water levels

Colorado River activists are calling on the federal government to rework the plumbing on one of its biggest dams. And President Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday that he says will make it easier for people to travel to other states for abortions.

A new plan will release water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir, a measure designed to boost dropping levels in Lake Powell. The releases come as a response to record lows, which are on course to drop too low to generate hydropower at the Glen Canyon dam. The Drought Response Operations Plan brings together the four states of the upper Colorado River basin – Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico – and the federal government.

The U.S. Department of the Interior is considering emergency cutbacks to water supplies for Arizona, California, and Nevada. And the Colorado Health Foundation has awarded a grant to the Ute Mountain Ute tribe to provide high-speed internet to tribal members.

A report released Monday says Lake Powell has lost four percent of its storage capacity since 1986. And federal funding for a central sewer system in Rico was approved by Congress, although there are concerns the town won’t meet the deadline to use them.

Last week’s winter storm brought snowpack levels up to 85% of the seasonal median in the Dolores River Basin and the storm this weekend could bring levels up to 100% of the median. And law enforcement has detected a “particularly deadly” batch of the synthetic opioid Fentanyl circulating in San Miguel county.

The federal government declared an official water shortage on the Colorado River for the first time ever, and that means cuts in the water supply; Montezuma County has released a resource guide for residents who are struggling to pay rent or mortgage payments during the pandemic.

The Colorado River through the national park holds lessons for managing an essential and diminishing resource in a rapidly warming climate.

The nation’s second largest reservoir, Lake Powell, is now at its lowest point since it first filled in the 1960s. From KUNC, Luke Runyon reports.The…

Emergency water releases from reservoirs upstream of Lake Powell are underway to preserve the nation’s second-largest reservoir’s ability to generate hydroelectric power.

The government is expected to issue its first water shortage declaration for the river, which supplies more than 40 million people. That will mean hardships for farms, recreation and Indian tribes.