UPDATE: Colorado River Basin Storage Continues Slide Toward System Crash

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 the system’s major reservoirs under two scenarios – a wet year and a dry one.  Another dry year brings the system dangerously close to crashing (i.e., run-of-the-river operations), and a wet year provides only a temporary reprieve.  Without significant reductions in use throughout the Basin, water users will no longer derive any benefit from the extensive and expensively-constructed Colorado River reservoir system, intended to bring reliable water supplies and associated prosperity to the southwestern United States.

Authors: Anne Castle, Jack Schmidt, Eric Kuhn, Kathryn Sorensen, and Katherine Tara

UPDATE: Colorado River Basin Storage Continues Slide Toward System Crash