On The Colorado - Articles

THE PUBLICATION

No Water Available: Commonsense recommendations to limit Colorado River Conflict. By Great Basin Water Network, et al.; 2025.

NEWS

Independent references in the news

Analysis of Colorado River Basin Storage Suggests Need For Immediate Action. Schmidt et al.; 2025
A Bold Plan for Saving the Colorado River. Squillace; 2023.

RELEVANT SCIENCE SINCE 1956
Projecting the advance of aridification into the 21st century

1956 - Revelle and Suess: Carbon Dioxide Exchange Between Atmosphere and Ocean and the Question of an Increase of Atmospheric CO2 during the Past Decades.
1983 - Revelle and Waggoner: Effects of a Carbon Dioxide-Induced Climatic Change on Water Supplies in the Western United States
2008 - Burnett and Pierce: When will Lake Merad go dry?
2010 - Daniel Cayan et al: Future dryness in the southwest US and the hydrology of the early 21st Century drought.

Groundwater depletion

THE REFERENCES FOR "NO WATER AVAILABLE"

1. Udall, Bradley and Overpeck, Jonathan. The Twenty-First Century Colorado Hot Drought and Implications For The Future. Water Resources Research. Volume 53, Issue 3. March 2017.2
2. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Species Status Assessment for the Colorado River Pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus lucius). Version 1.1. Page 29. April 2022. https://ecos.fws.gov/ServCat/DownloadFile/219586
3. Bureau of Reclamation, Colorado River Post-2026 Operations, Web Page, Last Visited on January 23, 2025. https://www.usbr.gov/ColoradoRiverBasin/post2026/index.html
4. Abdelmohsen, Karem, Famiglietti, James S., et al. Declining Freshwater Availability in the Colorado River Basin Threatens Sustainability of Its Critical Groundwater Supplies. Geophysical Research Letters. Volume 52. Issue 10. May 27, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL115593
5. Supra at 2
6. Sackett, Heather. Colorado has big dreams of storing millions of acre-feet of water — but will planned reser- voirs ever be built? Aspen Journalism. December 16, 2024. https://www.aspentimes.com/news/aspen-journalism-colorado-has-big-dreams-of-using-more-water-from-the-colorado-river/
7. Corona, Austin. How Much Water Flows Down the Colorado River. The Right Answer Is More Important Than Ever. Arizona Republic. April 1, 2025. https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2025/04/01/upper-colorado-riv-
er-states-are-measuring-their-water-use-better/82696955007/
8. Castle, Anne, et al. White Paper: Essential Pillars for the Post-2026 Colorado River Guidelines. April 25, 2025. https://www.colorado.edu/center/gwc/sites/default/files/2025-04/2025-04-25%20Principles%20%28003%29.pdf
9. Colorado River Upper Division State Representatives. Letter. Additional Information Regarding The Upper Division States’ Alternative. March 11, 2024. http://www.ucrcommission.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Additional-Information_UDS-Post-2026-Alternative_Final.pdf
10. Upper Colorado River Commission. Resolution of the Upper Colorado River Commission: Updated 2016 Upper Division States Depletion Demand Schedule. Passed on June 14, 2022. http://www.ucrcommission.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/UCRC-and-Upper-Division-States-Combined-Resolution-and-Updated-2016-Depletion-Demand-Schedule-June-14-2022-1.pdf
11. See Colorado Constitution Article 16 Section VI and C.R.S. Title 37
12. See N.M.A.C. Title 19, Chapter 26, Part 2, Section 12
13. See U.C. Title 73, Chapter 3, Section 8
14. See W.S. Title 41, Chapter 4, Section 503
15. Fleck, John and Kuhn, Eric. An Historical Perspective on Accounting for Evaporation and System Losses in the Lower Colorado River Basin. June 2023. http://www.riversimulator.org/Resources/Hydrology/ AnHistoricalPerspectiveOnTheAccountingForEvaporationAndSystemLossesInTheLowerColoradoRiverBasin2023Kuhn.pdf
16. Bruce, B.W., Prairie, J.R., Maupin, M.A., Dodds, J.R., Eckhardt, D.W., Ivahnenko, T.I., Matuska, P.J., Evenson, E.J., and Harrison, A.D. U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2018–5021: Comparison of U.S. Geological Survey and Bureau of Reclamation water-use reporting in the Colorado River Basin. September 2019. https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20185021
17. Upper Colorado River Basin Compact. https://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/g1000/pdfiles/ucbsnact.pdf
18. Bureau of Reclamation. Upper Colorado River Basin Consumptive Uses and Losses Report 2016–2020. https://www.usbr.gov/uc/envdocs/plans.html
19. Upper Colorado River Commission. Resolution. Consumptive Use Measurement in the Upper Colorado River Basin. June 14, 2022. http://www.ucrcommission.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/2022-06-14-Resolution-Consumptive-Use-Measurement.pdf
20. Bureau of Reclamation, Boulder Canyon Operations Office. Implementation Effects of New Evaporation Coefficients for Lake Mead and Lake Mohave. February 2022. https://www.usbr.gov/lc/riverops/evaporation/Mead-Mohave%20Evap%20Study.pdf
21. Richter, B.D., Lamsal, G., Marston, L. et al. New water accounting reveals why the Colorado River no longer reaches the sea. Commun Earth Environ 5, 134. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01291-0
22. Lewis, Linsey. New tiered water rates approved for the Las Vegas valley affecting high water users. 8 News Now. October 4, 2022. https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/new-tiered-water-rates-approved-for-the-las-vegas-valley-affecting-high-water-users/
23. Southern Nevada Water Authority. Moratorium on Evaporative Cooling. Last Visited February 8, 2025. https://www.snwa.com/conservation/understand-laws-ordinances/index.html
24. Richter, B.D., Lamsal, G., Marston, L. et al. New water accounting reveals why the Colorado River no longer reaches the sea. Commun Earth Environ 5, 134. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01291-0
25. Eddington, Mark. This Southwestern Utah County Plans to Turn Wastewater Into Drinking Water. The Salt Lake Tribune. February 27, 2025. https://www.sltrib.com/news/2025/02/27/washington-countys-plan-turn/
26. Stern, Charles V. Bureau of Reclamation FY2025 Budget and Appropriation. Congressional Research Services. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IF12661
27. Great Basin Water Network. Municipal Water Conservation Handbook. August 2023. https://greatbasinwater.org/municipal-water-conservation-handbook/
28. Veeder, William H. Winters Doctrine Rights Keystone of National Programs for Western Land and Water Conservation and Utilization, Montana Law Review. January 1965. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/mlr/vol26/iss2/1
28. Veeder, William H. Winters Doctrine Rights Keystone of National Programs for Western Land and Water Conservation and Utilization, Montana Law Review. January 1965. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/mlr/vol26/iss2/1
29. Colorado River Water and Tribes Initiative. About Us: Context. Last Visited February 8, 2025. https://www.waterandtribes.org/about-us
30. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Reclassification of the Humpback Chub From Endangered to Threatened With a Section 4(d) Rule. 86 Fed Reg 57588. (Codified at 50 CFR Part 17).
31. Schmidt, John C., Yackuic, Charles B., Kuhn, Eric. The Colorado River water crisis: Its origin and the future. WIREs Water. June 17, 2023.
32. Glen Canyon Institute, Utah Rivers Council, Great Basin Water Network, et al. Antique Plumbing and Leadership Postponed: How the Glen Canyon Dam’s Archaic Design Threatens The Colorado River Water Supply. August 2022. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a46b200bff2007bcca6fcf4/t/62e9d5e66e6ec602d2575e30/1659491822127/Antique+Plumbing+at+Glen+Canyon+Dam.pdf
33. Bureau of Reclamation. Technical Decision Memorandum: Establishment of Interim Operating Guidelines For Glen Canyon Dam During Low-Reservoir Levels At Lake Powell. March 26, 2024. https://docs.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=https://greatbasinwater.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Glen-Canyon-Dam-outlet-tube-memo-BOR-report-April-24.pdf
34. James, Ian. As the Colorado River Shrinks, Federal Officials Consider Overhauling Glen Canyon Dam. Los Angeles Times. February 18, 2023. https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-02-18/federal-officials-consider-overhauling-glen-canyon-dam
35. Rumsey, C.A. et al. Regional Scale Estimates of Baseflow and Factors Influencing Baseflow in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies. 2015. https://water.usgs.gov/watercensus/file/Rumsey-et-al_2015.pdf
36. Castle, Stephanie L., Thomas, Brian F. et al. Groundwater depletion during drought threatens future water security of the Colorado River Basin. Geophysical Research Letters. Aug 2014. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4373164/
37. Supra at 4. See Figure 2 in report.
38. See Nevada Supreme Court opinion in Sullivan v. Lincoln County Water District. https://law.justia.com/cases/nevada/supreme-court/2024/84739.htm

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