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Colorado Faces Supreme Court Fight Over South Platte Water Rights
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Colorado Faces Supreme Court Fight Over South Platte Water Rights

By: Jeff Rice | The Colorado Sun Attorney General Phil Weiser is ready for the fight over water flowing across the border: “Nebraska’s burden to prove claims is incredibly high.” The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Nebraska’s lawsuit against Colorado over a proposed canal that would take water out of the South Platte River in Colorado and send it to a reservoir in Nebraska. Nebraska claims Colorado is deliberately obstructing efforts to build the ditch, known as the Perkins Canal, even though everyone agrees Nebraska has the right to do so. The canal is necessary, Nebraska says, because Colorado isn’t sending enough water into Nebraska. The Perkins Canal would divert water from the South Platte River near Ovid to a storage site somewhere in Nebraska. The...
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Before blaming alfalfa for Colorado’s water woes, consider what the headlines leave out
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Before blaming alfalfa for Colorado’s water woes, consider what the headlines leave out

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Alfalfa and water use: comparing apples to oranges There is a media narrative out there about alfalfa which, though not entirely wrong, is desperately in need of context; this being another example of why reporters parachuting into rural areas of the state to report on things prior to running back to the Front Range is doing no one any good (rural or urban). The claim was recently repeated in a Sun article, along with its natural follow-on. Quoting from the first link below: “It takes 44 inches of water a year in Burlington to grow alfalfa. Only about 10 inches of water drops on Burlington in a year. It only takes 15 inches of water to grow a healthy crop of black-eyed peas in Burlington. So. The numbers ...
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Trump Administration Releases Key Funds For Colorado River Water Project
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Approved, State, The Denver Gazette

Trump Administration Releases Key Funds For Colorado River Water Project

By Marianne Goodland | The Denver Gazette The Trump administration on Friday released $40 million, clearing the way for a water district and its partners to finish funding the purchase of some of the state’s most senior Colorado River water rights, Gov. Jared Polis announced. Federal funding for the Shoshone water rights owned by Public Service Company, a division of Xcel Energy, was approved by the Biden administration in 2024 through the Inflation Reduction Act. An executive order issued shortly after President Donald Trump took office in January 2025 put that funding on hold. With the $40 million in federal funding on its way, the project’s funding now stands at $97 million, close enough to its $99 million total cost that the Colorado River Conservation District can move int...
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Coastal desalination could save Colorado’s water. The pushback? Cost
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Coastal desalination could save Colorado’s water. The pushback? Cost

By Michael J Badagliacco, “MJB” | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado’s water rights must never become a bargaining chip.  The 1922 Colorado River Compact apportioned 7.5 million acre-feet annually to the Upper Basin, including Colorado, and the same amount to the Lower Basin states. The 1928 Boulder Canyon Project Act fixed specific Lower Basin shares: California 4.4 million acre-feet, Arizona 2.8 million acre-feet, and Nevada 0.3 million acre-feet. The 1948 Upper Colorado River Basin Compact later assigned Colorado roughly 51.75% of the Upper Basin’s share, or about 3.86 million acre-feet. The 1964 Arizona v. California Supreme Court decree confirmed federal oversight of these mainstream allocations while highlighting the need for supply solutions beyond repeate...
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CMU student leaders press governor hopefuls on taxes, energy and rural control
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

CMU student leaders press governor hopefuls on taxes, energy and rural control

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice TPUSA chapter leaders from Colorado Mesa University opened Monday night’s gubernatorial forum with a question more typical of a legislative hearing than a campaign rally. Instead of easing into the forum, they went straight to TABOR. “How would you approach balancing Colorado’s budget while complying with TABOR? And what are your priorities when it comes to taxes, refunds and state spending during periods of surplus and economic stagnation?” Six candidates were at the forum that evening. Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer told the crowd she almost didn’t make the trip, saying she rearranged her Joint Budget Committee schedule and decided to “head on over to Grand Junction” when the weather held. Rep. Scott Bottoms of Colorado Springs share...
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Feds Unveil Colorado River Options as States Miss Agreement Deadline
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Feds Unveil Colorado River Options as States Miss Agreement Deadline

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics Two months after the seven states of the Colorado River basin failed to reach consensus on managing the waterway, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation issued a set of proposed alternatives. The alternatives are familiar concepts, including “no action” — an unlikely scenario — and certain levels of coordination, including voluntary measures, among the states. One option is driven by the historical, natural flow at one of the reservoirs. Current operating guidelines for the river that supplies water to seven states, 40 million people, 30 tribes and 5.5 million acres of agricultural land will expire at the end of 2026.  On Jan. 9, the Bureau issued a draft Environmental Impact Statement that evaluates five operational alterna...
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Feds own the dams, but who owns the water?
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, National

Feds own the dams, but who owns the water?

By Greg Walcher | Commentary, GregWalcher.com A couple years ago, I criticized the Bureau of Reclamation for draining Blue Mesa Reservoir without bothering to tell the people in Gunnison whose livelihood is affected. I got a little push-back for saying that while the Bureau owned the dam, it did not own the water. A close friend and water lawyer told me to be careful, that the Bureau does in fact own some water rights in the Gunnison River. I admit the legal nuance but still insist it is a debatable point. That’s because Congress never funded such water projects for the purpose of the federal government owning and controlling the West’s water. The Colorado River Storage Project Act of 1956 led to construction of Glen Canyon, Flaming Gorge, and Navajo Dams, as well as ...
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Lower Arkansas Valley Farmers Sound Alarm Over Urban Water Demand
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KRDO.COM, Approved, Local

Lower Arkansas Valley Farmers Sound Alarm Over Urban Water Demand

By Bart Bedsole | KRDO OTERO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - There is a battle going on right now across the west between cities and farming communities... over water.  Southeastern Colorado has become a target lately of large thirsty cities, but now many of the folks who live there are voicing concerns about not only the future of their farms but the future of America’s food supply.  The Hanagan family in Otero County is among them.  Kim runs the family’s market along Highway 50 most of the time, where her sons frequently arrive with new shipments, while Eric Hanagan manages the farm a few miles south of Swink. He is the fifth generation in his family to farm their land, which now includes about a thousand acres. "We were founded about 1909," he says, “It...
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Western Slope Wins State Support In Long Fight To Preserve Shoshone Water Control
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Western Slope Wins State Support In Long Fight To Preserve Shoshone Water Control

By: Shannon Mullane | The Colorado Sun The Colorado Water Conservation Board approved a proposal to use two powerful Colorado River water rights to help the environment. GOLDEN — In a momentous decision for the Western Slope, state water officials unanimously approved a controversial proposal to use two coveted Colorado River water rights to help the river itself.  Members of the Colorado Water Conservation Board voted to accept water rights tied to Shoshone Power Plant into its Instream Flow Program, which aims to keep water in streams to help the environment. The decision Wednesday is a historic step forward in western Colorado’s yearslong effort to secure the $99 million rights permanently. But some Front Range water providers pushed back during the hearings, worried ...
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Seven States Fail to Agree on Colorado River Plan Before Key Deadline
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CBS Colorado, Approved, State

Seven States Fail to Agree on Colorado River Plan Before Key Deadline

By: Dillon Thomas | CBS Colorado The future of the Colorado River, and its use by seven states that rely on it, is still up in the air after negotiators failed to meet a deadline set by the federal government. The Upper Basin and Lower Basin states were asked to have a plan set for the future of the river by Tuesday night, as the current plans are set to expire by the end of 2026. The river is heavily utilized by the Lower Basin states, which make up Arizona, California and Nevada. Otherwise largely deserts, the Colorado River allows for both communities and agriculture to thrive in those states. The Upper Basin, consisting of Colorado, Utah and New Mexico, comparatively rely less heavily on the Colorado River even as populations continue to rise in those states. "We made an ag...
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