{"id":386,"date":"2026-05-10T16:03:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T16:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=386"},"modified":"2026-05-10T16:03:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T16:03:42","slug":"colorado-river-basin-water-crisis-deepens-with-record-low-summer-inflow-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=386","title":{"rendered":"Colorado River Basin water crisis deepens with record low summer inflow"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>This story was first published at KUNC News.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>DENVER<\/strong> | A federal hydrologist appeared to be momentarily at a loss for words Thursday as he described how dire the latest forecast has gotten for how much water will flow through the Colorado River Basin this summer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReally no good news this winter,\u201d Cody Moser with the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center said before taking a long pause on a webinar.<\/p>\n<p>Moser went on to describe how just 800,000 acre-feet of water is projected to flow into Lake Powell, the upper basin\u2019s largest reservoir, through July. That\u2019s 13% of its average supply. It would also be the lowest summer inflow in the reservoir\u2019s history. The projected flows into Powell have dramatically decreased over the last two months.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>The worsening outlook is driven by record-low snowpack around the west and a March heat wave.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe did see a cool down and a wetter April, but it pales in comparison to this five, six month stretch of just record warm and dry weather that we\u2019ve seen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Falling water levels at Lake Powell recently prompted the Interior Department to take emergency measures to prop it up. The goal is to stop it from getting so low that it can no longer produce hydroelectricity for several states in the west. Some forecasts have it reaching that level as soon as this summer.<\/p>\n<p>The rescue plan involves taking a massive amount of water from the Flaming Gorge reservoir on the Wyoming-Utah border upstream and sending it down to Powell.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, there\u2019s been some recent activity in the stalled negotiations involving how the water should be shared and conserved among the seven states depending on it.<\/p>\n<p>The upper basin states have been at an impasse with the lower basin states over how much each basin should have to cut back its use.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Nevada, California and Arizona made a new short-term pitch for how to avert an ongoing crisis in water shortages.<\/p>\n<p>The states said they would conserve as much as an additional one-million acre feet of water per year through 2028.<\/p>\n<p>Colorado\u2019s water negotiator gave the new pitch a tepid response Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Becky Mitchell said in a statement that the proposal is a \u201cgood first step,\u201d but it would be \u201cunsustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile the lower division states have made progress, more is needed to protect the Colorado River system now and into the future,\u201d she said. \u201cThese differences highlight the urgent need to come back together with the help of a mediator.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>This story was made available via the Colorado News Collaborative. Learn more at https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/colabnews.co&amp;source=gmail-imap&amp;ust=1778873883000000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0M90D2pKQpbUfv4SYJOSX9<\/em>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=381\">Colorado lawmakers pass bill allowing civil suits against ICE, federal authorities<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=383\">US fires on and disables 2 more Iranian tankers as tensions rise in the Strait of Hormuz<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=385\">ANNE KEKE: Running while immigrant: Public education, purity politics and the cost of nuance<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This story was first published at KUNC News. DENVER | A federal hydrologist appeared to be momentarily at a loss for words Thursday as he described how dire the latest forecast has gotten for how much water will flow through the Colorado River Basin this summer. \u201cReally no good news this winter,\u201d Cody Moser with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[258],"tags":[498,499,500,501,502,503],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colorado-news","tag-becky-mitchell","tag-california","tag-colorado-news-collaborative","tag-colorado-river-basin","tag-lake-powell","tag-nevada"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Colorado River Basin water crisis deepens with record low summer inflow - Denver Moving Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=386\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Colorado River Basin water crisis deepens with record low summer inflow - Denver Moving Chronicle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This story was first published at KUNC News. DENVER | A federal hydrologist appeared to be momentarily at a loss for words Thursday as he described how dire the latest forecast has gotten for how much water will flow through the Colorado River Basin this summer. \u201cReally no good news this winter,\u201d Cody Moser with [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=386\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Denver Moving Chronicle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-10T16:03:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/053a43f2f8b7c747c5a4c964088f34e7.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=386#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=386\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/860d8c9be7e4969f72ed251197548d9b\"},\"headline\":\"Colorado River Basin water crisis deepens with record low summer inflow\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-10T16:03:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=386\"},\"wordCount\":512,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=386#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/053a43f2f8b7c747c5a4c964088f34e7.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Becky Mitchell\",\"california\",\"Colorado News Collaborative\",\"colorado river basin\",\"lake powell\",\"nevada\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Colorado News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=386#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=386\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=386\",\"name\":\"Colorado River Basin water crisis deepens with record low summer inflow - 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