crrg
The newly released Record of Decision for Colorado River operations and the Operating Guidelines for 2027 and 2028 provide a range of potential reductions in deliveries to the Lower Basin states, starting immediately with a 1.25 MAF shortage.
July 12, 2026 marked the date that the combined storage in Lake Mead and Lake Powell reached a new all time low. Stored water reserves in the two reservoirs are now less than they were before Lake Powell was constructed.The last
We almost always focus on just Lake Powell and Lake Mead, but there are 46 reservoirs in the Colorado River Basin. This new paper by Jack Schmidt and the usual suspects looks at the state and trends of total Basin storage and the “Ratchet
Stored water reserves in the Colorado River system continue to decline. The mismatch between natural supply and overall Basin water use is having the inevitable effect on Basin-wide storage. This paper analyzes the impact on storage in
With the existing Colorado River operating rules set to expire in nine months, the relationships among the Basin States have been the focus of much discussion and analysis, but the agreements between the US and Mexico governing their relationship- In a collection of essays and research summaries, eleven members of the Colorado River Research Group (with eight guest contributors) touch on issues as diverse as plummeting reservoir storage, climate change trends, risk management, agricultural
The Colorado River system is inching closer and closer to the “tripwire” in the 1922 Compact. This is the requirementthat a specifiedvolume of water pass Lee Ferry, the dividing point between the Upper and Lower Basins, every ten- Water consumption in the Colorado River Basin continues to outstrip natural supply, causing steep declines in reservoir storage. This paper by CRRG members Jack Schmidt, John Fleck, Eric Kuhn, and Kathryn Sorensen, in collaboration with Anne