Colorado has been in a drought since 2020. In the past 20 years, the state experienced a drought in 2002, 2012 and 2018, with 2019 declared drought free.Becky Bolinger, assistant state climatologist, research scientist II at the Colorado State University Colorado Climate Center, said, ìWe are looking a little better than last year in terms of where we left the spring with snowpack. When youíre in drought, you already need above average snowpacks and then more on top of that to recharge the reservoirs; we havenít strung enough years together to fully recover yet.îLike last summer, the monsoon rains have been good, which boosts the water level in the rivers and helps the dry soil, yards and vegetation along the Front Range, she said. ìThe way to understand the total accumulation of flow over an entire year though, is to pick one spot on the Colorado River Basin and then visualize a bucket; the monsoon moisture is just a drop in the bucket that needs to be full when youíre talking about recovery,î Bolinger said.ìThe conversation also has to change. We have to shift our thinking about what is normal; we canít continue this contingency planning and making decisions about the reservoirs based on how much water we got 100 years ago when the compact was created.î Bolinger said it is no longer a contingency plan when it has had to be implemented for the past seven years.Colorado is no stranger to drought; itís a normal part of the climate, but the warming climate is adding fuel to the fire and making it harder to recover, she said. ìWeíll focus on the next snowpack season and see what that brings us; we still have a lot of variability in our state,î Bolinger said.Marielle Cowdin, director of public relations, Colorado River District, said the Tier 2a water restrictions recently implemented by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, refers to the 2007 Interim Guidelines and the 2019 Drought Contingency Plan. She said it guides the bureau to initiate certain actions regarding water management for federal water projects throughout the Colorado River Basin, such as Lake Mead and Powell reservoirs.Cowdin said Tier 2a is not going to do too much in terms of real impact, specifically for the upper basin. ìWhat it does mean for the Colorado River Basin as a whole, is that weíre going to have to find 2 to 4 million-acre-feet of water in the Colorado River system to conserve if weíre going to sustain and keep it functional,î she said.The Colorado River is at a stage where it cannot provide enough water for the current level of usage; demand far exceeds supply, Cowdin said. ìWhen the Colorado River Compact of 1922 was enacted, it was during a time of very wet years and much less population,î she said. The 23-year mega drought that started in the Southwest in 2000 is not so much a drought anymore but a state of things, meaning a hotter, drier future, Cowdin said.The Colorado River Compact states there will be equal apportionment between the Upper and Lower Colorado River Basins, she said. That totals 7.5 million-acre-feet for each basin on paper, but the upper basin has consistently only been using on average 4 to 4.5 million-acre-feet and sending the rest down to fulfill their compact obligations, Cowdin said.The Upper Basin includes Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming; and the Lower Basin includes Arizona, California and Nevada. It also provides water to Mexico.A report that just came out a few weeks ago from the Upper Colorado River Commission states that in the past three years, the upper basin has been decreasing their consumptive use of water, equaling 1 million-acre-feet of water saved; plus, in the last year, usage had been cut down to about 3.5 million-acre-feet of use, she said. ìIn the meantime, the lower basin states have been consistently overusing water for years,î Cowdin said.The Colorado River District is also working with the bureau to acknowledge the amount of water evaporation lost to those reservoirs and during transit while sending water from the reservoirs to the contractors, she said. The bureau does not include the transit and evaporative losses for the lower basin; however, those types of losses are accounted for in the upper basin, Cowdin said. ìAnnually, that looks to be about 1.2-million-acre-feet for the lower basin in overuse,î she said.ìWe are therefore urging the bureau to say, if youíre looking to make a big impact in imposing cuts, if youíre trying to find huge water savings, look at the imbalance between water consumption and water supply that has been so out of whack for so long, plus the faulty accounting that has been contributing to that year after year.îThe interim guidelines are currently under re-negotiation for the 2026 Interim Guidelines, Cowdin said. ìWe are doing what we can at the Colorado River District as part of our mission to advise the state of Colorado in those negotiations to make sure Coloradoís share of water remains protected,î she said.ìColorado Springs gets 80% of their water from the Colorado River system through transmountain diversion,î she said. ìItís going to take all of us to find the conservation measures and implement them where we can and keep putting pressure on the federal entities to take action down in the lower basin.îCowdin said there are many ways Colorado residents can get involved:
- Contact Rebecca Mitchell, head of the Colorado Water Conservation Board and Coloradoís representative on the Upper Colorado River Commission, to make sure there is a strong voice for Colorado.
- Contact Sen. Michael Bennett who has been a big proponent of what can be done to solve this crisis, or any of Coloradoís state and federal representatives and senators.
- Contact oneís local water municipal representatives to learn what can and is being done to conserve water in the area.
| Tier2 explained |
| According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, in mid-August, the U.S.Bureau of Reclamation declared a Tier 2a Shortage for the Colorado River in 2023 as part of its August 24-Month Study, which sets the annual operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead in 2023 ìin light of critically low reservoir conditions.î Over the last two decades, the Bureau has engaged with Colorado River Basin partners regarding various drought response operations.Here are the prescribed Tier 2a Shortage cutbacks for the Colorado River Lower Basin. (There are no recommended cutbacks for the Upper Basin.)Arizona: 592,000-acre-feet, which is about 21% of the state’s annual†apportionmentNevada: 25,000-acre-feet, which is 8% of the state’s annual apportionmentMexico: 104,000-acre-feet, which is about 7% of the country’s annual allotmentCalifornia: There is no required water savings contribution for California in 2023. |
