In 1956, construction of Glen Canyon Dam began. The dam would generate hydropower, promote recreation and keep silt from filling up Lake Mead, but its hcn.org/articles/glen-canyon…

“The window to solve this without lawyers, judges and generational damage to basin relationships is shrinking faster than Lake Powell,” Haas said kjzz.org/politics/2026-06-11…

Hearing to Conduct Oversight of the Colorado River Basin, including Post-2026 Operations Negotiations June 10, 2026 energy.senate.gov/hearings/2…

"Dollars should go to real on-the-ground solutions that move the needle on supply, not to enrich lawyers," said Amy Haas #ColoradoRiver fox13now.com/news/colorado-r…

Today, American Rivers President and CEO, @TomCKiernan, testified in front of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee around a path forward for the Colorado River Basin. To ensure a future for the Colorado River in the face of the current crisis, both Congress and the Administration must act quickly and boldly. Thank you Chairman @SenMikeLee and @SenatorHeinrich for the opportunity to testify today. 🔗 Watch the full hearing: energy.senate.gov/hearings/2…

Overdue #ColoradoRiver Reservoir Reality update - ICS has gone 1/4 MAF into deficit below critical elevation 1000' in 2024 ROD - The imminent danger for Mead next year is losing the high efficiency turbines at 1035', will @usbr defend them? - AZ aquifers is off, should be 14.1

“The Colorado Sun’s Solutions Journalism project is launching today with the state farm economy because that’s where the water is”. On switching to low water use crops if there is no market. coloradosun.com/2026/06/07/c…

The first day of @CUBoulderGWC conference had some good parts. DeJong for GRIC, Freshwater Trust and Scott Cameron were good. I liked @zak_podmore, he was upbeat. In closing remarks Doug Kenney didn’t say it was a dumpster fire but he did use the term. The second day mostly was. Colorado River governance and ops are in deep trouble. The tribes have a hundred and fifty years of legitimate grievance. Mixing the two became toxic. Nothing useful was said or accomplished, there was plenty of rhetoric designed for maximum injury and damage. The people who talk about these issues every year there are completely out of ideas and initiative. They are whipping horses that went down five years ago for good reasons. Brad Udall said the only smart thing about Demand Management. Make it permanent or you’re just wasting money. Ag communities don’t want permanent. Bold action is needed to actually start solving problems, to fix the math and stop playing the zero sum game. Nothing that happened in Boulder today is likely to result in that. It’s not just the seven states. Everyone is talking past everyone else with some whistling past the graveyard mixed in. It probably wasn’t even that happy.

Scott Cameron, @usbr, at Getches. $100 million on table for UCRC to put water in reservoirs. “Very uncomfortable” overriding prior appropriation in Upper Basin states

Kathryn Sorenson at @CUBoulderGWC “ICS doesn’t conserve water, it just moves demand in time”. We need to conserve water.

Getches Colorado River conference, @bradudall presentation, PowerPoint, lots of papers. He said IRA money spent on temporary DM was a waste, said make it permanent which is contrary to the DM “temporary” mantra vshrt.in/dwQd

MOU to Explore Framework for Interstate Exchanges on Lower Colorado library.cap-az.com/documents…

“This MOU is important because we are agreeing to discuss innovative ways to help each other and secure our future water supplies. When you have good partners, you can find collaborative opportunities that benefit all.” – Brenda Burman knowyourwaternews.com/southw…

“With seasonally dry forests supplying most of the flow to the Colorado River and the Rio Grande River, and to the Californian water supply system as a whole, there is potential for wildfire and restoration thinning to increase the fraction of water from rainfall and snowmelt that reaches rivers and res- ervoirs. Wildfire restoration treatments (Figure 2c) can increase landscape heterogeneity and alter water supply by reducing the total cover and average patch size of forested areas (Boisramé et al. 2017). Less forest cover in smaller patches reduces precipitation losses to canopy interception; delays snowmelt relative to dense (untreated) forest canopies, where warmer air temperatures drive earlier melt; and reduces summer transpiration. The net result can be increases in streamflow of up to 50 mm yr−1 (Boisramé et al. 2019). In contrast, heavy thinning can increase streamflow yields by as much as 200 mm yr−1 (Roche et al. 2018)” escholarship.org/content/qt9…

Managed Wildfire Effects on Forest Resilience and Water in the Sierra Nevada (2017) Boisrame et al “runoff ratio appears to be increasing or stable since 1973, compared to declines in runoff ratio for nearby, unburned watersheds” … meadows are good research.fs.usda.gov/downloa…

“Less water flowing through the Colorado River is expected to reduce hydropower generation at the Hoover Dam. Managers there say they may need to shut off 12 of 17 turbines by fall” 12news.com/article/news/loca…

“another dry year…it is likely that reasonably accessible storage in Lake Powell and LakeMead would be mostly depleted, even if consumptive uses and losses are at or near historic lows. Run-of-the-river operations would shortly ensue.” uttoncenter.unm.edu/resource…