in 1892, when it ruled that the doctrine prevented the Illinois legislature from selling virtually the entire Chicago harbor in Lake Michigan to a private railroad company. In the 20th century, state courts have ruled that the doctrine bars states and local governments from selling off lakefront property or harbors to private owners and protects public access to beaches, lakes and oceans.
The public trust doctrine had little to do with environmental protection until the 1970s, however, after law professor Joseph Sax wrote an influential article arguing that the doctrine could form the basis for lawsuits to protect water and other natural resources from pollution, destruction and other threats.
Over the past five decades, some statesโ courts have expanded the public trust doctrineโs application beyond access to water-based resources, ruling it can also require governments to protect parks and wildlife from development. And Montana, Minnesota and several other states followed Saxโs recommendation to pass laws or amend their state constitutions to impose broader obligations on states to protect natural resources.
In 2011, Our Childrenโs Trust argued for the first time that governments had a legal obligation to protect the atmosphere as a public trust resource. The group filed lawsuits in all 50 states on behalf of children. Most state courts dismissed the lawsuits quickly, holding that there were no court decisions in their states that supported extending the public trust doctrine to claims involving the climate or the atmosphere.
In 2015 the group filed a similar lawsuit in federal court in Oregon, this time against the federal government. That lawsuit, Juliana v. United States, alleged that the federal governmentโs inaction to address climate change violated the public trust doctrine as well as the 21 young plaintiffsโ rights to life, liberty and property under the U.S. Constitution.
The plaintiffs asked the court to order the federal government to prepare an inventory of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions and to implement a national plan to phase out fossil fuels to โstabilize the climate system and protect the vital resources on which Plaintiffs now and in the future will depend.โ
Since the initial wave of litigation, Our Childrenโs Trust has continued to file lawsuits to force governments to address climate change. These newer ones are more narrowly tailored to state-specific constitutional and statutory provisions that protect environmental and public trust resources. And, so far, they have been more successful.
The plaintiffs won at trial, and in a landmark opinion in 2024 the Montana Supreme Court upheld the trial courtโs finding that greenhouse gases were harmful to the stateโs โclimate, rivers, lakes, groundwater, atmospheric waters, forests, glaciers, fish, wildlife, air quality, and ecosystem.โ The court similarly found that โa stable climate system โฆ is clearly within the object and true principlesโ of the stateโs constitution.
Children in Hawaii filed a similar lawsuit in 2022 against the state Department of Transportation, alleging that its failure to reduce transportation emissions in the state violated the state public trust doctrine and the stateโs constitution. The lawsuit relied on Hawaii courtsโ previous rulings that the stateโs public trust doctrine and state constitution broadly protect natural resources for present and future generations. In 2024, days before trial was to begin, the parties reached a landmark settlement in which the state agreed to take concrete actions to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. https://www.youtube.com/embed/VjHqeNB89L0?wmode=transparent&start=0 In the Montana lawsuit, a U.S. court ruled that the government had failed to protect the rights of children by failing to take action to reduce or prevent climate change.
The road ahead
Looking back, it was perhaps not surprising that a one-size-fits-all nationwide legal strategy based on a doctrine that varies widely state by state would face long odds. But the public trust doctrine itself has been historically incremental, expanding and contracting as society and the needs of its citizens change over time. And Our Childrenโs Trust has several cases still pending, including in Alaska and Utah state courts, and in a federal court in California.
The campaignโs successes broke new legal ground: Montana courts held the first trial in the United States that examined evidence of the effects of climate change and statesโ obligations to address them. The Hawaii settlement set concrete benchmarks and included provisions for continued feedback on state policies by the youth plaintiffs.
More broadly, Our Childrenโs Trustโs campaign demonstrates that a combination of legal advocacy and nationwide publicity over the plight of young people in a rapidly changing climate have the potential to result in real change, both in the law and in public perception of the importance of addressing climate change.
The โBonita Peak Mining Districtโ superfund site. Map via the Environmental Protection Agency
Click the link to read the article on The Durango Herald website (Reuben M. Schafir) Here’s an excerpt:
April 29, 2025
The Bureau of Land Management is restoring up to 11 cubic feet per second of water previously diverted to the Uncompahgre River Basin back to the headwaters of the Animas River north of Silverton. Thatโs a win for fish, other aquatic wildlife and mining remediation, said Trout Unlimitedโs Mining Coordinator Ty Churchwell, because the water will dilute heavy metals to less toxic concentrations. Both the national organization of Trout Unlimited and the local Five Rivers chapter provided financial assistance with the acquisition. The 11-cubic-foot diversion is aboutย 10% of the riverโs total current flowsย in Silverton before the confluence with Cement Creek…
The previous owner held the rights to divert the water through the Mineral Point Ditch โ before it entered Burrows Creek โ over into the Uncompahgre Basin for agricultural use. This resulted in a 100% depletion of that water from the Animas River…The BLM paid $297,000 โ fair market value โ to buy the water right from a willing seller, agency spokeswoman Katie Palubicki said in an email to The Durango Herald, using funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the agencyโs Abandoned Mine Lands program to acquire the right.
Click the link to read the article on the KVNF website (Brody Wilson):
April 29, 2025
The Colorado River is the lifeblood of the American Southwest. Forty million people depend on it โ not just here in Colorado, but in cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.
Here on the Western Slope, we donโt always feel directly connected to the Colorado River. After all, we live in the Gunnison Basin โ a different watershed, right?
Not quite. The Gunnison River contributes about 17% of the Colorado Riverโs total annual flow. So any decision made about the Colorado Riverโs future directly affects us โ how much water we can use, when, and for what purpose. For decades, the river has been in a slow-moving crisis. Climate change, explosive population growth, and overallocation have pushed the system to the brink. In 2022, the riverโs two main reservoirs โ Lake Powell and Lake Mead โ reached such low levels that hydropower turbines at Glen Canyon Dam were nearly shut down and dam operators were near “dead-pool” where water would no longer be able to pass through the dam. But today, nearly three years later, the system isnโt bouncing back. Andy Mueller, General Manager of the Colorado River District, has a blunt message: the Colorado River is carrying less water than it used to, and if we donโt change course, the future of agriculture, recreation, and the our way of life across the Western Slope could be at risk.
โThe average temperature in March has gone up 4.2 degrees Fahrenheit,โ Mueller told the crowd in Ridgway. โAnd for every 1 degree of warming, streamflow drops by 3 to 5 percent. Weโre looking at a 20% decline right here in the Uncompahgre Valley over the last 125 years.โ
These trends are part of a long-term warming and drying pattern. Less snow is falling, and what does fall melts earlier. That means less water reaches our rivers โ and more of it is lost to evaporation or absorbed by plants growing in longer, hotter seasons.
In 1922, Federal and State representatives met for the Colorado River Compact Commission in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Among the attendees were Arthur P. Davis, Director of Reclamation Service, and Herbert Hoover, who at the time, was the Secretary of Commerce. Photo taken November 24, 1922. USBR photo.
To understand whatโs happening now, you have to go back to 1922. Thatโs when the seven states in the Colorado River Basin signed a compact to divide the riverโs water. Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming became the โUpper Basin.โ California, Arizona, and Nevada formed the โLower Basin.โ Each side was promised 7.5 million acre-feet of water per year. But there was a problem: the river wasnโt carrying that much water โ and certainly doesnโt now. For decades, this over-allocation was masked by big reservoirs like Lake Powell and Lake Mead. But as the drought continues, those buffers have disappeared. In 2007, the states and federal government adopted a temporary fix: interim guidelines to manage the system during dry years. Those guidelines are set to expire in 2026. New rules must be negotiated now โ and the clock is ticking.
โThereโs a lot of confusion out there,โ Mueller said. โPeople talk about renegotiating the Compact โ but thatโs not whatโs happening. The Compact isnโt being touched. Whatโs being negotiated are the guidelines for how Powell and Mead are operated โ especially in times of shortage.โ
Click the link to read the paper on the InkStain.net website (Kathryn Sorensen, Sarah Porter, Eric Kuhn, and Cynthia Campbell). Here’s an excerpt:
April 18, 2025
Conserving water now in reservoir savings banks, as a hedge against future risks associated with drought and declining flows, has emerged as one of the central tools for managing the Colorado River. The Lower Basin “Intentionally Created Surplus” program, created in the 2007 Interim Guidelines, has shown the idea’s promise and given the basin nearly two decades to learn the strengths and weaknesses of the approach. With tweaks to allow similar efforts in the Upper Basin and other modifications based on what we have learned about the current ICS approach, such “Floating Pools” are one of the key tools being considered as negotiators try to thread the needle of a seven-state agreement for post-2026 Colorado River management. Done properly, they have the potential to finesse the states’ disagreement over the terms of the 1922 Colorado River Compact in a way that could avoid potentially disruptive litigation. But getting the details right will be crucial to the development of an enduring bargain that can help the basin avoid the risk of interstate litigation.
Context
Negotiations over post-2026 operating rules for Lakes Powell and Mead are a proxy battle over whether the 1922 Compact acts as a limitation on yet-to-be used water in the Upper Division States or as a cut to existing water uses in the Lower Division States. Much of the conflict focuses on Article III(d) of the Colorado Compact, which states, โThe states of the Upper Division will not cause the flow of the river at Lee Ferry to be depleted below an aggregate of 75,000,000 acre-feet for any period of ten consecutive years. . .โ
The Upper Division States have a fundamentally different interpretation of their Compact obligations at Lee Ferry than the Lower Division States. Clearly, the best-case scenario for the Lower Division States, especially in Central Arizona, is a court decision that confirms the Upper Division States have a compact obligation to not deplete the flow of the river below 75 million acre-feet every ten years plus ยฝ of the annual delivery to Mexico under the 1944 Treaty, approximately 82 million acre-feet every ten years. This outcome would mostly stabilize the water supply available to the Lower Division States and likely limit consumptive uses in the Upper Division States to about the same or a little less water than they are currently using, approximately 4 million acre-feet per year. If the high court rules instead that the Upper Division States have a non-depletion obligation, and that consumptive uses in the Upper Division States are not the โcauseโ of inadequate flows needed to deliver 8.23 million acre-feet to the Lower Division States and Mexico, the result in a declining river system is a cut, potentially even to zero, for water delivered via the Central Arizona Project (CAP) into the Sun Corridor from Phoenix to Tucson and potential cuts to water-right holders in Western Arizona, Southern California and Nevada who are next on the chopping block.
Distilled to its core, here is the question before us: in a declining river system and in the absence of an agreement among the Divisions, does the operation of Article III(d) of the Compact result in a limitation on future new uses in the Upper Division States or an elimination to existing ones in the Lower Division States?
Map of the Colorado River drainage basin, created using USGS data. By Shannon1 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
Udall/Overpeck 4-panel Figure Colorado River temperature/precipitation/natural flows with trend. Lake Mead and Lake Powell storage. Updated through Water Year 2024. Credit: Brad Udall
Itโs easy to take for granted the accounting innovations in the Colorado River governance regimeโs 2007 guidelines, which have governed river management and the upstream-downstream relationships between the upper and lower basins. โIntentionally Created Surplusโ (ICS) is now part of the lexicon, and the idea behind it shows enough promise that itโs at the heart of the current negotiations over the post-โ07 guidelines management of the river.
But we need to be careful about the lessons that we learn, and the details of how we implement the successor to ICS. How should the successor to ICS related to action levels for reservoir management? How do we ensure that water in ICS-like accounting pools is really conserved water, part of a sincere effort to reduce basin consumptive use?
Those questions are at the heart of the argument in Floating Pools & Grand Bargains, a new white paper by Kathryn Sorensen from Arizona State University and a group of colleagues, including Eric Kuhn:
As Save the Colorado and Denver Water prepare to face off in a federal courtroom Tuesday, water officials across the state are watching the Gross Dam expansion case closely for its environmental impact and its affect on water projects across the West.
Kirk Klancke, a long-time Grand County environmentalist and president of the Colorado River Headwaters Chapter of Trout Unlimited, said a decision that shuts down the $531 million water project, could also shut down 12 years of work on the Fraser River and its tributaries.
Denver Water is one of 18 partners who signed the Colorado River Cooperative Agreement in 2013, ushering in a new era of cooperation between the utility and West Slope stakeholders, all with the vested interest in protecting watersheds in the Colorado River Basin. As part of that agreement, a process called โLearning by Doingโ was created, which has helped the utility stay better connected on river conditions in Grand County. The partnership is a collection of East and West Slope water stakeholders who help identify and find solutions to water issues in Grand County. โDenver Water has been part of Grand County for over 100 years, and we understand the impact our diversions have on the rivers and streams,โ said Rachel Badger, environmental planning manager at Denver Water. โOur goal is to manage our water resources as efficiently as possible and be good stewards of the water โ and Learning By Doing helps us do that.โ
Hereโs why: Denver Water owns much of the Fraser with water rights dating back more than 100 years. And it is that water that has historically been piped through the Moffat Tunnel near Rollinsville to fill the existing Gross Reservoir. The new water for the expanded reservoir will come largely from that river as well.
After whatโs known as the 2013 Colorado River Cooperative Agreement was signed, Denver Water agreed to conduct extensive restoration work on the river in exchange for being able to raise Gross Dam and bring more water from the Fraser River over to the Front Range.
Klancke said the heavily diverted, scenic waterway would suffer if the deal falls apart. โTo dissolve that partnership will be the death of the Fraser River,โ he said.
Under the terms of the Colorado River Cooperative Agreement, the work on the Fraser River can only be finalized if the Gross Dam expansion proceeds.
On the upside though, Klancke said, if a new environmental settlement were reached, it could mean more money and more work to restore South Boulder Creek on the other side of the Continental Divide. The creek carries that Fraser River water from the reservoir to Denver Waterโs northern storage system.
โI would love to see Denver put a whole bunch of money into South Boulder Creek,โ Klancke said.
Gary Wockner, the head of Save The Colorado, disputes the notion that the case could harm environmental work already underway in Grand County.
โWe are not causing environmental damage,โ he said. โIf Denver Water chooses to stop, thatโs their choice. Thatโs on their shoulders. Not ours.โ
For its part, Denver says it hopes to continue the Grand County work, but that the terms of the Fraser River agreement are all based on the successful completion of the Gross Dam expansion.
The agency also says it has already set aside $30 million to help offset any environmental harm caused by the massive construction project, including providing 5,000 acre-feet of water to improve streamflows along a 17-mile stretch of South Boulder Creek. An acre-foot of water equals nearly 326,000 gallons, enough water to serve two to four urban households for one year.
Roller-compacted concrete will be placed on top of the existing dam to raise it to a new height of 471 feet. A total of 118 new steps will make up the new dam. Image credit: Denver Water.
Denver Water first moved to raise Gross Dam more than 20 years ago when it began designing the expansion and seeking the necessary federal and state permits.
After years of engineering, studies and federal and state analyses, construction began in 2022. It has involved taking apart a portion of the original dam, built in the 1950s, and raising its height by 131 feet to nearly triple the reservoirโs storage capacity to 119,000 acre-feet from 42,000 acre-feet.
Save The Colorado has launched several unsuccessful challenges to the project, but in 2022 it won an appeal that put the legal battle back in play. Despite months of settlement talks, no agreement was reached.
Then the case took center stage again April 3, when Senior U.S. District Court Judge Christine Arguello put a temporary halt to construction of the higher dam, at Save The Coloradoโs request.
Almost immediately, Denver Water filed for temporary relief from the order, saying, in part, that it would be unsafe to stop work as the incomplete concrete walls towered above Gross Reservoir.
Arguello granted that request, too, allowing Denver to continue working on the dam.
Gross Dam case spurred $100 million settlement in a different lawsuit
What happens next is anyoneโs guess. Jennifer Gimbel, a water policy scholar at Colorado State University who also serves on Northern Waterโs board of directors, said the case has already had an impact on a $2 billion water project to deliver water to residents of fast-growing northern Colorado. The Northern Integrated Supply Project, as it is known, also faced a legal challenge from Save The Colorado, and ultimately the water agency opted to settle the case for $100 million. The cash will help restore the Cache la Poudre River with new diversion agreements and improved streamflows, among other benefits.
Gimbel said the Gross Reservoir case was a key factor in that settlement. โBecause of Denverโs troubles with Save the Colorado, Northern Water decided to resolve their lawsuit because they were worried about their own permit getting stale and because as you delay construction costs increase.โ
The Gross Dam case is also noteworthy because it has stopped a major construction project already underway and may significantly change it. Judge Arguello has ordered the U.S. Corps of Engineers, the major permitting agency, to redo its original permitting work.
Denver Water General Manager Alan Salazar has said his agency would take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, if they lose in the lower courts.
As both sides prepare for Tuesdayโs hearing, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals panel has said it will wait to see what information emerges from the Tuesday hearing before it rules on Denver Waterโs appeal before the 10th Circuit, according to Denver Water General Counsel Jessica Brody. That action seeks to permanently protect what Denver believes is its right to raise Gross Dam.
Denver Water has also raised national security concerns in the case because Save The Colorado has asked and been granted the right to review construction documents on the dam project, documents that would normally be kept from public view.
In response, the judge has told participants to expect the court to be closed periodically during the hearing to address those security concerns.
Strong thunderstorms and heavy precipitation again affected parts of the central and eastern Contiguous United States, although coverage was spotty in all but a few areas. Heavy to excessive rains (at least 2 inches) doused portions of the Plains, Mississippi Valley, Upper Southeast, and scattered to isolated sections of the northern and western Great Lakes, Ohio Valley, Carolinas, Northeast, and northern Rockies. In several sizeable areas of the Plains where there was relatively solid coverage of heavy precipitation, conditions improved significantly. Meanwhile, rainfall was negligible (several tenths of an inch at best) in most areas from the Rockies westward and in a few areas farther to the east, including much of southern and western Texas, the Oklahoma Panhandle, southeastern Kansas, central and western Nebraska, central and western North Dakota, a band from parts of the middle Mississippi Valley through the southern and eastern Great Lakes region, much of the immediate Gulf Coast, central North Carolina, central and eastern Virginia, and most of Florida and adjacent southeastern Alabama and southern Georgia. This led to another week with significant dryness and drought expansion and deterioration in the latter areas of the Southeast…
Precipitation totals varied significantly across this region this week, but more areas were hit by heavy rains and improving conditions than dryness and deterioration. The dry week led to deterioration across southwestern Kansas, southeastern Colorado, and much of the central tier of Colorado. Farther north and east, however, widespread heavy rains were noted in several swaths of the Plains and Wyoming, leading to reductions in the intensity and extent of dryness and drought. Improvements were most widespread across central and northwestern Kansas, and most of the state of South Dakota, where heavy rains were most widespread. Still, despite the improvement in many areas, 60-day precipitation totals were under 25 percent of normal in southwestern Kansas and southeastern Colorado, with less than half of normal reported in adjacent areas plus parts of central Kansas, central and northeastern Nebraska, and a few other scattered areas…
Colorado Drought Monitor one week change map ending April 29, 2025.
A band of moderate to heavy precipitation (1 to 3 inches) fell across southeastern and south-central Montana, plus isolated spots in eastern Idaho. The rest of the West Region was dry this past week, outside a narrow corridor of heavy rain in east-central New Mexico. As a result, dryness and drought eased its grip in these areas. In addition, some limited improvement was brought into northern and western Washington, and small parts of northern Montana, based on a re-assessment of conditions. Most observed changes, however, were for the worse. Conditions were broadly downgraded across interior northern Montana, and increasing moisture deficits led to the expansion of D0 (abnormal dryness) into southwestern Washington and much of northwestern Oregon. In addition, surface moisture depletion has become increasingly obvious across several areas in New Mexico, leading to a significant increase in D3 (extreme drought) coverage there. The dryness was more climatologically seasonable across Arizona, Nevada, and California, where conditions were unchanged this week…
The heaviest rain in the Contiguous United States fell on a band from central Oklahoma southwestward across the Red River (south) into part of northwestern Texas. An area covering several counties recorded 4 to locally 8 inches of rain. Lesser but still heavy amounts (over 2 inches) fell on many areas across the rest of northern, central, and eastern Texas, portions of Louisiana and Mississippi, part of southern Tennessee, and a few scattered locations across Arkansas. Rainfall during the current and past few weeks led to large areas of improvement across the central, northern, and eastern portions of the Texas dryness and drought coverage, in addition to north-central Oklahoma and the western portions of the state outside the Panhandle. Dryness and drought remains widespread across most of Texas outside the northeast and over western portions of Oklahoma, with some deterioration to D2 (severe drought) noted in the Oklahoma Panhandle, which missed the weekโs heavy rains. A broad area of exceptional drought (D4) remained entrenched across a large swath in central and western Texas, though there was some erosion of its eastward extent. East of this area of solid drought coverage, most areas are free of dryness and drought, and locally heavy rains reduced the coverage even further in part of southeastern Mississippi. Small, isolated areas of abnormal dryness (D0) elsewhere were limited to northwestern Mississippi and eastern Tennessee. Arkansas is entirely free of any dryness or drought…
Looking Ahead
During May 1-5, 2025, heavy rain (2 to locally 5 inches) is forecast for central and northeastern Texas, northern Louisiana, and southern Arkansas. Moderate to locally heavy totals (1 to 2.5 inches) are expected over much of Mississippi and Alabama, the central and southern Appalachians, the middle and upper Ohio Valley, Pennsylvania and adjacent New York and New Jersey, and a small portion of the central Great Lakes. Light to moderate totals (a few tenths to locally over an inch) is expected across the remainder of the eastern Contiguous United States, with the lowest amounts expected across coastal South Carolina, most of Georgia, and the northern and western sections of the Florida Peninsula. Several tenths to an inch are also forecast from the central and southern Plains westward through much of the Rockies, Nevada, and most of California, with locally higher amounts in some higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin. Little or none is forecast across the northern tier from the upper Mississippi Valley westward to the Pacific Coast, and in some climatologically drier parts of the Southwest. Warmer than normal weather is expected from the western Great Lakes through the northern Rockies and Intermountain West, with daily highs averaging 10 to 13 deg. F above normal in the northern Plains and adjacent areas. Meanwhile, cooler than normal conditions are anticipated from central and southern California through the Great Basin, southern Rockies, and central and western Texas. Highs are expected to average 8 to 10 deg. F below normal from western Texas through portions of the Great Basin and central through southern California.
The Climate Prediction Centerโs 6-10 day outlook valid May 6-10, 2025 favors subnormal precipitation across the Great Lakes, middle and upper Mississippi Valley, the Ohio Valley, the interior Southeast, the mid-Atlantic region, the lower Northeast, and western New England. In contrast, enhanced chances for wetter than normal conditions cover Florida and the immediate southern Atlantic Coast, the Gulf Coast, the lower Mississippi Valley, the central and southern Plains and Rockies, most of the Great Basin, the Southwest, southeastern portions of Alaska, and Hawaii. Higher than normal temperatures are favored across roughly the northern two-thirds of the Contiguous United States, with odds exceeding 70 percent in the northern Plains and adjacent Mississippi Valley. Enhanced chances for warmer than normal weather also extend across Hawaii, especially central and western parts of the island chain. Increased odds for subnormal temperatures cover Florida, central and western Texas, the central and southern Four Corners region, and southeastern Alaska. Chances for significantly cooler than normal conditions exceed 50 percent across central and southern New Mexico.
US Drought Monitor one week change map ending April 29, 2025.
Whatโs 4-feet deep, 6-feet wide and 26-miles long? The original City Ditch โ one of Coloradoโs earliest and most influential irrigation canals, constructed between 1864 and 1867 by the Capitol Hydraulic Company to bring much-needed water to the dry, dusty lands of the Denver metropolitan area. This hand-dug canal, also known as Smithโs Ditch, was engineered by Richard S. Little and financed by businessman John W. Smith, according toย local historian Larry Borger. It stretched from its headgate near present-day Chatfield Reservoir, above Littleton, and ran roughly 26-to-27 miles northeast to Capitol Hill in Denver, relying solely on a 100-foot drop in elevation to move water without pumps. When it opened in 1867, the ditch enabled the growth of trees, sugar beet crops and neighborhoods, providing Denver with its primary irrigation source for more than 25 years. The ditch also supported a network of more than 1,000 lateral ditches, greening up city parks and supplying water to offshoots that irrigated cropland and street trees. Its construction and operation were so significant that the ditch is often called the โoldest working thingโ in Denver, predating paved streets and railroads. Today, the City Ditch is mostly hidden from view. About 2.5 miles of the ditch remain open-channel, while the rest is mostly piped and buried. In Littleton, the portion of the ditch that runs along Santa Fe Drive from Slaughterhouse Gulch Park to the C-470 highway is owned by the City of Englewood. Englewoodย plansย to convert the remaining open channel between Chatfield Reservoir and the Charles Allen Water Treatment Plant into a buried pipe, a move that would end the historic open flow through the area.
The City of Englewoodโs City Ditch Piping Project map. Courtesy of the City of Englewood.
Englewood is giving Littleton a chance to save the historic flume structures โ man-made, open channels designed to carry water, usually sloping downward and with raised sides above the surrounding ground โ at Lee Gulch and Slaughterhouse Gulch Park. Ryan Germeroth and Brent Soderlin, deputy director and director of Public Works & Utilities presented Littleton City Council with options for the Slaughterhouse Gulch Flume โ which Englewood would start construction on first this summer โ at theย study sessionย on April 22.
West Fork Fire June 20, 2013 photo the Pike Hot Shots Wildfire Today
Click the link to read the article on the Colorado Politics website (Kyle Pearce). Here’s an excerpt:
April 28, 2025
Colorado’s fire risk for the upcoming season is average, Gov. Jared Polis said at a news conference Thursday. But average means there will be many wildfires in the state and they will likely be large, fire officials emphasized.
“Today, it’s more a question of when, not if, a fire will affect our community,” Polis said.
In the short term, there’s heightened wildfire risk in southeast Colorado, then later in the summer, heightened risk in southwest Colorado, fire officials said. Stan Hilkey, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety, said the “normal” fire outlook should be taken cautiously.
“I want to be cautious by what I mean by normal,” he said. “That means that we’ve had fires and we’re going to continue to have fires. Some will be big and we’re going to be busy, and that’s what normal looks like in Colorado anymore.”
Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control Director Mike Morgan added that fire season in Colorado has changed over the years.
“We used to look at fire season as about a four month period and that’s no longer the case,” Morgan said. “We have fire disasters every month of the year in the state of Colorado and we can’t afford to let our guard down.”
Rio Grande and Pecos River basins. Map credit: By Kmusser – Own work, Elevation data from SRTM, drainage basin from GTOPO [1], U.S. stream from the National Atlas [2], all other features from Vector Map., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11218868
Mexico and the United States said Monday they had reached an agreement that involves Mexico immediately sending more water from their shared Rio Grande basin to Texas farmers after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened tariffs and sanctions earlier this month.
โMexico has committed to make an immediate transfer of water from international reservoirs and increase the U.S. share of the flow in six of Mexicoโs Rio Grande tributaries through the end of the current five-year water cycle,โ U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
Bruce thankedย Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaumย for her involvement in facilitating cross-border cooperation…The countriesโ joint statement Monday, while lacking specific details of the agreement, said both countries had agreed that the 1944 treaty regulating how the water is shared was still beneficial for both countries and not in need of renegotiation. Under the treaty, Mexico must deliver 1,750,000 acre-feet of water to the U.S. from six tributaries every five years, or an average of 350,000 every year. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover 1 acre of land to a depth of 1 foot.
The Town of Kiowa has good news to report, including a new Main Street Board and progress towards funding the Water Well Redundancy Project…After some starts and stops, theย Kiowa Water and Wastewater Authorityย is making headway on its Water Well Redundancy Project, thanks in part toย Congresswoman Lauren Boebert. On March 20, Boebert visited with Town of Kiowa staff and town trustees…Boebert pledged to write letters supporting road improvement and parks projects, and also agreed to write Kiowa Water and Wastewater Authority a congressional letter of support for the Well Redundancy Project, [Kim] Boyd said. Boyd further explained that the Town of Kiowa currently relies on a single 66-foot alluvial groundwater well to meet the communityโs water needs.
โThis infrastructure is insufficient for current demands and poses a significant risk in the event of mechanical failure or environmental stress,โ she shared. โIt limits the townโs ability to grow and sustain essential services, including domestic water supply and fire protection.โ
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) mandates that municipal water systems maintain at least two wells to ensure redundancy and protect public health.
The town of De Beque is seeking Congressionally directed spending to help it secure a secondary water source, as it currently relies solely on the Colorado River to supply water to the community. De Beque Town Treasurer Katherine Boozell said the town is looking at drilling a well near the townโs Water Treatment Plant. According to Boozell, the well could cost in excess of $400,000 to drill.
โAt present, the Town of De Beque relies solely on the Colorado River as its drinking water source,โ Boozell wrote in an email. โThis dependence leaves the community vulnerable during periods of high turbidity, which occur frequently due to mudslides from wildfire burn scars upstream or sediment disruption caused by storms. When turbidity levels spike, we are forced to shut down intake to our treatment plant because the water is too muddy to process.โ
The town does have a tank where it can store treated water, but that is a temporary solution, she said. When the tank is dry, the town is unable to provide treated water until the riverโs water conditions improve. This poses a public health risk, she said, making a secondary water source an urgent need…According to a fact sheet about the proposal, a new well would not only improve reliance for the townโs water but also improve the water quality as well.
The Shoshone hydro plant in Glenwood Canyon, captured here in June 2018, uses water diverted from the Colorado River to make power, and it controls a key water right on the Western Slope. Photo credit: Brent Gardner-Smith/Aspen Journalism
James Heath, division engineer for the Colorado River Basin for the Colorado Division of Water Resources, says [Avi] Stopper most likely witnessed a roughly two-mile stretch where up to 1,400 cubic feet per second of water takes the scenic route through Xcel Energyโs Shoshone Hydro Electric Generating Plant. If that diversion is happening during high-water months like May, passersby would probably miss it entirely. But in the dead of winter, when river flows can be below 1,000 CFS, the difference can be seen by drivers heading east.
โAt certain times of the year, the power plant can divert every single drop of water that’s in the Colorado River and other times a year the stream flow is significant and it’s hardly noticeable what the power plant’s actually diverting off the stream system,โ Heath said.
The water rights are considered โnonconsumptive,โ which means thereโs no water lost in the process. Thatโs also why the river disappeared and reappeared a short time later on Aviโs drive. Water leaves the river at a diversion dam near the Hanging Lake Tunnel and then reenters the river at the Shoshone plant. Heath said itโs about a 2-mile stretch and thereโs little entering the stream during that period.
โThere’s a little bit of gate leakage there at the diversion dam. There are a couple small minor tributaries that come in between the diversion dam and the returns from the powerhouse, but it’s a small trickle at times during the year,โ Heath said.
View of Shoshone Hydroelectric Plant construction in Glenwood Canyon (Garfield County) Colorado; shows the Colorado River, the dam, sheds, a footbridge, and the workmen’s camp. Creator: McClure, Louis Charles, 1867-1957. Credit: Denver Public Library Digital Collections
The town of New Castle has agreed to contribute $100,000 to the Western Slopeโs efforts to buy the historic Shoshone hydroelectric power plant water rights, while the towns of Parachute and De Beque also have agreed to kick in smaller amounts…Parachute will be contributing $25,000 and De Beque, $5,000. The De Beque Plateau Valley Soil Conservation District also is kicking in $5,000…Combined, more than 30 Western Slope local governments, water entities and regional partners have committed over $17 million toward the $99 million purchase. The river district and state of Colorado also have committed $20 million apiece, and the federal Bureau of Reclamation committed $40 million in the final days of the Biden administration. That funding has been frozen by the Trump administration but the river district remains hopeful of eventually receiving it.
From email from the Arkansas River Compact Administration (Kevin Salter):
April 28, 2025
The Arkansas River Compact Administration (โARCAโ) Administration & Legal Committee will meet at the time noted above via virtual and phone conference call to consider a modified Joint Funding Agreement (JFA) between ARCA and United States Geological Survey (USGS) that will cover the Operations and Maintenance (O&M) for cameras to be installed on the Arkansas River at Las Animas, CO USGS gage. USGS will cover the installation costs and the O&M for the remainder of the year in which they are installed. O&M costs beyond the installation year will be ARCAโs responsibility. The O&M costs would have been $4000 for the current year. Attached are three documents from USGS related to modifying the JFA.
ADMINISTRATIVE & LEGAL COMMITTEE AGENDA
1. Approval of agenda………………………………………… Lauren Ris
2. Modified ARCA-USGS JFA…………………………….. Kevin Salter
3. ARCA budget considerations………………………. Andrew Rickert
4. Recommendation on modified ARCA-USGS JFA….. Lauren Ris
5. Adjournment…………………………………………………. Lauren Ris
Following the Administration & Legal Committee meeting, the Arkansas River Compact Administration will have a Special Meeting to consider the same matter.
ARCA SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA
1. Call to order & roll call …………………………………… Jim Rizzuto
2. Approval of agenda……………………………………….. Jim Rizzuto
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย on a modified ARCA-USGS JFA…………………… Jim Risotto
4.ย ย Adjournment………………………………………………… Jim Rizzuto
Virtual meeting connection information below
Meetings of the Administration are open to the public and operated in compliance with the Federal Americans with Disabilities Act. If you wish to participate in the Special Meeting you may do so by using the link and/or one of the phone numbers listed below:
1. Use Zoom information below to access both meetings, online via this link (ARCA Special Meeting will be recorded):
The fickle โchildren of the Pacific Ocean,โ El Niรฑo and La Niรฑa, have again dealt the Gunnison River Basin a bad hand. A weak La Niรฑa winter sent the storm-bearing jet streams over the northwestern United States and southern Canada, leaving the Southwest, and southern half of Colorado, relatively dry for 2025, according to Bob Hurford, Coloradoโs Division 4 (Gunnison Basin) Engineer. Hurford visited Gunnison on April 17 for an annual โState of the Riverโ program, along with Andy Mueller, general manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District, known as the โRiver District,โ the programโs sponsor. Sonja Chavez, manager of the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District, and Jesse Kruthaupt, Gunnison agent for Trout Unlimitedโs Colorado Restoration Program spoke on the state of the Upper Gunnison River.
Hurford led with a discussion of what is unfolding locally in water year 2025 (Oct. 1, 2024 through Sept. 30, 2025). The Upper Gunnison Basinโs April 1 snowpack (usually at or near the maximum depth for the winter) contains only 59% of the 30-year average water content. It is projected at this point to yield through July about 540,000 acre-feet of runoff or less for the river โ probably not enough to fill Blue Mesa Reservoir after downstream water rights are filled. An acre-foot of water is the amount it would take to cover the playing area of a football field to the depth of one foot. As the changing climate warms the planet, March is becoming the โnew April.โ This yearโs snowpack peaked in mid-March. With the big melt usually beginning sooner nowadays, spring-like weather is causing trees and other plants to also begin โdrinkingโ sooner…Increasing evaporation and plant transpiration also come with the changing climate. According to Mueller, for every additional degree Fahrenheit in the ambient temperatures, another 3-5% of water on the surface and in plants disappears as water vapor. These are changes to be anticipated for as long as we continue to warm the planetโs climate. Hurford concluded his presentation with a chart indicating that the decade beginning with 2020 is on track at this point to be the driest decade on record, including the droughts of the 1930s and 2000s.
For the past three months and change, the Trump administration, in a series of executive orders, has been working to dismantle the administrative state, or the framework of agencies, rules, and regulations designed to protect the nation and its citizens. For the most part, however, the Interior Department โ the sprawling agency that oversees much of the nationโs public lands โ has been relatively (and suspiciously) quiet, refraining from big actions beyond merely repeating some of Trumpโs orders.
That has rapidly changed in recent days as Interior Secretary Doug Burgum โ or perhaps Tyler Hassan, the DOGE minion Elon Musk appointed to reorganize Interior โ set off a figurative bomb that could demolish protections for public lands.
The most alarming move, so far, is the departmentโs implementation of โemergency permitting proceduresโ for oil and gas, uranium, coal, biofuels, and critical mineral projects on federal lands. Under this order, the department will compress the entire environmental review for these projects down to 28 days or less โ even for a full environmental impact statement.
โBy reducing a multi-year permitting process down to just 28 days,โ Burgum said in a press release, โthe Department will lead with urgency, resolve, and a clear focus on strengthening the nationโs energy independence.โ
If youโve ever skimmed through an EIS, you know how insane this concept is.
The Bureau of Land Management will be packing the entire process mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, National Historic Preservation Act, and other rules and regulations into an impossibly short timeframe.
By impossibly short, I mean that it is virtually impossible to comply with these laws and requirements โ which include tribal consultation, archaeological surveys and mitigation, environmental and endangered species reviews, socioeconomic impact analyses, and public comment periods โ in four weeks or less. So by radically compressing the timeline, Burgum is essentially telling his staff to skirt the requirements, i.e. violate the law.
Burgum uses President Trumpโs claim that the U.S. is experiencing an โenergy emergency,โ to justify the destructive rubber-stamping, and says fast-tracking project approvals is necessary to address that emergency.
Iโve said it many times, but I will say it again: There is no energy emergency. The U.S. is pumping more crude oil than ever before from the Permian Basin and other fields, it is the largest petroleum producer in the world, it is a net exporter of petroleum products, and liquefied natural gas exports are at an all-time high. The U.S. market is glutted with natural gas and the coal supply has been outpacing demand for nearly two decades. Lithium โ for electric vehicle batteries and grid-scale energy storage โ is so plentiful that prices have plummeted nearly 90% since 2022. Uranium shortage? Nope.
One could certainly argue that the power grid in the West is outdated, its operation balkanized, and that it is not up to the challenges posed by growing data center electricity demand. But aside from geothermal and hydropower (solar, wind, and transmission projects are not included), none of the categories of projects on the fast-track list would do anything to fix the grid. Even if they were, it would not justify truncating environmental reviews so severely โ or at all.
Environmental reviews can take a maddeningly long time, especially for big projects. But the way to speed things up is not to throw the laws and protections in the the trash bin. That will only lead to lawsuits, which likely will delay the projects even more. The only way to truly streamline permitting, while still safeguarding human health and the environment, is to beef up staffing, resources, and expertise. And thatโs exactly the opposite of what Trump and Musk and Burgum are doing.
Pages from the Interior Departmentโs 2026-2030 Strategic Plan Draft Framework acquired and published by Public Domain. Note that one objective is to โrelease federal holdingsโ for housing. And that in the top one they want to โreduce the costs for grazingโ on public land (can it go any lower?), while in the bottom one they want to โincrease revenues from grazing โฆ .โ Uh โฆ okay?
But wait. It gets worse.
We might take some comfort in the fact that national monuments are off-limits to the extractive industries and Trumpโs energy dominance agenda, right? Maybe not for long.
Earlier this week, the folks at Public Domain acquired a copy of the Interior Departmentโs 2026-2030 Strategic Plan Draft Framework. The plan aims to, among other things: โrestore American prosperity,โ โassess and right-size monuments,โ and โreturn heritage lands and sites to the states.โ
The Washington Post, however, is reporting that Burgum is not necessarily waiting until next year to โright-size,โ or shrink, national monuments. From the Post:
If they go through with the shrinkage of any or all of these national monuments, it would open up additional lands to oil and gas leasing and new mining claims, which would then be subject to the fast-tracked permitting.
Baaj Nwaavjo Iโtah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon is especially rich in high-grade uranium deposits, and the White Canyon area in Bears Ears might also be targeted for uranium if the monument were shrunk. Grand Staircase-Escalante includes a large coal deposit on the Kaipairowitz Plateau, but itโs exceedingly unlikely that anyone would be interested in mining it given the faulty economics of coal.
One thing you can be sure of is that none of this will go unchallenged. The tribal nations that proposed the designation of Bears Ears and other national monuments will sue to keep them intact, and advocacy groups and land and water protectors will support them and take the administration to court over its flouting of environmental laws.
A look across Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and into Bears Ears National Monument from the Little Rockies. Jonathan P. Thompson photo.
๐ต Public Lands ๐ฒ
For many people, the mention of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area evokes images of Lake Powell and all that entails: boats plying the blue-sky-reflecting waters and the sandstone cliffs and formations that rise up from the murky depths. That makes sense, given that the national park unit was established because the reservoir was there in 1972.
Yet the reservoir makes up just 13% of the 1.25 million-acre recreation area. The remaining 87% contains some of the more remote and spectacular country in the lower 48, shares borders with a half-dozen other national parks and monuments, and makes up the core of the Moab to Mojave Conservation Corridor.
So, the manner in which the area is managed matters โ a lot. And for five decades after the recreation areaโs establishment, off-road vehicle travel went virtually unmanaged, allowing for a destructive free-for-all along shorelines and in remote parts of the recreation area. In 2018, the Park Service released a plan that more or less codified the pre-plan anarchy. Environmentalists sued and forced the Park Service back to the drawing board.
This January the Park Service finally issued an amended rule celebrated by conservationists for adding protections to some of GCNRAโs more sensitive areas from motorized vehicle travel (this does not affect boating, by the way). It bars OHV-riding yahoos from roaring around the lakeโs shore unheeded, and restricts motorized travel in the Orange Cliffs area on the north end of the recreation area adjacent to the Maze in Canyonlands.
The off-road vehicle lobby, however, was unhappy with the added restrictions, and they took their victim-complex grievances to the Utah congressional delegation, all of whom appear to have a fetish for fossil-fueled combustion-engines. Now the plan and the recreation area are being put in jeopardy by โ you guessed it โ those same Utah politicians. Sens. John Curtis and Mike Lee, along with Rep. Celeste Maloy, are asking Congress to revoke the rule under the Congressional Review Act and to prohibit the Park Service from implementing similar protections in the future.
๐บ๏ธ Messing with Maps ๐งญ
The National Parks Conservation Association created a nifty map showing active mining claims and mines near national parks and national monuments. It gives a good sense of how vulnerable some areas might be to new mining claims and projects if the Trump administration goes ahead with shrinking the aforementioned national monuments. You can look at the interactive version here.
One note of caution: An active mining claim โ a valid mining claim. An active claim simply means it has been located and filed, and that the claimant has paid their annual maintenance fee. The validity of a claim, on the other hand, depends on the discovery of a valuable mineral deposit there, which must be demonstrated. Rights to mine are only attached to valid claims.
Parting Poem
Hereโs another one from Richard Sheltonโs Selected Poems, 1969-1981.
Click the link to read the article on the Summit Daily website. Here’s an excerpt:
April 26, 2025
As of Friday, April 25, statewide snowpack measurements stood at 66% of the 30-year median,ย according to data from the Natural Resources Conservation Service.ย Thatโs the lowest point for this time of year since the 2014-15 water year. For every major river basin that reports snowpack data, levels are significantly below normal.ย
โIt was a little bit of a warmer year and just not quite the amount of snow and storms youโd like to see for the state as a whole,โ said National Weather Service meteorologist Aldis Strautins.
Unlike the southwestern part of the state, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationโs latest drought projection shows northern and central mountain areas are largelyย expected to be drought-free ย through the end of July.
The agreements propping up Lake Mead and Lake Powell expire in 2026, and negotiations for new agreements have stalled.
The Trump administration’s lack of clear direction and delay in appointing a Reclamation commissioner are exacerbating the crisis.
Arizona will face significant water cuts, potentially deeper than any previous shortages. It needs time to process them.
Many of us have seen this train wreck coming for years, the slow buildup of chronic overuse, coupled with a river that no longer produces as much water as it used to, that is draining Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the nationโs two largest water savings accounts. And if things donโt change soon, 40 million people who rely on this river are about to suddenly realize that decisionmakers squandered every dollar spent on buying time to fix this fundamental problem…The mismatch between supply and demand began emerging around 2000, and by 2007, the feds had created the first set of shortage guidelines, hoping those mandatory cuts would be enough to stave off crisis. But we now know that they werenโt nearly enough to reduce the drag on the lakes. Deeper cuts were made. Billions of dollars were set aside to pay people to temporarily not use water. And weโve stabilized Lake Mead and Lake Powell, for now.
But those rules and agreements expire at the end of 2026…The Trump administration hasnโt said anything about those alternatives. And after dropping an executive order toย nix a longstanding review process, itโs unclear how the feds will evaluate or collect public input, presuming that said alternatives are still on the table…Itโs telling that while state negotiators continue to meet (and make no real progress), no one from the Bureau of Reclamation โ the federal agency tasked with operating Lake Mead and Lake Powell โ has attended those negotiation sessions since the Trump administration took office. In fact, Reclamation stillย doesnโt even have a commissioner. The administration has been dragging its feet on getting the leadership in place to finally break this logjam…Now is not the time to be hands-off. The Trump administration must prioritize naming a Reclamation director who can offer firm, clear and fair direction โ and who isnโt afraid to bust a few heads if state negotiators refuse to budge.
Colorado River “Beginnings”. Photo: Brent Gardner-Smith/Aspen Journalism
Lake Powell at Wahweap Marina as seen in December 2021. Dwindling streamflows and falling reservoir levels have made it more likely that what some experts call a Colorado River Compact โtripwireโ will be hit in 2027. Credit: Heather Sackett/Aspen Journalism
When Colorado convened a working group on water speculation, its members shared stories of times in which theyโd seen or thought they might have seen investment water speculation occurring โ when water rights are purchased with a primary purpose of profiting from the future sale or lease of that water as demand drives up its price. On the list was the notion that buyers with no real interest in agriculture would buy agricultural land and water rights with the primary intention of enrolling in a program that pays water rights holders not to use that water.
The concern, essentially, was that programs that compensate farmers for fallowing fields like the Upper Colorado River Basinโs System Conservation Pilot Program, and nonprofits that fundraise to keep water in streams werenโt sufficiently guarded against abuse, particularly when it comes to an increasingly constrained Colorado River system.
โThe impacts of drought and the risks that drought causes in the Colorado River Basin, just by way of example, attract money to the concept that money can be made from taking water out of production โ conservation,โ says Peter Fleming, general counsel for the Colorado River District.
โWhere do you draw the line in that?โ Fleming asks. โWhich one is a good, socially recognized benefit that the state as a whole should support versus which one is bad because it encourages speculation in water resources, and it makes things more difficult for others, and it has adverse secondary impacts in the local economies when you take water out of production?โ
A few guardrails exist to make real conservation efforts โ those that serve the common good โ clear. But questions remain on whether those protections can really stop investment water speculation before speculation occurs.
Little Cimarron Ranch, where a first-of-its-kind agreement allows water rights to go to irrigation in the spring and summer, and to instream flows to support river health in the summer and fall. Photo courtesy of Mirr Ranch Group
Streamflows for the Public Good
In 1973, Colorado lawmakers legally recognized instream flows, in which water is allocated to the river to maintain flows and habitat as a โbeneficial useโ in parallel with industries, cities and agriculture. That 1973 legislation tried to prevent speculators from prospectively appropriating instream flows and locking up the stateโs water by taking measures like limiting who can operate instream flows to a single state agency, the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
โThere is government oversight for specifically this reason โ to prevent speculation,โ says Josh Boissevain, staff attorney with the Colorado Water Trust, a nonprofit that works to secure water for streams. โInstream flow is a decreed use, so using that water for instream flow is not speculation at all, even though itโs left in the river.โ
When water rights owners work with the water trust to use their water to restore flows, it takes a lot of paperwork and a close look at the web of other users affected. The process can be tedious and time-consuming, and the profits marginal.
โNobody is doing that for the money,โ Boissevain says. โThey do it because they care.โ
Some loopholes have been closed. For example, a 1994 change to Coloradoโs water law prevents conditional water rights holders, who hold onto water rights for unbuilt projects or potential future uses, from transferring those rights to instream flows. That law blocks speculators from selling conditional water rights to the CWCB for a profit.
Shoshone Hydroelectric Plant back in the days before I-70 via Aspen Journalism
Having a perfected water right โ one that is fully established and has been put to beneficial use โ converted to instream flows is fine, Fleming says. The Colorado River District participates in those programs and is working to buy a water right currently used to generate 15 megawatts at Xcel Energyโs aging Shoshone hydroelectric power plant. The River District aims to convert that hydropower right to an instream flow right to ensure that this water continues to flow from the headwaters down through boating hotspots in Glenwood Canyon, regardless of the 115-year-old power plantโs future.
But Fleming, who worked on a 2021 report that reviewed Coloradoโs legal sideboards on speculation, remains concerned that the lines are not clearly enough drawn between those recognizable benefits to the state and local economies, and the place where speculators could start counting on those efforts and โconservingโ to make a profit. At a certain scale, the effects of taking water off farm fields could ripple out beyond bare fields to farm supply stores and gas stations, as well as the local job market in rural communities.
Perhaps the most frightening possibility that could result from profiteering is that water rights bought and steered from use in Colorado will somehow be sold to thirsty fields or towns in Arizona or Nevada. But even if both buyer and seller are willing, specific language in interstate compacts and existing law complicates the likelihood of selling water from one state to a buyer in a different state.
Meanwhile, conservation groups are also concerned about speculators cornering them out of the increasingly expensive water rights market, Boissevain says. To adapt to the current water market, the Colorado Water Trust is exploring a new acquisition model with Qualified Ventures, a consulting company based in Washington, D.C. Through this new approach, the water trust would buy land with water rights through financing from lenders. A conservation easement would protect the land as agricultural, and the tax rebate from that status would partially repay the loan. The water trust would reassess how to profitably farm that land while sharing the water rights between agriculture and environmental flows. Then the land could be sold, potentially at a reduced price, perhaps to a first-generation farmer.
โItโs another way to keep ag in production and keep water on the land,โ Boissevain says. โItโs another step up in the competition against people that might try and buy [irrigated farms] for speculation or maybe even development.โ
Confluence of the Cimmaron and Gunnison rivers. Photo: Brent Gardner-Smith/Aspen Journalism
The results might resemble a project on the Little Cimmaron River near Gunnison, where the Colorado Water Trust purchased 5.8 cubic feet per second of flow in the McKinley Ditch to return water to a river that was nearly dry in late summer months. The water trust partnered with a land trust to buy the water rights and land, put a conservation easement on the land, then sell the land and water rights to a private landowner. In a first-of-its-kind agreement, the water rights can go to irrigation in the spring and summer, and to the CWCB for instream flow in the late summer and fall when the river needs it most. In a very dry year, all of the water can be left in the stream protected, and in a wet year, all of it can be diverted for agriculture.
This map shows the 15-mile reach of the Colorado River near Grand Junction, home to four species of endangered fish. Map credit: CWCB
Environmental groups contend that for the environment to thrive, the entire river system needs this kind of adaptability, particularly as Colorado River Basin states renegotiate operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead ahead of the current guidelinesโ expiration in 2026.
โWe want to see better, more realistic management of the Colorado River that accounts for climate change and โฆ drastic shifts in hydrology,โ says Matt Rice, Southwest regional director with American Rivers. โItโs all about creating, from our perspective, more flexibility in the system to avoid emergency action after emergency action because weโre collectively afraid to make hard decisions when we need to.โ
With an eye on the prospect of a compact call or other crisis, WaterCard, a Colorado-based company, aims to leverage private market dynamics to promote water conservation in the Colorado River system. It also provides an avenue for companies and individuals to offset their water footprint.
It works like this: A person can buy a WaterCard, which gives them conservation credits linked to a quantifiable amount of water conserved on a Colorado farm or ranch. Itโs like an offset. The WaterCard buyer also receives an NFT digital token as proof of purchase.
In the field, WaterCard funds are used to compensate farmers and ranchers who sign up for the program and voluntarily reduce water usage by fallowing fields for a season, decreasing irrigation, or transitioning to drought-resistant crops.
To demonstrate the concept, WaterCard founder James Eklund, who is also a working water attorney and rancher, is fallowing 66 acres of grass-alfalfa hay at his family ranch in western Coloradoโs Plateau Valley. Introducing a market-based mechanism for water conservation in a headwaters state does not equate to speculation, Eklund says, because buyers are only purchasing credits tied to conserved water, not the underlying water rights themselves.
โThis approach aligns fully with the anti-speculation doctrine, which I strongly support. That doctrine prohibits buying a water right, leaving it unused, and flipping it for profit โ thatโs speculation,โ he says.
WaterCardโs model is designed to work within the Upper Colorado River Commissionโs System Conservation Pilot Program (SCPP) and, Eklund hopes, eventually within a demand management framework. SCPP was designed to explore solutions to low flows in the Upper Colorado River Basin by granting funding to irrigators who voluntarily apply to conserve water for the season. If a demand management program is developed, conserved water could serve as a โsavings accountโ in Lake Powell, helping Colorado meet future obligations to send water to downstream states under the Colorado River Compact.
By piggybacking off of the SCPP, WaterCard benefits from the SCPPโs efforts to verify conservation efforts. Therefore, producers enrolled in WaterCard must also have a project enrolled in the SCPP. WaterCard will simply boost the amount of funding those irrigators receive for conservation efforts, making SCPP participation more appealing. As of early 2025, however, itโs unclear whether the SCPP will continue. Eklund argues that this model allows private entities and individuals to play a meaningful role in preventing water crises, one $3.50 WaterCard โ representing 500 gallons of water saved โ at a time.
Farmers and ranchers who participate can diversify revenue sources while continuing to farm and ranch. Eklund contends that current SCPP payments are insufficient and rejects the notion that fair compensation would cause agricultural producers to abandon their livelihoods.
โThat idea is insulting,โ he says. However, if farmers and ranchers can derive a higher dollar value for conserved water through a market-based system, he says, thatโs not speculation, thatโs โmarket-based capitalism.โ
Independent journalist Elizabeth Miller has written about environmental issues around the American West for publications including The Washington Post, Scientific American, Outside, Backpacker and The Drake.
Map of the Colorado River drainage basin, created using USGS data. By Shannon1 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
The discussion will focus on the Juchem Ditch and the Farmers Highline Canal and review how early settlers dug ditches by hand to support mining and agriculture. The event is free to the public and is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. to noon on May 17 at the Arvada Elks Lodge in Olde Town, at 5700 Yukon St. Panelists will include local historians Ed Rothschild, Tom Fletcher and Bob Krugmire. The event will be moderated by Arvada City Councilmember Sharon Davis. Arvada Historical Society President Judith Denham said the idea for the first History Speaks lecture โ which will potentially be part of a larger series of talks โ came when the organization was planning last yearโs Cemetery Tour, which centered on the early pioneers who built the cityโs ditches.
โWe thought it would be a great idea to expand on this story and find a way to talk more about this crucial part of Arvadaโs history,โ Denham said. โI think people are going to really enjoy hearing about this large piece of Arvadaโs history. Itโs a panel and weโve invited water experts and ditch company representatives to talk about how water influenced Arvadaโs early history.
โTheyโre going to tell us the fascinating stories about how early settlers Wadsworth, Swadley and Jochem dug ditches with hand tools and mules so they could provide water for their farms,โ Denham continued. โAnd add in the stories about the early conflicts over water usage and how that whole complicated system of water rights and water law started.โ
Registration for the event can be completed atย historyarvada.org. The Arvada Press and Colorado Community Media are partnering with the Arvada Historical Society for this project.
Farmers Highline Canal near the Tuck Ditch Headgate April 30, 2019. Day 30 of the #30daysofbiking challenge.
OAA scientist Chris Cox checks an Atmospheric Surface Flux Station, designed and built by PSL and CIRES to collect data that measures all aspects of the exchange of energy between land and atmosphere. By analyzing these measurements, researchers can gain insight into both local and regional weather and climate systems. This unit is sitting on top of two stacked picnic tables buried under the snow. Credit: Janet Intrieri, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory
Click the link to read the article on The Denver Post website (Elise Schmelzer). Here’s an excerpt:
April 25, 2025
Already, the two institutes โ theย Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciencesย at the University of Colorado Boulder and theย Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphereย at Colorado State University โ are preparing for potential layoffs should money held up in new federal approval processes not materialize in the coming weeks…Both institutes for decades have partnered with the federalย National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which provides the majority of the budget for both facilities. The federal agencyโs weather prediction and air and ocean monitoring impact nearly every industry and provide critical severe weather tracking,ย including through the National Weather Service. Its work is advanced by research from a network of 16 cooperative institutes, like those in Fort Collins and Boulder.
Aย memo by the White House Office of Management and Budgetย for the 2026 fiscal year โ which begins Oct. 1 โ proposes reducing funding for NOAA by 27%, effectively eliminating the agencyโs research arm and ending support for the cooperative institutes. The budget reductions are part of a wide-ranging effort by the Trump administration to slash the size of government. Project 2025 โ a conservative think tankโs outline for Trumpโs second presidency โ called for the dismantling of NOAA and for its functions to be privatized. The policy document identified the agency as โone of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, (it) is harmful to future U.S. prosperity.โ The White House plan prompted three of Coloradoโs Democratic congressional leaders โ Rep. Joe Neguse and Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet โ on Wednesday to send a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to urge him not to cut cooperative institutesโ funding.
โCIs are home to experienced researchers and long-standing data collection programs with major impacts on human societies, (and) moreover they are instrumental in training future generations of workers who continue to contribute to societal needs,โ the letter states. โIt is our fear that if sweeping cuts are made, the damage will be irreversible. Even short-term interruptions in their research could threaten the safety and economies of the communities that CIs serve across the nation.โ
Congress would have to approve the White Houseโs plan for the next fiscal year, but cooperative institute leaders also worry about more immediate funding problems. The memo directs NOAA to align its spending through fiscal year 2025 with the priorities in the document. The administration could strangle funding to the cooperative institutes even before the 2026 budget is set, said Waleed Abdalati, the director of CIRES at CU Boulder. Already, institutes are struggling to get money previously approved for research projects.
Selling off federal public lands, once a fringe idea, is now gaining traction among Republicans in Congress, the courts and in the White House. President Donald Trump has proposed using the money from such sales to offset the cost of extending his 2017 tax cuts, which would massively increase the federal budget.
In March, the U.S. Senate narrowly voted down an amendment that would have banned selling public land to balance the federal budget. Around the same time, the House adopted new rules that, opponents say, quietly lowered the bar for disposing of such lands.
โRepublicansโ plans to sell off our public lands to pay for tax handouts for their billionaire donors is an outrageous slap in the face to all of us,โ New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich, D, who sponsored the amendment blocking those sales, told High Country News in a statement.
Under the revised rules, legislation authorizing the sale of land managed by agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service would no longer require assigning a dollar value to the property first โ a change that would make it much easier for lawmakers to introduce and pass such bills without triggering fiscal scrutiny. All this comes at a time when recent mass layoffs have further destabilized the agencies tasked with managing public lands.
โThe threats have never been higher,โ said Land Tawney, executive director of American Hunters and Anglers, a nonpartisan network of public-lands advocates. โPoliticians are saying things out loud about divesting our public lands with more vigor and publicly. The threats are real.โ
Canyons surrounding the Owyhee River, Oregon, on BLM land. Bob Wick/BLM
But even as these ideas gain traction in the GOP, most Americans, regardless of their political belief remain largely united in their love for the nationโs public lands, especially in the Western U.S. This has forced some Republicans to break with the national party on the issue, setting the stage for what could become an unusual political alliance.
THE ATTACKS ON public lands began immediately after Trump took office in January. Staffing cuts implemented by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have disproportionately impacted land-management agencies. Critics say these staffing reductions are part of a deliberate strategy to undermine the agenciesโ ability to manage their lands effectively, thereby paving the way for privatization.
โIโm really concerned about what I see as a deliberate effort to set federal land management agencies up to fail. Once they fail, itโs not such a stretch to say, โWell, someone else could do a better job,โโ said Susan Brown, a lawyer at Silvix Resources, a nonprofit legal group that focuses on public lands and environmental governance. [ed. emphasis mine]
The Trump administration โ working with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner โ has launched a joint task force to identify โunderutilizedโ federal lands suitable for residential development, arguing that selling off these acres could help solve the nationwide housing shortage.
Critics argue that this idea is simply an excuse to open the door to privatization, as well as being a poor solution to the housing crisis. A new report from the Center for American Progress found that in the 10 Western states with the most BLM-managed land, less than 1% of that land is located within 10 miles of a population center, and much of it is unlikely to be suitable for sale or development.
Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert of Colorado told HCN that she is trying to strike a balance on the issue. โI stand with the far majority of Coloradans who see and believe in the value of protecting our public lands,โ she said in a statement provided by her office. At the same time, Boebert added that she rejected โthe idea that these public lands must be completely locked up from reasonable economic development and responsible energy exploration.โ Utah Sen. Mike Lee, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, did not respond to HCNโs requests for comment.
Across the West, Democrats and conservation advocates have used the threat of public land transfers to galvanize support. Protests against potential sales have erupted in various state capitols, including Idaho and Colorado, as well as at Arches National Park. Meanwhile, major outdoor brands are trying to rally recreationists around the issue. Earlier this month, more than 70 businesses launched an initiative called Brands for Public Lands, headlined by Patagonia and Black Diamond. The group is helping people contact their congressional representatives and urge them to oppose public land sales.
โThe overwhelming majority (of Americans) want to keep public lands in public hands. Itโs where we hunt, fish, gather berries, mountain bike, hike, float and just go escape,โ said Tawney. โItโs all of our backyards, and I have confidence that the people will stand united.โโ
Workers from Denver Water and contractor Kiewit Barnard stand in front of Gross Dam in May 2024 to mark the start of the dam raise process. Photo credit: Denver Water.
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Denver Water to share information with the environmental groups who successfully challenged a reservoir expansion project in Boulder County, as both sides prepare for a hearing to determine how much additional construction is necessary to stabilize the structure…Days later, Arguelloย allowed for necessary constructionย to temporarily resume, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuitย has since extended that windowย while it reviews Arguello’s order. However, last Wednesday, the groups that challenged the project’s legality asked Arguello to intervene on another issue related to the upcoming hearing about how much stabilizing work is warranted…In response to the groups’ questions about risk management plans, spillway capacity and failure modesย โ plus a request for project documentsย โ Denver Water told the petitioners that disclosure “poses Dam security risks.”
“The fact remains that Denver Water is the only party that currently has available to it extensive documentation that bears directly on the specific safety issues that this Court orderedย allย parties to address at the hearing,” the environmental groups added in their court filing.
The Shoshone hydro plant in Glenwood Canyon. The River District has made a deal with Xcel Energy to buy the water rights associated with the plant to keep water flowing on the Western Slope. Credit: Heather Sackett/Aspen Journalism
Pitkin County on Wednesday joined 29 other Western Slope counties, cities and towns, irrigation districts and water providers in financially backing a plan to buy a critical Colorado River water right.
Pitkin County commissioners unanimously approved a resolution supporting the Shoshone Permanency Project and pledging $1 million toward the campaign to keep the water rights associated with the Shoshone hydropower plant in Glenwood Canyon on the Western Slope. Pitkin Countyโs Healthy Rivers Board recommended the $1 million contribution from its fund at its regular meeting April 17.
The Colorado River Water Conservation District plans to purchase the water rights from Xcel Energy for nearly $100 million. The water rights are some of the biggest and oldest non-consumptive water rights on the mainstem of the Colorado River, and ensure water keeps flowing west to the benefit of downstream cities, farms, recreation and the environment.
โFrom our perspective we view this as an opportunity to really create and enhance a partnership that should be incredibly functional in the future,โ River District General Manager Andy Mueller told commissioners on Wednesday. โWeโre committed to working with you to keep the upper Roaring Fork healthy and figuring out creating solutions to bring water into the watershed at the right times of year.โ
About 40% of the headwaters of the Roaring Fork River is diverted across the Continental Divide for use in the Arkansas River basin. Itโs long been Pitkin Countyโs goal to mitigate the effects this has on the health of the Roaring Fork.
In exchange for support of the Shoshone project, Pitkin County will be able to use some water from Grizzly Reservoir, owned by the city of Aspen and the River District, to boost flows in the upper Roaring Fork River.
โOne of the most productive things to come out of this, in addition to the benefits youโve already discussed with the Shoshone project itself โฆ is going to be that the River District has agreed that Pitkin County can now have a voice in working with Aspen and the River District on that Grizzly water,โ said Jennifer DiLalla, an attorney with Moses, Wittemyer, Harrison and Woodruff. DiLalla is the countyโs outside counsel who works on water issues. โThat is one of the only sources of water available upstream of you. Itโs not going to be there all that often, but when it is, itโs a really great benefit for the upper Fork.โ
The $1 million pledge may help the county and the River District repair their rocky relationship after years of being at odds over certain water issues. Pitkin County didnโt initially support the Shoshone campaign because of the complex interaction of the water rights with another big set of downstream irrigation water rights in the Grand Valley known as the Cameo call.
โWeโve come a long way because it used to be not too long ago that we were just going to oppose this, period,โ said Pitkin County Commissioner and River District representative Francie Jacober. โI would say that we are on the road to a new era of cooperation with the River District.โ
Pitkin Countyโs concern was that with Shoshone under new ownership โ and the proposed addition of an instream flow use for the water along with hydropower โ the call for the water through Glenwood Canyon might delay or reduce the need for the Cameo call. Aspenites like to see the Cameo call come on because it forces the Twin Lakes diversion to shut off, which means more water flowing down the Roaring Fork, typically during a time of year in late summer and early fall when streamflows are running low and river health is suffering.
North Star Nature Preserve on the Roaring Fork River just upstream of Aspen experienced high water in June of 2023. Pitkin County is supporting the River Districtโs campaign to buy the Shoshone water rights in exchange for help boosting flows in the upper Roaring Fork. Credit: Heather Sackett/Aspen Journalism
Some of the mistrust between the two local governments can be traced to water rights owned by the River District that would have kept alive huge reservoirs on the Crystal River near Redstone. The district eventually abandoned those rights, but not without first being challenged in water court by Pitkin County. Pitkin County also opposed the widely supported River District 2020 tax increase โ ballot measure 7a โ which funds water projects across the districtโs 15-county area.
To secure the Shoshone water rights โ which comprise a 1902 right for 1,250 cubic feet per second and another from 1929 for 158 cfs โ the River District must add an instream flow use to the water rights in addition to their current use for hydropower. That requires working with the Colorado Water Conservation Board, which is the only entity in the state allowed to hold instream flow rights which preserve the environment, as well as getting a new water court decree to allow the change in use.
Despite the support and $1 million pledge, Pitkin County still may oppose the change case in water court. The county hired Golden-based engineering firm Martin and Wood Water Consultants to do an analysis of the Shoshone and Cameo call interaction to see if the Roaring Fork could be harmed. According to Tara Meininger, an engineer with Martin and Wood, there could potentially be an annual impact of 26 acre-feet on average to the upper Roaring Fork.
But a final report is still not complete, said Pitkin County Attorney Richard Neiley, which is why the county reserved the right to oppose the River District in water court.
โItโs an important goal to make sure that change does not result in injury to the Roaring Fork forever,โ Neiley said. โWe havenโt given anything away with respect to being able to argue or oppose the change case on that basis.โ
With Pitkin Countyโs $1 million contribution, the River District has now raised $57 million from local and regional partners. In addition, the project was awarded $40 million in the final days of the Biden administration, but that funding has since been frozen, though River District officials are hopeful that the federal funding will still be realized.
The River District plans to present an agreement on the instream flow water rights to the Colorado Water Conservation Board at its regular meeting in May.
โWeโre about to enter into a process with the Colorado Water Conservation Board where your support will be essential to a successful experience there and then on into water court,โ Mueller told commissioners. โSo we just want to say thank you very much.โ
Colorado transmountain diversions via the State Engineer’s office
GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. โ The effort to permanently protect the Shoshone Hydroelectric Power Plantโs water rights gained additional momentum this week as Pitkin County committed $1 million toward the Colorado River Districtโs $99 million purchase agreement with Xcel Energy. This contribution is bolstered by additional funding from middle Colorado River communities, including the Town of New Castle ($100,000), Town of Parachute ($25,000), Town of De Beque ($5,000), and the De Beque Plateau Valley Soil Conservation District ($5,000), which are committed to safeguarding flows vital to the regionโs economy and way of life. Reliable flows in the Colorado River are essential to the health and future of these interconnected communities. By supporting Shoshone, they join a broader coalition of Western Slope entities committed to long-term water security for the region.
โThe Shoshone water rights are essential to the health of our rivers, ecosystems, and communities across the Western Slope,โ said Francie Jacober, Pitkin County Commissioner and Colorado River District Board Member. โThis isnโt just a smart investment, itโs a legacy decision. Pitkin County proudly stands with our neighbors to protect this lifeline for future generations.โ
โThe Town of New Castle recognizes the critical importance of protecting Colorado River water rights on the Western Slope and proudly supports the long-term preservation of non-consumptive flows,โ said New Castle Town Administrator David Reynolds. โThese rights are vital to a strong recreational economy, improved water quality, sustainable agriculture, and consistent stream flows in the upper Colorado River Wild and Scenic Management areas. New Castle fully supports the work of the Colorado River District and the Shoshone Water Rights Preservation Coalition to safeguard the riverโs health and sustainability.โ
The Shoshone Water Rights Preservation Project, led by the Colorado River District, now includes 30 local governments, water entities, and regional partners across the Western Slope. Together, they have committed over $17 million toward the $99 million purchase price. Along with the $20 million pledged by the State of Colorado through the CWCB Projects Bill (HB24-1435) and $20 million from the River Districtโs Community Funding Partnership, more than $57 million has been committed to date.
โFrom headwaters counties like Pitkin to towns along the Colorado River, the West Slope is demonstrating what true collaboration looks like,โ said Andy Mueller, General Manager of the Colorado River District. โThe momentum behind Shoshone Permanency reflects a powerful and unified vision where agricultural producers, recreation economies, and rural communities stand shoulder to shoulder to protect the water resource that sustains us all. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and our region is rising to meet it.โ
The Shoshone hydroelectric plant, located in Glenwood Canyon, holds nonconsumptive senior water rights that date back to 1902. These rights are essential for supporting flows in the Colorado River, benefiting agriculture, recreation, rural economies, and water users across the West Slope.
In December 2023, the Colorado River District entered a purchase and sale agreement with Xcel Energy to acquire and permanently protect the water rights, with plans to negotiate an instream flow agreement with the Colorado Water Conservation Board. This agreement would safeguard the flows into the future, regardless of the operational status of the Shoshone plant itself.
In January 2025, the Bureau of Reclamation awarded $40 million in federal funding through a program authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act. The River District continues to work with the Bureau of Reclamation and remains optimistic that the projectโs broad support and clear public benefit will secure the federal dollars needed to complete this once-in-a-generation investment.
Learn more about the Shoshone Water Rights Preservation Project & Coalition at KeepShoshoneFlowing.org.
Researchers at the University of Utah recently published a first-of-its-kind study that measures the impact dust has on melting snow in the Colorado River basin.
Dust has long been credited to accelerating snowmelt in the Intermountain West. Blowing from arid regions and settling in the mountains, the dust darkens the snow, lowering its albedo โ essentially, darker snow doesnโt reflect the sunlight as well, leading to more heat absorption and speeding up the melting process.
Itโs particularly prevalent in the Colorado River basin, with large mountain ranges like the San Juans, La Sals and Maroon Bells pushed up against dry expanses of desert. As drought continues to impact the region, dust events have worsened, depleting the snowpack at faster rates and complicating an already precarious situation for the Colorado River and the 40 million people who get their drinking water from it.
And while previous papers have recorded the impact dust has on snowmelt, University of Utah researchers are the first to study an area as large as the Colorado River headwaters, which spans multiple states. According to the university, there are no snowmelt models โ streamflow forecasts in mountain basins essential for areas that rely on snowpack for water โ that take dust into account.
โThe degree of darkening caused by dust has been related to water forecasting errors. The water comes earlier than expected, and this can have real world impacts โ for example if the ground is still frozen itโs too early for farmers to use. A reservoir manager can store early snowmelt, but they need the information to plan for that,โ said McKenzie Skiles, associate professor at the universityโs School of Environment, Society and Sustainability. โIf we can start to build dust into the snowmelt forecast models, it will make water management decision-making more informed.โ
Stiles is a co-lead author of the study, which was published in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters in March.
Stiles and other researchers analyzed 23 years of satellite images, from 2021 to 2023, to observe snow darkened by dust in the spring months. They found that dust accelerated snowmelt in the Colorado River Basin every spring, even during less-dusty years.
During runoff season, typically between April and May, the snowpack melts about 10 to 15 millimeters each day. According to the study, dust deposition can accelerate snowmelt by 1 millimeter per hour during peak sunlight โ during a โhigh-dustโ year, that can factor out to about 10 extra millimeters each day.
โItโs not just how much dust gets deposited over a season, but also the timing of dust deposition that matters,โ said Patrick Naple, doctoral candidate of geography at the University of Utah and lead author of the study. โDust is very effective at speeding up melt because itโs most frequently deposited in the spring when days are getting longer and the sun more intense. Even an extra millimeter per hour can make the snowpack disappear several weeks earlier than without dust deposition.โ
One of the most comprehensive analyses of dust and snowmelt yet, the university says this research could improve water forecasting and allocation for communities that rely on the Colorado River.
The western boundary of Senator Beck Basin is pictured May 12, 2009, after a dust event. That year was an exceptionally dusty one, with 12 dust events. The basin has experienced five dust events so far this year. CREDIT: COURTESY PHOTO BY THE CENTER FOR SNOW AND AVALANCHE STUDIES
The Lisbon Valley copper mine in southeastern Utah is looking to expand, and now the Trump administration has moved to expedite its permits. Jonathan P. Thompson photo.
A little while back I wrote about Trumpโs executive order aimed at making it easier to mine on federal lands. Now itโs becoming a little clearer how that might play out on the ground. The U.S. Permitting Council last week released a list of the first wave of mining projects the administration plans to fast track through the permitting process.
The projects include a few that the Land Desk has covered or mentioned in the past, such as:
The announcement promised there are โmany more projects on the wayโ to the expedited list, though it does not elaborate on what fast-tracking might look like, exactly. The council says it will publish permitting timetables for the projects by May 2. Stay tuned to the Land Desk for updates.
๐ Good News Corner ๐
Prizes, folks. There are prizes for the winners of the Land Deskโs Predict the (spring) Peak Super Contest! Why super? Because itโs not just for one stream, but for five. And that means there could be five winners, and each gets to choose one of these prizes from our merch selection.
Is that enticing, or what? But there is a bit of a catch: Only paid Land Desk subscribers will be eligible to enter the contest, meaning only they can win the prizes. But donโt fear: Sign up now and get 20% off the regular annual subscription price, and get the privilege of entering the Predict the Peak contest.
The idea is to accurately predict the spring runoff peak streamflow (in cubic feet per second) and the date of the peak for any or all of these five stream gages:
So an entry for the Animas might look like this: Animas River, May 17, 2,950 cubic-feet per-second. The winning entry would be the closest streamflow reading to the actual peak, with the date being a tie-breaker if needed. So if someone gets the cfs right, but the date wrong, they would beat out someone with the right date but wrong flow.
Entries will only be eligible if they are entered into the comment section below this post. Donโt email me your entries! They wonโt count! (If you are a paid subscriber but are having problems commenting, let me know at landdesk@substack.com). And they must be entered before Friday, May 16, to be eligible. Winners will be determined after spring runoff has peaked on all of the rivers, which will likely be in late June or early July (or perhaps earlier if spring remains warm).
Iโve prepared the following graphs to help you out. They show this yearโs April 22 snowpack level, along with the snowpack curve and peak flows and dates for 2021 and 2023. Good luck!
Streamflow readings are for the Animas River gage in Durango. Source: NRCS, USGS.
Streamflow readings are for the North Fork gage in Lazear. Source: NRCS, USGS.
Streamflow readings are for the Rio Grande gage at Otowi Bridge. Source: NRCS, USGS.
Streamflow readings are for the San Miguel River gage at Uravan. Source: NRCS, USGS.
Streamflow readings are for the Colorado River gage at the Utah-Colorado state line. Source: NRCS, USGS.
Streamflow readings are for the Colorado River gage at the Utah-Colorado state line. Source: NRCS, USGS.
With Utah facing a drier year, Gov. Spencer Cox issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency in 17 counties due to drought conditions.
The counties covered by the order include southern and rural areas of Washington, Iron, San Juan, Kane, Juab, Emery, Grand, Beaver, Garfield, Piute, Millard, Tooele, Uintah, Carbon, Sevier, Sanpete and Wayne counties.
West Drought Monitor map April 22, 2205.
The governorโs executive order comes after the Drought Response Committee recently recommended he act due to drought conditions.
โWeโve been monitoring drought conditions closely, and unfortunately, our streamflow forecasts are low, particularly in southern Utah,โ Cox said in a prepared statement. โI urge all Utahns to be extremely mindful of their water use and find every possible way to conserve. Water conservation is critical for Utahโs future.โ
Coxโs emergency declaration also comes after he told reporters last week he was working on issuing one due to worsening drought conditions in southern Utah, which has seen a weak snowpack this winter.
Though the governor said last week itโs been a โpretty normal year for most of the state,โ there are some areas that are worse off than others.
Currently, severe drought covers 42% of the state, and 4% is in extreme drought, according to the stateโs website.
This year, Utahโs snowpack peaked at 14.3 inches on March 23, which is equal to the stateโs typical annual peak, according to state officials. However, southwestern Utahโs snowpack was only about 44% of normal. Plus, winter temperatures were 2 degrees Fahrenheit higher than normal.
The stateโs reservoir storage levels are at 84% of capacity, โwhich will help the state weather drought,โ the governorโs office said in a news release. โHowever, drought is unpredictable, and taking proactive measures to prepare is critical.โ
โThe state partners closely with federal agencies to share critical water supply and drought updates,โ Joel Ferry, executive director for the Utah Department of Natural Resources, said in a statement. โProactive planning is essential. We ask all Utahns across all sectors to use less water to help stretch the water supply.โ
Itโs been almost exactly three years since the governor declared a drought declaration. The last time he did so was April 22, 2022, when 65% of the state was in extreme drought, and more than 99% of the state was experiencing at least severe drought conditions.
As part of his order, Cox urged Utahns to watch their water use, both inside and outside their homes.
Wait to water your lawn until temperatures are in the mid-70s for several consecutive days, and check theย Weekly Lawn Watering Guideย for other tips on how to optimize water use.
Fix leaks.
Run full loads for dishwashers and washing machines.
Turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth, shaving, soaping up, doing dishes or rinsing vegetables.
Shorten your shower time by at least one minute.
Participate inย water-saving programsย like water-smart landscaping, toilet replacement, and smart sprinkler controllers.
Vallecito Reservoir expected to fill, but low snowpack means short irrigation season
[Ken Curtis] expects users will receive no more than 50% of their allocated water and could get as little as 25%. Ken Beck, superintendent of the Pine River Irrigation District, which manages Vallecito Reservoir, said heโs optimistic the reservoir will fill to its 123,500-acre-foot capacity. He needs another 31,000 acre-feet of water to get there. Beck thinks heโll get it โ but probably not much more…Snowpack water supply in the northern part of the state is at or above 30-year median levels, but those numbers decline the farther south one goes. The Upper San Juan Basin, which contains Vallecito and Navajo Lake, has 67% of the median snow-water equivalent for this time of year. The Animas basin sits at 76%; the basin containing the Mancos and La Plata rivers is at 65%; and the Dolores basin, which feeds McPhee Reservoir, is at 72%…Water accumulation in the San Miguel-Dolores-Animas-San Juan subbasin, which spans much of the southwest corner of the state, typically peaks around April 2. This year, however, it appeared toย peak more than a week early, on March 23. Snow-water equivalent dipped at the end of March but perked up with early April storms.
The dam raise process begins at the bottom of the dam using roller-compacted concrete to build the new steps that will go up the face of the dam. Photo credit: Denver Water.
Denver Water vowed this week to take the high-stakes battle over a partially built dam in Boulder County to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary to defend what it sees as its well-established right to continue construction and deliver water to its 1.5 million metro-area customers.
โIt would be irresponsible not to do that,โ Denver Waterโs General Manager Alan Salazar said in an interview Tuesday as a tense month of legal maneuvering continued.
Senior U.S. District Court Judge Christine Arguello on April 3 put a halt to construction of the $531 million Gross Reservoir Dam raise nearly four months after Denver Water and the river-defending nonprofit Save the Colorado failed to negotiate a settlement that would add new environmental protections to the project. When settlement talks stalled, Save the Colorado asked for and was granted an injunction.
Almost immediately, Denver Water filed for temporary relief from the injunction, saying, in part, that it would be unsafe to stop work as the incomplete concrete walls towered above Gross Reservoir in western Boulder County.
Arguello granted that request, too.
Now the water agency, the largest utility in the Intermountain West, has filed an emergency request with the federal appeals court, seeking to permanently protect its right to continue construction as the legal battle continues.
A decision could come as early as this week as a 10th Circuit Court of Appeals panel considers Denver Waterโs emergency request, according to environmental advocate Gary Wockner. Wockner leads Save The Colorado, a group that has financed and led litigation against Denver Water and many other agencies seeking new dams or river diversions. Wockner said he is ready to continue the fight as well.
โWe are prepared to defend the district courtโs decision,โ Wockner said, referring to the construction halt.
Alan Salazar, who became Denver Water CEO/Manager in August 2023 Photo credit: Denver Water
The high-profile dispute erupted in Denver just weeks after Northern Water agreed to a $100 million settlement with Save The Colorado and its sister group, Save The Poudre, to allow construction of the Northern Integrated Supply Project, or NISP, to proceed.
The money will be used to help restore the Cache la Poudre River, including moving diversion points and crafting new agreements with diverters that will ultimately leave more water in the river. Northern Water, which operates the federally owned Colorado-Big Thompson Project for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, is overseeing the permitting and construction of NISP.
But two years of talks and negotiations between Save The Colorado and Denver Water failed to yield a similar environmental settlement over the Gross Reservoir Dam expansion project. It was after the talks failed that Federal District Court Judge Arguello agreed to halt construction on the dam.
Whether a new environmental deal will be forthcoming now isnโt clear. Both sides declined to comment on whether settlement talks had resumed.
Salazar also declined to discuss whether a deal similar to the $100 million NISP settlement would emerge over the Gross Reservoir lawsuit.
โI donโt want to get into the cost of a settlement,โ Salazar said. โBut the impact on ratepayers would beย significant.โ
Case sets the stage for future water projects in Colorado
Across the state, water officials are closely watching the case play out.
For fast-growing Parker Water and Sanitation, the preliminary injunction to stop construction, though temporary, is worrisome.
Its general manager, Ron Redd, said he wasnโt sure how his small district, which is planning a major new water project in northeastern Colorado, would cope with a similar injunction or a U.S. Supreme Court battle.
โIn everything permitting-wise you need consistency in how you move projects forward,โ Redd said. โTo have that disrupted causes concern. Is this going to be the new normal going forward? That bothers me.โ
Denver Water first moved to raise Gross Dam more than 20 years ago when it began designing the expansion and seeking the federal and state permits required by most water projects.
After years of engineering, studies and federal and state analyses, construction began in 2022. It has involved taking part of the original dam, built in the 1950s, and raising its height by 131 feet to nearly triple the reservoirโs storage capacity to 119,000 acre-feet from 42,000 acre-feet. An acre-foot of water equals 326,000 gallons, enough to serve up to four urban households each year.
The giant utility has said it needs the additional storage to secure future water supplies as climate change threatens stream flows in its water system, a key part of which lies in the Fraser River, a tributary to the Upper Colorado River in Grand County. The expansion was also necessary to strengthen its ability to distribute water from the northern end of its system, especially if problems emerged elsewhere in the southern part of its distribution area, as occurred during the 2002 drought.
And the judge agreed climate change is a factor but she said itโs not clear the water would ever even materialize as flows shrink. She overturned Denver Waterโs permits because she said the Army Corps had not factored in Colorado River flow losses from climate change, and whether Denver would ever actually see the water it plans to store in an expanded Gross. Arguello also ruled the Army Corps had not spent enough time analyzing alternatives to the Gross Reservoir expansion.
Wockner said forcing Denver Water and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to re-analyze water projections under new climate change scenarios, as his group has asked, is critical to helping protect the broader Colorado River and stopping destructive dam projects.
Whether the questions the case raises about permitting and environmental protections ultimately make their way to the U.S. Supreme Court isnโt clear yet.
But James Eklund, a water attorney and former director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, the stateโs lead agency on water planning and funding, said Denver Water has the expertise and financial muscle to take it there.
โThey have really sharp people over there,โ he said. โI would say they are not only willing, they would have the facts to present a case they believe would be successful.โ
The Gross Reservoir Expansion Project involves raising the height of the existing dam by 131 feet. The dam will be built out and will have โstepsโ made of roller-compacted concrete to reach the new height. Image credit: Denver Water
Yellowstone park workers help search for a lost hiker on Eagle Peak in 2024. (Cam Sholly/Yellowstone National Park)
Click the link to read the article on the WyoFile.com website (Angus M. Thuermer Jr.):
April 22, 2025
Oilfield executive takes charge of consolidating workforce of 70,000 at national parks, BLM, Fish and Wildlife Service.
Five days into the Trump administrationโs DOGE takeover of the Department of Interiorโs policy, management and budget, Yellowstone National Park staffing is โhigher than last year,โ an Interior Department spokesperson in Washington, D.C. said Monday.
โโYellowstone Park confirmed the increase. โGoing into this year, we should have a total of 769 NPS employees,โ park spokeswoman Linda Veress said in an email, up from 748 last year. During the parkโs record year for visitation in 2021, the parkโs workforce numbered 693 permanent and seasonal workers.
โWe had an outstanding opening weekend, and it was great to see everyone enjoying the park,โ Yellowstone Park Superintendent Cam Sholly said in an email Monday. โThe plow crews are working hard to clear the remainder of the parkโs roads from snow, and we are on schedule for our normal sequenced opening in the upcoming weeks, including the Beartooth Highway.โ
After personally greeting the seasonโs first visitors at the West Entrance on Friday, Sholly reported the opening weekend drew 8,324 vehicles from there and the North Entrance at Mammoth, the only two entrances that have opened so far. Thatโs an increase of more than 11% from last year and put the weekend rush, unofficially Sholly said, at 21,642.
The staffing and opening weekend updates came as Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum put an oilfield executive in charge of โconsolidation, unification and optimization of administrative functionsโ at the 70,000-person agency last week. Burgum, earlier this year, named Tyler Hassen as assistant secretary for policy, management and budget. Now Hassen will oversee Burgumโs consolidation order as the Trump administrationโs DOGE plan to shrink the size of the federal government advances.
Burgumโs appointment of Hassen and the consolidation order sparked worries in the conservation community, including at the Center for Western Priorities. The Denver-based nonpartisan conservation and advocacy organization accused the secretary of abdicating his responsibilities by not reserving any authority over firings or requiring any reporting by Hassen.
โIf Doug Burgum doesnโt want this job, he should quit now,โ said Jennifer Rokala, executive director of Western Priorities. โInstead, it looks like Burgum plans to sit by the fire eating warm cookies while Elon Muskโs lackeys dismantle our national parks and public lands,โ she said in a statement.
โWarm cookiesโ refers to a report in The Atlantic that Burgumโs chief of staff told political appointees to learn to bake cookies for their boss.
But potential visitors to the worldโs first national park need not worry, said J. Elizabeth Peace, a spokesperson at Burgumโs office.
โVisitors can expect the same great service they had in years past,โ Peace wrote in an email Monday. โ[I]n some National Parks, like at Yellowstone National Park, staffing numbers are higher than last year.โ
Peace made her reassurances as regional business owners fret over the upcoming tourism season in Yellowstone, at neighboring Grand Teton and across Wyoming. Overseas traveler numbers to the U.S. dropped 11.6% in March after Trump tariffs, tariff threats, indiscriminate DOGE firings, resignations and economic turmoil battered expectations.
Oilman
The order Burgum issued Thursday gives Hassen, now an assistant secretary, authority over the departmentโs Working Capital Fund, an office that in 2023 provided $119 million for department functions. Hassen will be able to rewrite manuals outlining employee responsibilities and may transfer funds, programs, records and property, according to the order.
Burgumโs order described his actions as furthering Trumpโs February initiative for โimplementing the presidentโs โDepartment of Government Efficiencyโ workforce optimization.โ
In addition to great service at national parks, Bureau of Land Management lands in Wyoming remain welcoming, Peace wrote. โVisitors to BLM-managed public lands can expect continued access and service across recreation sites, trails and campgrounds,โ her email reads. โWe are implementing necessary reforms to ensure fiscal responsibility, operational efficiency and government accountability.โ
Burgum and DOGEโs โunification effortโ will accelerate technology, enhance the mission to preserve parks and historic sites, serve Native American tribes and manage department holdings in Wyoming, Burgumโs order states. All told, the Department of the Interior manages 2.34 million acres of national park system lands, 18.4 million acres of BLM property and 70,000 acres of Fish and Wildlife Service reserves in the state.
In Wyoming, Interior-managed land accounts for a third of the stateโs area or about 21 million acres.
Hassen, a Deerfield Academy prep and Princeton grad, was CEO of Basin Energy, a Houston-based international oilfield services company, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before that, he worked for Wenzel Downhole Tools, Basin Power, and served as chairman of the associate board of the nonprofit Cancer Research Institute in New York. He was an associate involved in global energy investment banking at Morgan Stanley in New York and London from 2005-2008, according to his profile.
He emerged on the DOGE scene after the Los Angeles fires in January when President Trump said California Gov. Gavin Newsom compounded the firefighting problem by not diverting water to southern California. Critics said DOGE conflated agricultural diversions, needs of the endangered Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary delta smelt and firefighting.
Unqualified?
Western Priorities said DOGE efforts assign inexpert people to inappropriate positions.
โSince Elon Musk is now effectively in charge of Americaโs public lands, itโs up to Congress and the American people to stand up and demand oversight,โ Rokalaโs statement reads. โDOGEโs unelected bureaucrats in Washington have no idea how to staff a park, a wildlife refuge, or a campground. They have no idea how to manage a forest or prepare for fires in the wildland-urban interface. But Doug Burgum just gave DOGE free rein over all of that.โ
On a picture perfect, late-March bluebird day in the Colorado mountains, Rob Krueger and Jay Joslyn gear up for a unique job at Denver Water โ venturing into the wilderness to measure snowpack.
Boots? Check. Gloves? Check. Hats? Check. Jackets? Check. Very special metal tube and a scale? Check, check. All of it is loaded into their winter travel vehicle, a snowcat.
Denver Water owns a snowcat that is used to access facilities and remote locations during the winter months in Grand County. Photo credit: Denver Water.
โWeโre heading up to Vasquez Creek to one of our snow courses,โ Krueger says as he fires up the Tucker 2000XL and starts rolling. โItโs around 10 miles up to our destination, and it takes about 30-40 minutes in the snowcat.โ
The journey starts at Denver Waterโs Grand County office just west of Fraser and heads into the Arapaho National Forest.
โThe snowcat is kind of like a truck with tank-like tracks on it,โ Krueger said. โWe use it throughout the winter to reach our remote buildings and dams and to get to our snow courses.โ
The journey would be impossible in a regular car or truck. But the snowcat, designed to tackle this type of terrain, easily powers over the snow.
โWeโre a 24/7 operation so we need a vehicle like this in the winter,โ he said. โWhether itโs snowing, sleeting, raining or we have 60-mile-per-hour winds and it’s negative 6 degrees out, we still have to get around. So thatโs what makes the snowcat such an important piece of equipment for us.โ
Rob Krueger drives the snowcat through a snow-covered road near Winter Park. Photo credit: Denver Water.
Krueger drives the snowcat through the trees on a snow-covered U.S. Forest Service road and into Denver Waterโs collection system.
The collection system is the area where Denver Water captures melting snow during the spring runoff. The water then flows through creeks, canals, tunnels and reservoirs to treatment facilities on the Front Range where itโs cleaned for delivery to 1.5 million people in metro Denver.
After reaching their destination, Krueger and Joslyn get ready for their task of measuring the snowpack.
Snowshoes are strapped on and equipment, including a snow measuring tube, is assembled for the trek across Vasquez Creek to reach a โsnow course.โ
โA snow course is basically a preset path where we take samples to measure the snowpack,โ Joslyn said. โWe do these same courses four times over the winter.โ
The courses are set up across Coloradoโs mountains and managed by the U.S. Department of Agricultureโs National Resources Conservation Service, also known as the NRCS, to monitor snowpack. The data from these courses are used by cities, farmers, ranchers, water utilities and recreationists to help predict the amount of water that will flow down the mountains during the spring runoff.
Joslyn and Krueger snowshoe across Vasquez Creek to reach the snow course. Photo credit: Denver Water.
Denver Water partners with the NRCS to do snow courses in Grand, Park and Summit counties where the utility collects its water.
In Grand County, there are five locations where Denver Water samples snow.
The Vasquez snow course starts a few feet from the creek and is surrounded by a canopy of spruce and fir trees. On this trip, the snow on the course ranged from 4 to 5 feet deep.
Joslyn stabs the snow with the measuring tube to collect a snow sample. Photo credit: Denver Water.
Joslyn carries the measuring tube [Federal Snow Sampler], then stabs it into the snow and checks the reading. He calls out โ53,โ which is the depth of the snow in inches. Then he takes a closer look at the slots on the tube and calls out a second number; this one is the length of the snow core captured inside.
Next up, Joslyn uses a handheld scale to weigh the tube with the snow inside. โ42,โ he calls out. This time referring to the weight in ounces.
Krueger records this number, then subtracts the weight of the empty tube from the total, which gives the water content in inches of the snow core sample. They also calculate the density of the snow.
Joslyn weighs the tube with the snow inside. The process is used to determine the water content and density of the snowpack. Photo credit: Denver Water.
The pair does the same process 10 times at 25-foot intervals on the course. On this trip, the snowpack was in good shape, coming in at 118% of normal for the end of March 2025.
โDenver Water has a long history in this valley, and weโve been doing snow courses in Grand County dating back to 1939,โ Krueger said. โWith decades worth of data, we can get a really good idea of how much water weโll see during the spring runoff.โ
The data is sent to Denver Waterโs planning department and the NRCS. Planners combine the snow course information with data from SNOTEL sites and high-tech flights over the mountains to predict how much water will flow into the utilityโs reservoirs where water is stored for customers.
โThe information from the snow courses is critical to our planning, as it gives us boots-on-the-ground information about the snowpack,โ said Nathan Elder, water supply manager at Denver Water. โOur crews in the mountains often have to brave a lot of harsh weather to get the data we need, so weโre thankful for their hard work.โ
Working for Denver Water in Grand County involves a variety of jobs that change throughout the seasons, with the snow courses being one of the most unique.
โThe snow courses are interesting and of course being out in the snow and driving the snowcat is pretty fun,โ Krueger said. โOur work feels valuable to Denver Water as a whole to understand what kind of water resource we have to send to the city.โ
Last week, heavy rain again fell on parts of the Nationโs Midsection along a strong quasi-stationary front. A swath of heavy amounts (over 2 inches) extended from central Texas northeastward through eastern Oklahoma, southeastern Kansas, northwestern Arkansas, much of Missouri, and southern Illinois. The largest amounts (4 to locally 8 inches) covered a band from the Middle Red River (south) Valley into central Missouri. Farther north, 2 to 4 inches also soaked much of southeastern Nebraska, eastern Iowa, and central through southwestern Wisconsin. More widely scattered amounts of 2 to 4 inches affected southeastern Texas, northern Louisiana, and the northern half of Alabama. Existing dryness and drought improved in most areas affected by heavy precipitation, in addition to portions of the central Rockies where less robust precipitation compounded frequently above-normal totals during the past several weeks. Meanwhile, subnormal amounts propelled intensifying drought and dryness along parts of the East Coast, scattered portions of the Southeast. East-central and southern Texas, parts of the central and northern Plains, and both the northern and southern tiers of the Rockies and adjacent lower elevations. In many areas that observed worsening conditions, unusually warm weather (temperatures generally 3 to 6 deg. F. above normal) have prevailed for the past 4 weeks, particularly across the southern half of the Great Plains, the Southeast, and the southern and middle Atlantic States…
Moderate to locally heavy precipitation (over 0.5 inch, with isolated amounts topping 2 inches) fell on some of the higher elevations of Colorado and Wyoming. On the other side of the Region, heavy rains, amounting to several inches in some places, doused southeastern Kansas. Elsewhere, amounts exceeded 0.5 inch in several scattered areas mostly in the High Plains and central Kansas, but most other locales recorded a few tenths at best. Dryness and drought broadly improved by one category across a broad section of southeastern Kansas, and more localized improvement was noted in some of the wetter areas of the higher elevations. Conditions were mostly unchanged across the rest of the High Plains, but a few localized areas worsened enough to increase one category on the map. Extreme drought (D3) continued to affect much of southeastern Colorado and portions of adjacent southwestern South Dakota and western Nebraska. Less than half of normal rainfall was reported over the past 90 days in some areas of west-central and north-central South Dakota, northeastern and southeastern Nebraska, and central through southern Kansas…
Colorado Drought Monitor one week change map ending April 22, 2025.
Moderate to locally heavy rain (generally 1 to 2.5 inches) fell on south-central Montana, but only scattered to isolated moderate amounts approaching an inch were noted elsewhere in the state. In other locations, several tenths of an inch of precipitation fell on and near some of the higher elevations, but most places reported little or none. Despite the moisture observed in part of the state, the eastern and western sections of Montana saw some D0 and D1 expansion, though the more severely affected areas (D2 to D3) were unchanged. Along the southern tier of the region, expansion of the broad-scale severe to extreme drought was noted in parts of New Mexico, southern Utah, and adjacent Arizona. The most intense levels of drought (D3 and D4) now cover a broad area from southeastern California, southern Nevada, and southwestern Utah through much of Arizona, southern and western New Mexico, and the Texas Big Bend into south-central parts of the state…
A few small patches of dryness cropped up in Tennessee and the Lower Mississippi Valley, but widespread, entrenched drought is limited to areas from east-central Texas and central Oklahoma westward, despite heavy precipitation in a narrow band from the Middle Red River Valley into west-central Texas. Significant eastward expansion of dryness and drought was prominent across east-central Texas, with smaller areas of deterioration noted elsewhere. For the past 90 days, precipitation totals have been 4 to 7 inches below normal across a broad area from south-central through east-central Texas (specifically, from Walker, Grimes, and Brazos Counties southwestward through Lavaca County and some adjacent areas)…
Looking Ahead
During April 23-28, 2025, substantial portions of the contiguous United States are expecting at least moderate precipitation (several tenths), with scattered heavy amounts over 2 inches. This includes a swath from northwestern Wyoming across southern Montana and most of the Dakotas, the Upper Mississippi Valley, through much of the Great Lakes and New England. Heavy amounts could be most widespread in the Red River (south) Valley, central Oklahoma, and from the central Plains into Iowa. In addition, most of the central and southern Great Plains should receive several tenths of an inch to near 2 inches, along with the Lower Mississippi Valley, southern and central Appalachians, and the interior Southeast. Elsewhere, several tenths of an inch are expected in the Middle Mississippi Valley, the lower Great Lakes, and from the South Atlantic States into southern New England. In the West, a few tenths to about 1.5 inches of precipitation are forecast for southern Oregon, northern and eastern California, the northern Great Basin, and the swath of higher elevations from central Utah through western Montana and adjacent Idaho. Meanwhile, little or no precipitation is forecast for most of the Four Corners Region, southern sections of the Great Basin and California, southern Texas, the immediate Gulf Coast, most of Florida, and southeastern Georgia. Temperatures are expected to average below normal in the Southwest and California, but above normal over most other portions of the contiguous United States. Daily high temperatures are expected to average 8 to 10 deg. F. above normal over the Northeast and mid-Atlantic Region, parts of the Lower Mississippi Valley and adjacent areas, and many locations in and around South Dakota.
The Climate Prediction Centerโs 6-10 day outlook valid April 29 โ May 3, 2025 favors wetter than normal conditions southeastern Rockies eastward through the Middle and Lower Mississippi Valley, and most of the Eastern States outside eastern New England and southern Florida. Meanwhile, subnormal precipitation is most likely across the northern Plains, central and western Rockies, the Intermountain West, and California. Wet weather is slightly favored in the remaining dry areas in southeastern Alaska and Hawaii. Warm weather should prevail across the contiguous United States outside the southern High Plains and adjacent Rockies. The greatest odds for warmth extend from California and the Great Basin through the northern Rockies and Intermountain West, plus across the lower Mississippi Valley and the Eastern States. Warmth is also significantly favored across Hawaii. Subnormal temperatures are expected to be limited to Alaska.
US Drought Monitor one week change map ending April 22, 2025.
U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo. stopped in Glenwood Springs on the bank of the Colorado River on April 15 for a roundtable with Western Slope water users. Many who spoke were promised federal funding for projects to address environmental and drought issues, which has now been frozen by the Trump administration. Credit: Heather Sackett/Aspen Journalism
During a tour of the Western Slope last week, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., said he was frustrated with the pace of negotiations that could determine how the Colorado River is shared in the future and that the Upper Basin states may be pushing back too hard.
A deal should have been reached last summer, he said.
โColorado should have a right to keep the water that we have been using the way weโve been using it, and I donโt think we should compromise that,โ Hickenlooper said. โBut there are a lot of things we could do to give a little to be part of the solution to the Lower Basin and get to a collaborative solution. Again, Iโm frustrated by our lack of progress.โ
The remarks came during a Q&A with reporters April 15 after a roundtable in Glenwood Springs with Western Slope water managers, many of whom spoke about their projects that were promised funding through the Inflation Reduction Act, which was earmarked for environmental and drought issues. That funding has since been frozen by the Trump administration.
Hickenlooper added that Colorado River management decisions should not be coming from Washington and that the only path forward is an agreement among the seven states that comprise the two basins. Hickenlooper has supported conservation efforts in the Upper Basin (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming), including the System Conservation Pilot Program, which paid water users to cut back in 2023 and 2024.
The seven states that use water from the Colorado River โ Arizona, California and Nevada comprise the Lower Basin โ have just over a month left to agree on how the nationโs two largest reservoirs would be operated and cuts shared in the future before the federal government may decide for them.
โItโs our understanding from Reclamation that they are going to start the impacts analysis in early June, so they are seeking a consensus alternative by the end of May,โ said Chuck Cullom, executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission.
The current guidelines for the management of the Colorado River expire at the end of 2026, and new ones need to be in place by that August, when reservoir operations for the next water year are set. That means the clock is ticking on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process that will develop and adopt new guidelines. Without an agreement between the basins, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will move forward with its own management plan.
โ[Reclamation] is targeting a record of decision in the summer of 2026 so that it is implementable on Oct. 1, 2026, when the next new water year starts,โ Cullom said.
From left, J.B. Hamby, chair of the Colorado River Board of California, Tom Buschatzke, Arizona Department of Water Resources; Becky Mitchell, Colorado representative to the Upper Colorado River Commission. From left, Colorado River negotiator for California JB Hamby, Arizonaโs Tom Buschatzke and Coloradoโs Becky Mitchell. Water managers from all seven Colorado River Basin states have just over a month left to reach a consensus on how the river will be shared in the future.Credit:ย Tom Yulsman/The Water Desk
Although water managers say coming to an agreement that all seven states can live with is better than the federal government imposing its own rules, the Upper Basin and the Lower Basin remain divided. Talks ground to a halt at the end of last year, but they have since resumed, according to Colorado officials.
Lead negotiator for Colorado Becky Mitchell said in a written statement that Colorado is focused on working with the basin states towards a consensus approach for the post-2026 operations of Lake Powell and Lake Mead that would fit within Reclamationโs timeline for the NEPA process.
โThe basin states share common goals: we want to avoid litigation, and we want a sustainable solution for reservoir operations,โ Mitchell said. โIn light of these goals, I see the basin states working towards sustainable, supply-driven operations of Lakes Powell and Mead that are resilient across a range of hydrologic conditions experienced in the basin.โ
In March 2024, each basin submitted competing proposals to federal officials. In January, the bureau released an alternatives analysis, which outlined five potential paths forward. It did not include either basinโs proposal as an option and instead looked at a โbasin hybridโ option, with elements from each basinโs proposal.
A major sticking point that has not yet been resolved is that Lower Basin water managers say the Upper Basin states must share cuts under the driest conditions. Upper Basin officials maintain they already suffer annual shortages of about 1.3 million acre-feet because they are squeezed by climate change and shouldnโt have to share additional cuts because their states have never used the entire 7.5 million-acre-foot apportionment given to them by the Colorado River Compact. Upper Basin officials, however, have offered to voluntarily conserve up to 200,000 acre-feet of water a year.
โA lot of the difference in the two proposals is that the Lower Basin seems much more comfortable running the system at a lower volume of water in the reservoirs, and we view that as leading to crisis management,โ Andy Mueller, general manager of the Glenwood Springs-based Colorado River Water Conservation District, said at the districtโs regular board meeting April 15. โSo if you keep the system in a constant state of crisis, then itโs one emergency after another, which should feel familiar to anybody whoโs been following the Colorado River for the last 20 years, because thatโs what has been happening.โ
This 2023 diagram shows the tubes through which Lake Powell’s fish can pass through to the section of the Colorado River that flows through the Grand Canyon. Credit: USGS and Reclamation 2023
Of the five potential options in the bureauโs analysis, the โfederal authoritiesโ alternative may be the most likely way forward if a consensus between the two basins is not reached. That alternative includes up to 3.5 million acre-feet of cuts in the Lower Basin, no Upper Basin conservation and a focus on upstream reservoir releases to keep Lake Powell full enough to make hydropower at Glen Canyon Dam.
โWe have to remember that creating your own solution for the consensus is always better than allowing somebody else to create it for you, so we are hopeful that will happen,โ Mueller said.
Adding to the urgency of finding agreement on future river operations is a rapidly diminishing snowpack and spring-runoff forecast that could once again drive reservoirs to crisis levels. Hot and dry conditions have pushed snowpack across the Upper Basin down to 74% of average โ a 27% loss in the past two weeks. Conditions may be beginning to resemble 2021 and 2022, when Lake Powell fell to its lowest point ever, threatening the ability to make hydropower and triggering emergency upstream reservoir releases and calls from federal officials for 2 million to 4 million acre-feet in conservation from the states.
โItโs the opposite of good,โ Cullom said of this yearโs runoff forecast. โNow through the first week of May, either weโll get some replenishment or the snowpack will collapse. My moneyโs on collapsing, unfortunately, similar to 2021.โ
Map of the Colorado River drainage basin, created using USGS data. By Shannon1 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
With a critical source of funding for Coloradoโs water projects facing an uncertain future, lawmakers want to task a group of experts with providing recommendations for solutions.ย Severance taxes, which are imposed on nonrenewable energy extraction like oil drilling and coal mining, have long served as a key source of revenue for water-related initiatives. The funding stream, however, is also one of the stateโs most volatile due to extreme swings in the energy market. Over the past two decades, tax revenue hasย gone from skyrocketing one year to plummetingย the next. The issue has compounded in recent years due to state budget writers siphoning some of the money to help balance the stateโs spending plan. In response, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is advancing legislation that would commission a study on the future of severance tax revenue and ways the state can better fund its water needs. Senate Bill 40ย [SB25-040] would create a nine-member task force within the Department of Natural Resources to find answers to the question. The measure is sponsored by Sens. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, and Cleave Simpson, R-Alamosa, as well as Reps. Karen McCormick, D-Longmont, and Matthew Martinez, D-Monte Vista.ย Roberts said the group will consider any and all ideas,ย not just around severance taxes, for how to make Coloradoโs water funding more stable. The task force would then submit a final report in July 2026 to help create potential bills or recommendations for the Joint Budget Committee in future legislative sessions.ย
Located in a remote area of the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument (Arizona), White Pocket area is a hidden treasure of swirling, twisting Navajo sandstone. Photo credit: Department of Interior Facebook page
In what came as no surprise to just about anyone, the Trump administration moved this week to rescind the Bureau of Land Managementโs Conservation & Landscape Health Rule. The Public Lands Rule, as it is commonly known, was implemented last year by the Biden administration to put conservation on a par with other federal land uses, such as energy development, grazing, and mining.
The administration announced the intention to revoke the rule quietly at reginfo.gov rather than, as is its wont, with some inanely named executive order, and it doesnโt give any specifics as to how or under what authority it would eliminate the rule. Yet if Trump were to issue a specific order, it might be titled: โMAKING THE BLM THE BUREAU OF LIVESTOCK AND MINING AGAIN!โ
Yet it is not at all clear what effect the rollback might have on the ground, chiefly because the impacts of the rule, itself, remain unclear since there hasnโt even been time to truly implement it yet.
When the rule was first proposed in 2023, it was met with mixed reactions from the environmental community, some of who saw it as largely ineffective, and harsh rebukes from the livestock and energy industries and their political enablers.
The National Cattlemenโs Beef Association called the rule a โcapitulation to the extremist environmental groups who want to eradicate grazing from the landscape,โ and Sen. John Barrasso, the Wyoming Republican, compared the bureaucrats who wrote the โdecreeโ to the tree-spiking eco-warriors of the 1980s.
Yet it is hardly radical. In essence, the rule simply reiterates and reminds us of what Congress intended when it included the multiple-use mandate in the Federal Land Policy Management Act of 1976, the law that created the modern framework for modern public land oversight (and that endeavored to rid the BLM of the โlivestock and miningโ monicker).
Multiple use, according to the law, is public lands management that โwill best meet the present and future needs of the American peopleโ and allows for โa combination of balanced and diverse resource uses that takes into account the long-term needs of future generations โฆ including โฆ recreation, range, timber, minerals, watershed, wildlife and fish, and natural scenic, scientific and historical values.โ
So, yes, the BLM is required to accommodate recreation, grazing, and mining, but also, must manage the land for the sake of watersheds, wildlife, and natural values โ i.e. conservation.
The rule aims to carry out this mandate by:
directing the agency to prioritize landscape health in all decision making, which is what itโs already supposed to do when assessing grazing allotments;
creating a mechanism for outside entities โ states, tribes, or nonprofits โ to lease public land for restoration projects, much as a rancher or oil and gas company might lease BLM land (but only on parcels that arenโt already leased/claimed for other uses);
allowing firms to lease land for mitigation work to offset impacts from development elsewhere (again, these would not override existing, valid rights);
clarifying the designation process for areas of critical environmental concern, or ACECs, where land managers can add extra regulations to protect cultural or natural resources; and,
directing the agency to incorporate Indigenous knowledge into decision-making, particularly when considering ACECs.
Really it is more of a tool than a rule. That is, it gives third parties and agency state and field office staffers a mechanism to step up conservation on some lands, but does not create any new restrictions that would interfere with other uses. And thereโs simply no way this tool could be used to โeradicateโ grazing or drilling or any other use, as the hyperbolists claim, even if BLM personnel wanted to โ and history shows they do not. In fact, the mitigation leases could be used to facilitate other development by allowing, say, solar or oil and gas companies to โoffsetโ the damage inflicted by utility-scale arrays or drilling projects.
So rescinding the rule really amounts to tossing a brand new tool out the window before it even got used. On the one hand, weโre not necessarily going to miss the tool. But simply discarding it is also totally senseless and a waste that benefits no one, even Trumpโs oil and gas executive buddies. But as weโve pointed out before, Trumpโs haphazard policymaking is more about spite, vindictiveness, and cruelty than common sense. [ed. emphasis mine]
***
Drill rig and Raplee Ridge. Jonathan P. Thompson photo.
Last week, a friend sent me an email with the subject line: โnot a fan of bureaucracy, but this is not good.โย In the message, she had cut and pasted this headline fromย National Parks Traveler:
Yes, it is bad. No, itโs not as bad as the headline makes it sound (though the confusion is understandable).
The story came from a brief Interior Department press release announcing it โwill no longer pursue lengthy analysis for oil and gas leasing decisions in seven states.โ That sure sounds like they are dropping environmental reviews for all oil and gas leases in the West. And plenty of news outlets and social media posters interpreted it as such.
Thatโs not the case. At least not yet.
The press release was referring to the revocation of a specific environmental review for 3,244 oil and gas leases that date as far back as the Obama-era. The leases were issued as the result of 74 lease sale decisions between 2015 and 2020. Environmental groups filed multiple lawsuits, saying the original environmental reviews were inadequate. The courts agreed, remanding the decisions back to the BLM for more thorough reviews that included analysis of greenhouse gas emissions, social cost of carbon, and other impacts. .
Trumpโs Interior Department decided the review went against the administrationโs โenergy dominanceโ agenda and related executive orders, so it cancelled the EIS. According to the press release, the BLM is now โevaluating options for compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act for these oil and gas leasing decisions.โ What that means isnโt clear, even to BLM officials, and the industry is confused as well.
If the agency issues the leases without further review, you can bet the same groups that sued โ and won โ the first time will go for a repeat performance. Meanwhile, environmental analyses are ongoing for future oil and gas lease sales (I checked). Thatโs not to say that they will be adequate, however.
๐บ๏ธ Messing with Maps ๐งญ
The Center for American Progress has put together a nice, but disturbing, interactive map illustrating the myriad ways DOGE is slashing federal spending and harming communities across the nation. You can click on a congressional district and get a list of specific grants that have been revoked and leases that have been cancelled.
๐คฃ๐๐ค๐คช
I went down the oddest wormhole the other day when I stumbled upon the Google reviews for none other than the Cholla coal power plant near Joseph City, Arizona. That an industrial facility even has starred reviews is weird enough, and possibly yet another sign of the apocalypse. But this one, I happened to notice in passing, has 138 reviews with an average four star rating. Obviously I had to check them out.
And let me tell you, they are something. Each and every one is really special. I have no idea which ones are sincere and which ones ironic. All I know is that read together, it is an epic poem. You should look at them all, but for now Iโll share some of my favorites.
The April board meeting of the Upper Arkansas River Water Conservancy District featured a presentation highlighting losses of irrigated farmland in Colorado and the Arkansas River Basin. Colorado Department of Agriculture Water Policy Advisor Robert Sakata presented the information and engaged Conservancy District staff and board members in a discussion about water and local agriculture…
He shared key facts about agriculture in Colorado, which relies heavily on irrigation water. The ag sector:
Contributes $47 billion per year to the state economy.
Stewards 30 million acres of land.
Manages more than 80% of the stateโs water.
Employs 195,000 people.
From 1997 to 2022, Sakata said, Colorado saw a 32.2% decrease in irrigated acreage, a 1,085,000-acre reduction. Arkansas Basin statistics reveal a 39% loss from 1998 to 2020 (Given drought conditions in 2020, an increase in water availability may have resulted in an increase in irrigated lands in more recent years.). Sakata said drought has contributed to some of the losses of irrigated land but acknowledged that cities purchasing irrigation water rights and converting them to municipal use is the biggest factor…
โWe donโt want a repeat of Crowley County,โ he said, referring to Coloradoโs poster child for the damage caused by removing water from irrigated farmland, also known as โbuy and dry.โ
Crowley County borders Pueblo County to the east and once boasted more than 50,000 acres of irrigated farmland that produced alfalfa, barley, tomatoes, strawberries, cantaloupes, corn and enough beets to support a sugar factory in Sugar City. Orchards once covered more than 4,000 acres between Olney Springs and the town of Crowley. Local agriculture flourished, irrigated with local water and West Slope water paid for by Crowley County farmers and supplied by the Twin Lakes Reservoir and Canal Company, headquartered in Crowley County (Ordway). In the 1970s, bad weather, bad luck, technology, farm consolidation, and economics created a perfect storm that irreversibly transformed the county for the worse. Front Range cities ended up with 95 percent ownership of the Twin Lakes Canal and Reservoir Co., โthe heart of the systemโ that brought agriculture-based prosperity to Crowley County. Sakataโs presentation showed that, by 2022, Crowley Countyโs irrigated farmland had dropped to 2,000 acres. Once-fertile farmland is now dusty and grows little more than tumbleweeds, which are known to shut down a local stretch of highway on occasion.
From email from the Salazar Rio Grande del Norte Center (Paul Formisano):
Join Colorado attorneys Bill Paddock and David Robbins as they present โElephant Butte Reservoir, the Rio Grande Compact, and Water Administration in the San Luis Valleyโ on Thursday, April 24, 2025, from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in McDaniel Hall 101 at Adams State University.
Paddock and Robbins have worked for many decades protecting water interests in the San Luis Valley and throughout Colorado. Their perspectives will provide timely insights into the 1938 Rio Grande Compact, how it shapes current river management in the San Luis Valley and the broader river basin, and last yearโs Supreme Court ruling on Texas v. New Mexico and Colorado.
These events will be held in conjunction with the Rio Grande Compact Commission meeting on Friday, April 25, 2025 starting at 9:00 a.m. at the Rio Grande Water Conservation District office in Alamosa. This annual meeting brings together officials from Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas to discuss river policy and management. The meeting is free and open to the public.
For more information about the April 24th events, please contact Salazar Center director Paul Formisano, Ph.D., at pformisano@adams.edu.
Rio Grande and Pecos River basins. Map credit: By Kmusser – Own work, Elevation data from SRTM, drainage basin from GTOPO [1], U.S. stream from the National Atlas [2], all other features from Vector Map., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11218868
A technician with North American Weather Consultants works on a cloud seeding generator in Ogden, Utah on March 20, 2025. Utah has the nation’s largest program, and nearby states are watching to see how it adds to the water supply. Photo credit: Alex Hager/KUNC
Click the link to read the article on the KUNC website (Alex Hager):
April 21, 2025
This story is part of ongoing coverage of the Colorado River, produced by KUNC in Colorado and supported by the Walton Family Foundation. KUNC is solely responsible for its editorial coverage.
Humans have the technology to literally make snow fall from the clouds. In the drought-stricken Southwest, where the Colorado River needs every drop of water it can get, there are calls to use it more.
Utah, home to the nationโs largest cloud seeding program, is at the crossroads of the technologyโs past and future. The state has become a proving ground for cloud seeding in the West, with water managers, private sector investors, and conspiracy theorists keeping a close eye on their progress. Advocates say the technology works, and now they need to figure out exactly how much.
For a practice that has launched millions of dollars in funding, countless snowflakes and a string of death threats, the technology itself is strikingly uncomplicated.
On an overcast day in the foothills near Ogden, Utah, Jared Smith crunched through a thin layer of spring snow toward a white trailer about the size of a dumpster. Inside, he explained, is a solar-charged battery, a tank of the non-toxic chemical compound silver iodide, a tank of propane, and a few valves and switches that control their flow.
โMost complicated things are just a lot of simple things put together,โ Smith said.
He works for North American Weather Consultants. The company is based in the Salt Lake City area and operates about 200 of these setups across Utah.
With one click of a button, the machine whooshes to life. A small orange flame flickers from the tip of a shiny pipe atop the trailer as tiny particles of silver iodide, invisible to the naked eye, drift off into the sky.
Thatโs pretty much it.
From here, those particles drift into passing clouds and cause ice crystals to form. That process, Smith says, is like those videos of people who put bottles of water in the freezer. When they pull them out, the water is below freezing but still liquid. With a quick whack against a hard surface, it quickly turns to ice.
Clouds hang low behind Salt Lake City’s skyline on March 20, 2025. Boosting snow is pivotal for Utah’s water supply, 90% of which starts as snow in the state’s mountains.
Alex Hager/KUNC
Cloud seeding takes below-freezing water inside a cloud and gives it a silver iodide particle to grip onto, at which point it hardens, turns into a snowflake, and falls to the ground.
One thing cloud seeding does not do, Smith said, is create snow out of thin air. It only works when there are already water-laden clouds in the sky.
โIf we could create the weather,โ Smith said. โI’d probably be retired, owning an island in the Bahamas.โ
Cloud-seeding graphic via Science Matters
Tweaking the tech
While the concept of cloud seeding can sound like the stuff of a distant sci-fi future, the technology has been in use since the 1950s. And since then, it has gone largely unchanged.
In Utah, though, North American Weather Consultants and its parent company are tweaking the way the machines are used, and hoping to blaze a new trail towards more efficient and precise cloud seeding. Theyโre doing that in two ways.
For years, if you wanted to turn on one of those silver-iodide-spouting machines, you had to do it in person. Thatโs not always an easy task, since theyโre often placed where theyโll be the most effective โ in remote mountain ranges buried under deep snow.
Now, they can be turned on from a phone, anywhere in the world.
Instead of asking a person to drive, trudge, or snowmobile to a faraway generator โ often hours before a storm starts in the wee hours of the morning โ they can be turned on from a technicianโs home on the other side of the state at exactly the right moment. That means less propane and silver iodide are wasted and the machines can spend more of the winter fully operational.
โYou’re able to operate in the middle of the night, turn it on for an hour, turn it off without bothering anybody,โ Smith said.
Silver iodide particles emerge from the top of a cloud seeding generator in Ogden, Utah on March 20, 2025. The particles cause ice crystals to form in passing clouds and can increase Utah’s snowpack by more than 10% some years. Alex Hager/KUNC
So far, North American Weather Consultants has switched about 100 of its roughly 200 generators to remote operation, and plans to upgrade the remainder over the next few years.
The company is also testing a new way of getting silver iodide particles into clouds with drones. While theyโre still awaiting permits to use them fully, the company plans to take those particles straight to the source by flying drones that can disperse the compound straight into the clouds.
Measuring the impact
Utahโs cloud seeding program is being closely watched by others around the region. Its efforts cover more ground than any other state in the nation, and it has one of the strongest bases of state funding.
For that reason, other water-short states in the Western U.S. are keeping an eye on how much return on investment Utah is getting from a $5 million annual cloud seeding budget and those efficiency-boosting tech upgrades.
Jonathan Jennings, who runs the cloud seeding program at the Utah Department of Natural Resources, said between the new tech, the funding, and backing from the stateโs legislature, โUtah is climbing its way to one of the best programs in the world.โ
โIt’s a lot of pressure,โ he said, โBecause I do realize that our neighboring states are watching how we spend our money and what comes out of it.โ
What has come out of it, so far, is an amount of snow that would raise the eyebrows of most water managers in states gripped by drought and steady demand. Utah says it is able to boost its snowpack by 6-12% each year through cloud seeding. For states that depend on the Colorado River, about 85% of which begins as mountain snow, that is significant.
Jonathan Jennings browses his collection of decades-old books about cloud seeding in his Salt Lake City office on March 20, 2025. The technology has looked largely the same since the 1950s. Alex Hager/KUNC
โIf you’re able to continue to live in the state of Utah without any worry about water,โ Jennings said, โThat’s part of the cloud seeding program helping.โ
Beyond cloud seedingโs ability to create water, itโs generating buzz because of its ability to do so cheaply.
As policymakers try to rein in the Colorado Riverโs supply-demand imbalance, theyโre considering myriad ways to add more water or cut back on use. Water conservation is often the most cost-effective way to do that, and the reason that governments have spent hundreds of millions on programs that pay farmers to use less.
When it comes to adding to the supply, cloud seeding is less expensive than other trendy water technologies like desalination and wastewater recycling. A 2018 study of Utahโs program found that cloud seeding could create an acre-foot of water for less than $3. The Colorado River basinโs largest desalination plant, by comparison, produces the same amount of water for more than $3,000.
โIf we have a really good return on investment,โ Jennings said, โOther states can look at that and say, โWow, we’re under-funding our cloud seeding program, we need to do this.’โ
Investment from out of state
The Colorado River supplies about 40 million people from Wyoming to Mexico. Its water flows to kitchen faucets in cities like Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and their growing suburbs. It supplies a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy that puts produce on supermarket shelves across the nation. But the river is in the grips of a climate change-fueled megadrought going back longer than two decades, and its supplies are dwindling.
Any technology that can add more water to that stretched-thin system is going to turn heads. Itโs the reason that the main water distributor in and around Los Angeles is pouring billions into a system to turn sewage directly into drinking water.
Itโs also the reason that relatively faraway water agencies are investing in Utahโs cloud seeding program in hopes it could help them โ both in the future and today.
The Colorado Riverโs Lower Basin states of California, Arizona, and Nevada send about $1.5 million each year to Utah, Wyoming and Colorado for cloud seeding work, one-third of which goes to Utah.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority, the main supplier for Las Vegas and its suburbs, sent $800,000 to Utahโs cloud seeding program to purchase equipment. Southern Nevada gets about 90% of its supply from Lake Mead, the nationโs largest reservoir, which is primarily filled with melted snow from Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico.
Hoover Dam with Lake Mead in the background December 3, 2024.
The Las Vegas area is a poster child for water conservation. It has spent big money on efficiency programs, making its financial involvement in Utahโs cloud seeding work look like a valuable stamp of approval.
Colby Pellegrino, the Southern Nevada Water Authorityโs deputy general manager of resources, said cloud seeding is unlikely to end the Western water crisis alone.
โI think it’s one arrow in the quiver, one piece of the silver buckshot,โ she said. โBut it’s not going to be the thing that saves us all. We’ve seen enough studies to believe that the costs are low and the benefit we get is enough that it’s worthwhile for us to do.โ
At the same time, the private sector is starting to see the value in cloud seeding too. A California-based startup called Rainmaker recently acquired North American Weather Consultants. Augustus Doricko, the companyโs founder, pointed to a 2017 study called SNOWIE that helped prove cloud seedingโs efficacy, and said the industry has been ripe for expansion since then.
โI think someone just had to do it,โ he said. โI think that this technology has been perceived wrongfully as third wheel crack quackery for decades, and even in the last eight years since SNOWIE, the research community has been spectacular in driving the ball down the field on innovation.โ
Doricko said remote-operated cloud seeding generators have brought down cloud seedingโs logistical complexity by an order of magnitude, and represent a โhuge, huge step in the right direction.โ
Conspiracy theories and death threats
For all of the positive energy around cloud seeding and its future, a small group of detractors is making life difficult for the technologyโs biggest proponents. And this year, it got personal.
Some conspiracy theorists associate cloud seeding with the idea of โchemtrails.โ Itโs a theory that the government is spraying mysterious substances into the air in order to, among other things, control the minds of the people living below. The theory started percolating through internet forums in the 1990s, often concerned with the harmless streaks of water-based vapor and exhaust left behind by large airplanes.
The theory extends to cloud seeding programs and still has ardent believers in 2025. Just ask Jonathan Jennings.
Earlier this year, his personal social media was โcompletely overrun by fanatics.โ They harassed him, publicized his home address and even sent death threats.
โThey took it a step too far,โ Jennings said.
The attacks also extended to other employees of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, including some who had nothing to do with the stateโs cloud seeding program.
Skiers descend Alta Ski Area in Utah on January 12, 2023. Some ski areas see promise in the state’s cloud seeding program as a means of creating more reliable snow on the slopes. Alex Hager/KUNC
The harassment left Jennings frustrated not only because of the personal attacks, but because he has been working on cloud seeding for decades and knows the technology and silver iodide are safe.
โI live here,โ he said, โMy family lives here. All of my friends live here. If we were truly doing something nefarious, I’d be the first to stop that.โ
Jennings does not seem deterred by the attacks, and quoted longtime cloud seeding operator Don Griffith in expressing his commitment to staying the course.
โOnce you get silver iodide in your blood, it’s hard to get it out,โ Jennings said. โThis is a lifelong passion now.โ
โLet’s put some real science and money behind thisโ
Utahโs cloud seeding program and the state governmentโs willingness to fund it, is the envy of its neighbors. In Colorado, where the cloud seeding program operates on a substantially smaller annual budget, the stateโs cloud seeding officials are looking to expand.
โThere’s always advancements to make,โ said Andrew Rickert, who manages Coloradoโs weather modification programs. “I wish we had more funding to throw behind this.โ
Rickert said he sees promise in drone programs like the one Utah is piloting. They could make a significant difference in Colorado, where more than two-thirds of the Colorado River starts as snow.
โLet’s put some real science and money behind this and show people that we can increase our water in a safe and efficient manner,โ he said.
In the meantime, Utah is pressing forward.
โEverybody not only has eyes on Utah,โ Jennings said, โBut they support what we’re doing in hopes that we are widely successful to the point where their states are going to be forced to fund cloud seeding even more than they are.โ
Colorado River officials are debating six options for how to manage the overstressed river after 2026 with the goal of reaching a seven-state agreement by May. Under this yearโs ultra dry water conditions, all of the proposed plans would call for mandatory cuts in the three Lower Basin states with reductions ranging from 1.3 million to 3.2 million acre-feet. The basinโs legal share of the river is 7.5 million acre-feet, although estimates say its actual use is higher.
Under most of the different management options, Colorado and its sister states in the Upper Basin would be asked to voluntarily conserve up to 500,000 acre-feet of water. One acre-foot roughly equals the annual water use of two to three households.
In Arizona, the state that would be hardest-hit, cities, farms and tribes are already making alternative plans, Tom Buschatzke, Arizonaโs Colorado River negotiator, said.
โThe impacts are going to be meaningful,โ Buschatzke, who is also director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, said. โThey are going to have some pain attached to them.โ
Itโs been a tough water year for parts of Colorado and the Colorado River Basin. In Colorado, the snowpack on the Western Slope โ where the Colorado River starts โ ended up with a below average peak this winter.
Across the basin, more than 20 major reservoirs and tributaries can expect a lower-than-usual water supply between April and July, according to the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center.
Lake Powell, one of the immense reservoirs that provides storage for millions of water users in the basin, will likely receive less than 70% of its normal inflows from the Upper Basin region of Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah.
Itโs the kind of water year that starts to worry officials about late-summer irrigation supplies and wildfire risks, according to fire officials, irrigators and water providers.
With this yearโs conditions, Colorado River states would be conserving or cutting back on their water use under any of the six plans dominating current planning discussions: two competing proposals from basin states โ one from the Upper Basin and one from the Lower Basin โ and four options from the federal government.
The fifth federal option, called the โno actionโ alternative, is theoretical and a required part of the federal planning process. It would not sustainably manage the river, officials say.
The final management plan wonโt be decided until later this year or early in 2026.
Colorado snowpack basin-filled map April 20, 2025 via the NRCS.
How would the Upper Basin manage the river?
If the Upper Basinโs proposal were being used to manage the river basin, the Lower Basin states would be reducing their use by 1.5 million acre-feet this year.
The proposal calculates cuts by taking a snapshot every Oct. 1 of the water level at Lake Powell and the amount of water stored in Lake Powell and Lake Mead. This year, Powellโs surface was 3,577 feet above sea level and the combined storage in both reservoirs was 17.8 million acre-feet on Oct. 1, about 36% of their combined capacity, according to Coloradoโs Colorado River team.
Colorado and the other Upper Basin states would take more voluntary action, like conserving water or releasing water from reservoirs further upstream if needed.
Sticking to voluntary conservation would be a win for the Upper Basin, where officials have said they should not be required to cut their use because their water supply is already unpredictable and limited by each yearโs precipitation.
The Upper Basin, located upstream of the basinโs biggest reservoirs, lakes Mead and Powell, relies on smaller reservoirs to try to pace the flow of water from year to year. The Lower Basin depends on the vast storage in lakes Powell and Mead to pace its water supply, which offers more predictability over a longer time span.
What would cuts look like under the Lower Basinโs plan?
Arizona, California, Nevada and Mexico would also cut their use by a total of 1.5 million acre-feet this year if their own proposal were to manage the river basin.
Arizona would cut its use by 760,000 acre-feet; California, by 440,000; and Nevada, 50,000. Lower Basin officials estimated Mexico would have to cut its use by 250,000 acre-feet, but those reductions are being decided in separate negotiations between Mexico and the U.S.
The Upper Basin would not be required to cut its use at all this year under the Lower Basin proposal, Buschatzke said. (If the basinโs water supply was even worse, the Upper Basin would be required to share in the water cuts instead of voluntarily conserving.)
In Arizona, one water project, the Central Arizona Project, would take the brunt of the hit, Buschatzke said.
Central Arizona Project map via Mountain Town News
The 336-mile water delivery system serves cities, like Phoenix and Tucson, and several tribes, including one of the projectโs largest users, the Gila River Indian Community.
Other cities and farms along the Colorado River, like Bullhead City, Lake Havasu City, Kingman and the Cibola Valley Irrigation District, could also take a hit. Thatโs dependent on how Arizona decides to distribute cuts inside the state, Buschatzke said.
โWe will be able to continue to live sustainably within the CAP service area, but itโs going to cost more money,โ he said.
It will mean that creative things, like treating wastewater so it can be used to drink, will have to be developed and deployed, which also means significant infrastructure costs of hundreds of millions of dollars, Buschatzke said.
The state will face tough decisions about how to use water, like choosing between restoring ecosystems along rivers or diverting that water to support other uses.
โWeโve been talking about these things for many, many years, but itโs coming to the fore now where some policy decisions are going to have to be made,โ Buschatzke said.
What would water cuts look like under the federal plans?
The Lower Basin states are ready to face 1.5 million acre-feet in cuts, but some of the federal plans would call for cuts up to 3.2 million acre-feet in a year like 2025, according to an analysis by the Upper Colorado River Commission.
The commission used a federal study of reservoir levels and projected inflows from February to gauge the minimum, maximum and probable water cuts in the Lower Basin. The Lower Basinโs outlook hasnโt changed much since February, Chuck Cullom, the commissionโs executive director, said in early April.
Under water sharing agreements, California can use 4.4 million acre-feet of Colorado River water; Arizona, 2.8 million acre-feet; and Nevada 300,000 acre-feet.
For Colorado and other Upper Basin states, cuts will not be mandatory under the federal plans. Instead, the states would commit to other actions, like voluntary conservation.
Thereโs not enough detail at this point in the negotiations to say exactly how much the Upper Basin would try to conserve based on this winterโs water conditions, Cullom said.
Under a former water conservation pilot project โ the System Conservation Pilot Program โ the Upper Basin has been able to cut its use by a maximum of 37,800 acre-feet. That was in 2023, a very wet year with a much higher snowpack across the Western Slope than in 2025.
โWhat weโve observed is that thereโs greater participation in voluntary programs when thereโs more water in the system. So thatโs what the modeling reflects,โ Cullom said. โThe commitment is that we would develop conservation programs. Theyโre voluntary, so they would be targets to achieve, not requirements.โ
Udall/Overpeck 4-panel Figure Colorado River temperature/precipitation/natural flows with trend. Lake Mead and Lake Powell storage. Updated through Water Year 2024. Credit: Brad Udall
September 2013 flooding via AWRA Colorado Section Symposium
Click the link to read the release on Governor Polis’ website (Olga Robak and Shelby Wieman):
April 21, 2025
Broomfield, Colo. โ Today, Governor Polis and the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Drought and Climate Resilience Office (ADCRO) announced new grant opportunities to support climate resilience projects within the state’s agricultural sector.
โIn Colorado we are committed to mitigating the risk associated with climate change, by investing in innovative clean energy technologies, and providing economic avenues for our farmers and ranchers to continue to provide healthy and fresh produce to all Coloradans for generations to come,โ said Governor Polis.
Climate resilience is the ability to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from hazardous events, trends, or disturbances related to climate. The Climate Resilience Grants are designed to provide crucial financial assistance to farmers and ranchers who have experienced adverse effects due to climate change-induced disasters and are seeking to enhance their resilience against future climate-related challenges.
โDealing with extreme weather, resulting from climate change, and an increasingly dry environment is an everyday challenge for Coloradoโs farmers and ranchers,โ said Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture Kate Greenberg. โThis funding will help producers who have experienced these challenges or are at risk for worsening climate disasters to be better prepared to withstand these events now and into the future.โ
This is the first grant opportunity at CDA focused on helping producers who have experienced a disaster. Specifically, this funding addresses a critical need producers have to ensure their operations are resilient and can better withstand future climate pressures.
Climate change affects all sectors of agriculture, from workforce and the supply chain, to livestock and farm and ranch profitability. This funding will help tackle issues throughout the supply chain and invest in leaders around the state, who can later serve as positive examples or resources for their neighbors. Climate-related disasters are only increasing, and this funding can create demonstrations on what it means to recover in a resilient way. CDA will select a few priority climate impacts to focus on each funding cycle, based on needs around the state. This year, priority projects will be those that address impacts of drought, snow events, and wildfire. In future years, CDA will work with partners to determine priorities based on needs. Other disasters that are exacerbated by climate change include flooding, extreme heat, and severe storms.
Farmers and ranchers are eligible, as are producer-facing organizations, tribes, and local governments. Grant applications must demonstrate how producers will benefit, how the grant deliverables will address future climate disasters, and feasibility of the project. Matching funding is not required, though applicants will receive more points if they use matching funds. The maximum grant award is $30,000.
The online application is available on the ADCRO website. Grant applications are due on May 29.
The ADCRO team will hold an informational webinar on Wednesday, May 7, at 2:00 p.m., and interested participants can register via Zoom or find the registration link on the ADCRO website. The informational session staff will present an overview of the eligibility criteria and application process and answer producer questions.
This initiative represents a significant step forward in supporting Colorado’s agricultural sector in adapting to and mitigating the impacts of climate change and fostering a more resilient and sustainable agricultural landscape for the future. These grants also align with CDAโs strategic priorities, especially Direction Three: Environmental Stewardship and Climate Resilience. These grants will work with other CDA programs to create healthy and resilient farms, ranches, and food supply chains.
The Rio Grande at Isleta Blvd. and Interstate 25 on Sept. 7, 2023. (Photo by Anna Padilla for Source New Mexico)
Click the link to read the article on the Source NM website (Danielle Prokop):
April 16, 2025
The federal judge overseeing the lawsuit between New Mexico, Texas and Colorado over Rio Grande water has ordered a 10-day trial in Philadelphia starting June 9 at the request of all the parties, who are also pursuing mediation talks to resolve the lawsuit in the meantime.
The case, officially called Original No. 141 Texas v. New Mexico and Colorado, began more than a decade ago, sparked by escalating legal disputes around Rio Grande water below Elephant Butte between Texas and New Mexico.
The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the federal government โ which operates a network of dams, and nearly 140 miles of irrigation canals to deliver water to two irrigation districts in the region and Mexico โ to enter as a party to the case in 2018.
In the February status hearings, the federal mediator and attorneys for all three parties told United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Chief Judge D. Brooke Smith, who is overseeing the case, that they were still seeking a resolution to the 12-year old case.
Jeffrey Wechsler, the lead attorney representing New Mexico, said setting a trial date would help mediation talks.
โDeadlines help negotiations rather than hinder them,โ Wechsler said, according to transcripts of the hearing.
The New Mexico Department of Justice and other partiesโ attorneys confirmed to Source NM that mediation talks are ongoing as of April, with another mediation session scheduled for April 22, according to NMDOJ Chief of Staff Lauren Rodriguez. โMeanwhile, the trialโfocused on determining liability and establishing a baseline for apportionment under the compactโremains on schedule,โ she wrote in a statement, โif an agreement is not reached by then.โ
Any potential settlement or recommendation from Smith based on a trial would still need approval from the U.S. Supreme Court, the only court that handles interstate waters disputes.
Last year, U.S. Supreme Court justices struck down a deal proposed by New Mexico, Colorado and Texas to end the litigation in a close 5-4 decision. They sided with objections from the federal government that the statesโ deal unfairly excluded the โunique federal interests,โ and sent the case back to the negotiation table and potentially trial.
The alliances between the state and federal government in the case have dramatically shifted since 2022 as the nature of the dispute changed. Initially, Texas and the federal government agreed that New Mexico pumping below Elephant Butte threatened Rio Grande water for both Texas irrigation and treaty obligations to Mexico.
However, since Colorado, New Mexico and Texas proposed a deal to measure Texasโ water at the state line and include transfers of water between New Mexico and Texas irrigation districts to balance out shortfalls, the federal government is going to have to build its own case.
โTexas and the United States are no longer aligned,โ federal attorney Thomas Snodgrass told Smith in February. He said the federal government was still preparing a case that New Mexico should be held liable for groundwater pumping impacts on the Rio Grande since 1938.
The court already held one part of a two-part trial in October 2021, but the proposed settlement delayed the second part indefinitely.
Weschler told Smith in February that if the case does proceed to trial in June, it will be shorter than the three-months set aside for trial in 2021.
โThe case is prepared for trial. In fact, itโs halfway through trial,โ Weschler said. โWeโve completed our discovery, weโve completed disclosures โ thereโs really not much more to do other than to begin.โ
Rio Grande and Pecos River basins. Map credit: By Kmusser – Own work, Elevation data from SRTM, drainage basin from GTOPO [1], U.S. stream from the National Atlas [2], all other features from Vector Map., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11218868
Army Corps expedites permit process forย Line 5 oil tunnelย that crosses beneath the Great Lakes.
White Houseย fast-tracks 10 mining projectsย in its quest for domestically produced minerals.
FEMAย cancels grant programย meant to prepare communities for weather hazards, while USDA overhaulsย climate-smart agricultureย grant program.
Federal agencies intend to shrink wildlife habitat protections under theย Endangered Species Act.
Judge sets a trial date forย Rio Grandeย lawsuit between New Mexico and Texas.
EPA extends public comment period for health risk assessment ofย PFAS in sewage sludge.
And lastly, the Justice Department seeks to end an agreement to improve sewage infrastructure in Alabama.
โThe DOJ will no longer push โenvironmental justiceโ as viewed through a distorting, DEI lens. President Trump made it clear: Americans deserve a government committed to serving every individual with dignity and respect, and to expending taxpayer resources in accordance with the national interest, not arbitrary criteria.โ โ Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Departmentโs Civil Rights Division, as reported by Inside Climate News.
Dhillon is referring to a Biden-era civil rights agreement with the state of Alabama that sought to improve sewage infrastructure in the stateโs poorest counties, which are also majority Black. The Justice Department is trying to end that agreement.
The agreement directed Alabama agencies to take a number of actions, such as halting referral of home wastewater violations to law enforcement and expanding a public health campaign about the dangers of raw sewage. It included a sewage system assessment and an infrastructure plan for at-risk areas.
By the Numbers
$882 Million: Funding that FEMA is rescinding from the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which was meant to prepare towns for floods, sea level rise, hurricanes, and heat. FEMA is canceling the grant program, Engineering News Record reports.
$3 Billion: Biden-era funding for the Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities that is being retooled by the Trump administration. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it will reevaluate the program it has rebranded as Advancing Markets for Producers to ensure that less money is spent on administrative costs. Expenditures under the previous grants that were incurred through April 13 will be paid out.
Great Lakes satellite photo via Wikipedia.
News Briefs
Line 5 Tunnel Expedited The Army Corps of Engineers determined that the Line 5 tunnel, a proposal to drill an oil pipeline tunnel beneath the strait that separates lakes Michigan and Huron, is being put on the permitting fast track.
The determination is in response to President Donald Trumpโs declaration of a national energy emergency in order to speed up the permitting and construction of fossil fuel infrastructure.
Carrie Fox, an Army Corps spokesperson, told Circle of Blue that the new permit review procedures and timeline are not known right now.
โWe are coordinating with the applicant, who is Enbridge, and also coordinating with the Council on Environmental Quality, who will assist in establishing the review timeline,โ Fox said. โSo until those steps take place, we donโt have a timeline. And so we wonโt know how exactly itโll change yet. We just know right now that the permit has been placed under emergency procedures, but the timeline is to be determined.โ
Enbridge proposes drilling a 3.6-mile tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac. The existing seven-decade-old pipeline sits exposed on the lakebed. It has been hit by ship anchors and a rupture would be calamitous for Great Lakes ecology, tourism, and water supplies.
Six Great Lakes tribes, after learning in March that the project permitting would likely be expedited, withdrew from the federal review process in protest, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
Mining Projects Fast-Tracked The White House put 10 mining projects on the fast-track for regulatory approval, continuing the administrationโs desire for more domestically produced minerals.
Oak Flat, Arizona features groves of Emory oak trees, canyons, and springs. This is sacred land for the San Carlos Apache tribe. Resolution Copper (Rio Tinto subsidiary) lobbied politicians to deliver this National Forest land to the company with the intent to build a destructive copper mine. By SinaguaWiki – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=98967960
The list includes the Resolution Copper mine, in Arizona, which would be located on land that is sacred to the Apache people. Tribe members have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the project, the Arizona Republic reports.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the lead permitting agency for the Resolution project, will update the timeline by May 2.
The other mining projects would produce gold, phosphate, copper, lithium, and other critical minerals.
Redefining the Endangered Species Act Two federal agencies that oversee the Endangered Species Act intend to eliminate the definition of โharmโ because it does not fit with the new administrationโs interpretation of a recent Supreme Court ruling.
The National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had considered harm to mean habitat destruction. No longer, after the Loper Bright decision that the administration reads as curtailing agency authority in this matter.
The only wrongful actions under the ESA would be those that โtakeโ an animal, meaning to capture, injure, or kill it.
The proposed change would apply only to new permits and would not affect existing actions. Public comments are being accepted through May 19 via www.regulations.gov using docket number FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0034.
Studies and Reports
Army Corps Water Storage Agreements The Army Corps could improve its communication with utilities about the fees it charges them for water storage space in its reservoirs, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
The fees are a portion of the cost to operate and maintain the reservoirs. The Corps had 438 water storage agreements nationwide, as of 2023.
Tile Drainage and Transportation The U.S. Geological Survey published a report describing how drainage from farm fields affects downstream flows.
The only wrongful actions under the ESA would be those that โtakeโ an animal, meaning to capture, injure, or kill it.
The proposed change would apply only to new permits and would not affect existing actions. Public comments are being accepted through May 19 via www.regulations.gov using docket number FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0034.
Studies and Reports
Army Corps Water Storage Agreements The Army Corps could improve its communication with utilities about the fees it charges them for water storage space in its reservoirs, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
The fees are a portion of the cost to operate and maintain the reservoirs. The Corps had 438 water storage agreements nationwide, as of 2023.
View of runoff, also called nonpoint source pollution, from a farm field in Iowa during a rain storm. Topsoil as well as farm fertilizers and other potential pollutants run off unprotected farm fields when heavy rains occur. (Credit: Lynn Betts/U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service/Wikimedia Commons)
Tile Drainage and Transportation The U.S. Geological Survey published a report describing how drainage from farm fields affects downstream flows.
Tile drains, common in the Midwest, move water from beneath fields into ditches.
The report was supported by state transportation departments, which want to build roads, bridges, and culverts that can withstand high water flows.
On the Radar
Future Army Corps Projects The Army Corps is seeking proposals from states, tribes, and regional bodies for projects to be considered for future feasibility studies or improvements.
Proposals are due August 15.
PFAS in Sewage Sludge The EPA is extending the public comment period for its draft risk assessment of two PFAS in sewage sludge, also known as biosolids.
Comments are now due August 14. Submit them via http://www.regulations.gov using docket number EPA-HQ-OW-2024-0504.
In the assessment, the agency evaluated risks to people living on or near lands where these biosolids are applied. The analysis, which looked at PFOA and PFOS, also considered risks for people whose primary consumption of water and food comes from these lands. It is not intended to assess risk for the general public.
Rio Grande and Pecos River basins. Map credit: By Kmusser – Own work, Elevation data from SRTM, drainage basin from GTOPO [1], U.S. stream from the National Atlas [2], all other features from Vector Map., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11218868
Rio Grande Lawsuit The lawsuit between Texas and New Mexico over water supply from the Rio Grande will have a 10-day trial starting June 9, Source NM reports.
The parties to the case, which include Colorado and the federal government, are continuing to seek a mediated solution before the trial begins.
Federal Water Tap is a weekly digest spotting trends in U.S. government water policy. To get more water news, follow Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.
