Federal officials have proposed landmark water cuts to conserve Colorado River water. Learn more about the crisis facing the shrinking river in this 2021 feature. ⬇️
, as precipitation continues to decrease and the atmosphere warms. The heat dries the soil and causes plants to transpire more, reducing the runoff efficiency—the fraction of precipitation that reaches the river.
Soon he was immersed in a conflict over the Colorado River that had begun in the 1970s, not long after Glen Canyon Dam was completed. The barrier nearly doubled the storage capacity for water, but it dramatically changed river conditions in the Grand Canyon. It cut off supplies of sediment that had created vast sandbars, for example, and released clear, cold water that allowed introduced species, such as trout, to displace native fish adapted to warm, muddy flows.
A few years later, Bill Bradley, a Democratic senator from New Jersey, visited Middlebury College, where Schmidt was a faculty member. He and three students handed the senator a report they had written on sandbar erosion. Bradley took it with him when, the next month, he visited the canyon to see the problems for himself.
The group has so far released six white papers. Some address technical matters, such as how to improve the models used to develop management policy for reservoirs. Others have scrutinized hot-button proposals, such as prioritizing water storage in Lake Mead and keeping less in Lake Powell. This proposal, called Fill Mead First, could be a first step toward dismantling Glen Canyon Dam and restoring the canyon behind it.
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Federal government proposes landmark water cuts to conserve Colorado River waterFederal officials are proposing a plan to cut water allotments to states dependent on the Colorado River system to combat dwindling water levels on one of the country's most important bodies of water.
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In Colorado River talks, still no agreement about water cutsThe Biden administration released an environmental analysis Tuesday of competing plans for how seven Western states and tribes reliant on the dwindling water supply from the Colorado River should cut their use but declined to publicly take a side on the best option.
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In Colorado River talks, still no agreement about water cutsBiden released an environmental analysis Tuesday of competing plans for how seven Western states and tribes reliant on the dwindling water supply from the Colorado River should cut their use.
Read more »
U.S. presents proposals for major water cuts on Colorado RiverThe U.S. has presented its options for preventing the Colorado River's reservoirs from dropping to critically low levels over the next three years.
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In Colorado River talks, still no agreement about water cutsThe Biden administration released an environmental analysis Tuesday of competing plans for how states and tribes reliant on water supply from the Colorado River should cut their use, but declined to publicly take a side on the best option.
Read more »