Overview

• A coalition including the Great Basin Water Network, Utah Rivers Council, Living Rivers-Colorado Riverkeeper and the Glen Canyon Institute released a report urging immediate, basinwide reductions and greater transparency in negotiations.
• The report asks Upper Basin states to pause roughly 30 proposed projects that could consume more than 1 million acre-feet and to present public plans for cutting use.
• Authors criticize closed-door talks and press for standardized accounting of evaporation and other losses to inform concepts under discussion, including releases based on a three-year average of natural flows at Lees Ferry.
• Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has set a mid-November deadline for state planning concepts and a February deadline for a final plan, signaling federal action if talks remain stalled.
• Upper Basin officials counter that drought already forces average annual reductions of about 1.3 million acre-feet, as infrastructure warnings focus attention on Glen Canyon Dam plumbing that could disrupt Lower Basin deliveries if levels fall further.