KUER0%
Colorado River states are back at the table with a pitch to prop up Lake Powell 3%
By Scott Franz0%
3/22/2026, 4:40:50 PM
Topics: Water And The West
Keywords: Water, Colorado River, Drought, U S Department Of The Interior, Lake Powell, Flaming Gorge, Nevada, New Mexico
BS Summary: This article contains 3 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias and Ambiguity (Equivocation), with Appeal to Emotion as the most egregious example at 8.1% saturation with 43 hits. Analysis detected 96 faulty-reasoning hits from 533 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 15.7% and a BS Rank of 3% (21,254 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 97.10% of the article peer group.
Critical negotiations about the future of the Colorado River took a two-week hiatus after the seven states in the basin missed a key Valentine's Day deadline for striking a deal.
As of March, the states are back at the table, said Estevan Lópe, New Mexico's water negotiator.
A short-term pitch from Nevada has been the new starting point for the upper and lower basin states.
"Right now, we're in discussions with the lower basin about a potential short-term agreement," Lopez told New Mexico's Interstate Stream Commission in a March 19 meeting.
Nevada proposes increasing water releases from upper basin reservoirs like Flaming Gorge by at least 500,000 acre feet to help prevent Lake Powell from dropping too low.
The latest forecasts predict Powell could drop enough to stop producing hydropower by December.
In return, lower basin states would agree to cut their water use by 1.25 million acre feet "until system conditions have meaningfully improved."
López said upper basin states had a counterproposal.
"The hydrology right now is incredibly dire," López said.
"So we're beginning for this year, for the remainder of this water year, we're suggesting that there needs to be a release from the upper initial units, most likely Flaming Gorge, since that's the reservoir that's largest and has the most water.
And we are anticipating that there will be a release of half a million acre feet from Flaming Gorge to prop up Lake Powell."
Meanwhile, the Interior Department is reviewing thousands of comments it received on a range of options for how to manage the vital waterway.
The alternatives were published in January and could result in a variety of scenarios, ranging from significant water reductions in lower basin states to creating new incentives for states to conserve water.
And after the states missed two deadlines to reach an agreement, it's becoming increasingly likely the federal government will try to piece together its own plan before the current guidelines expire in the fall.
Water negotiators are also facing a worsening water supply forecast with record-low snowpack across the West.
A map shows how much water is predicted to arrive at certain locations in the Colorado River basin as of a March 1 forecast.
Cody Moser with the federal Colorado Basin River Forecast Center said that just 2.3 million acre feet of Colorado River water is expected to reach Lake Powell through July.
That's about a third of what's considered normal.
"You'll notice it's not a pretty picture here with lots of reds," he said as he presented a color-coded map of how much water is expected to reach certain locations in the river basin.
"That's 50 to 70% of normal April through July runoff.
Those maroon colors are 30 to 50%, and we even have some of those pinks, which indicates less than 30% normal seasonal spring runoff."
An attorney for New Mexico's Interstate Stream Commission said during their meeting that the state expects the Interior Department to identify a preferred option for managing the dwindling river by July.
The current operating guidelines for Lake Powell and Lake Mead expire in the fall.
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