The Colorado River’s Horseshoe Bend. Photo credit: Gert Boers/Unsplash Click the link to read the article on the KJZZ website (Alex Hager). Here’s an excerpt: November 2, 2026 The Arizo…

Podcast Episode · Talk+Water · November 4 · 1h 12m

Lake Powell recently dropped to a historic low, slashing hydropower and the flow of water downstream. As drought deepens, groups are pushing to drain the lake entirely to reveal its long-submerged roc...

Heavy rains pounded Arizona and the Four Corners region in recent weeks, and the effects were nearly impossible to miss. Storms drenched places like Flagstaff, Winslow and Durango, Colorado, surging through rivers, across streets and into homes. Steady rain made for a soggy Halloween in the Phoenix area. Floods made it hard to reach the polls in some parts of Navajo Nation. For all of the ways those rains reshaped life in the Southwest recently, they barely made a dent in the region’s water supply crisis. “Don't want to dim the news too much,” said Nolie Templeton, who monitors Colorado River reservoirs for the Central Arizona Project. “Very happy to have more water in the system, but it is quite literally a drop in the bucket, particularly when we're looking at a 27 year — and counting — drought.” The Central Arizona Project, which brings water from the Colorado River to the Phoenix and Tucson areas, keeps a close eye on upstream conditions. Even after days of soaking rain, those conditions hardly changed. Lake Powell, the nation’s second-largest reservoir, went up 14 feet after the storms. However, its surface still sits about 15 feet lower than it did this time...

Arizona is turning up the heat on a new federal plan for managing the Colorado River. Major cutbacks are coming for the state’s water supply. Top water officials say the cuts are unfair and illegal. Now, they’re taking that argument to court. The Arizona Department of Water Resources filed a motion to intervene in Nevada’s lawsuit against the federal government. The Central Arizona Project — which operates a 336-mile canal system that carries Colorado River Water to the Phoenix and Tucson areas — did the same less than two weeks later. The legal moves represent an escalation in a contentious, yearslong saga over how to respond to increasingly dry conditions along a river that supplies nearly 40 million people across seven Western states. Drought and climate change mean the river carries less water than it used to, but policymakers disagree on who should have to take less water out. Now, Nevada, Arizona and the CAP are taking part of their argument to court. What happens next is not entirely clear. Water law experts say this case will take a while to play out, and reading between the lines of its argument, states are propping the door open for a much...

Lake Powell recently dropped to a historic low, slashing hydropower and the flow of water downstream. As drought deepens, groups are pushing to drain the lake to reveal its long-submerged rock arches...

Lake Powell recently dropped to a historic low, slashing hydropower and the flow of water downstream. As drought deepens, groups are pushing to drain the lake to reveal its long-submerged rock arches...

Another powerhouse in Arizona water, the Central Arizona Project, plans to join a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its plan for dividing up the Colorado River’s water supply with steep cuts for several states. The lawsuit, originally filed by Nevada, takes aim at the federal government for its recently announced management plan for key Colorado River reservoirs, lakes Mead and Powell. The 10-year plan includes heavy, mandatory water cuts for the three Lower Basin states — Arizona, California and Nevada — during dry years. Arizona announced its plans to join the lawsuit this month. One of the central complaints for the downstream water agencies is that the plan calls on upstream states, like Colorado, to voluntarily cut back on water use, but does not require mandatory cuts. The Central Arizona Project, which provides Colorado River water to the Phoenix metropolitan area, asked to join the lawsuit to be able to defend its interests in the basin. No hearing date was set for the case, and a judge had yet to rule on the two motions out of Arizona to join the lawsuit as of Thursday. “The actions by the federal government disregard the Colorado River Compact and other laws...

In Nevada, Attorney General and Democratic candidate for governor Aaron Ford’s campaign has said Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican, “botched negotiations” over the future of the Colorado River. In neighboring Arizona, Rep. Andy Biggs, the Republican Party’s candidate for governor, has said Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs has cost the state millions of gallons of water from the river. And the Trump administration accused Hobbs of “playing politics instead of working toward meaningful solutions” when the state filed a motion to join Nevada in its lawsuit against the federal government’s new framework for managing the river after offering no comment on the initial suit filed by the Republican-led state. None of the candidates’ campaigns responded to requests for comment from Inside Climate News. These barbs come in the waning days before the midterm elections, when six of the seven Colorado River Basin states will cast ballots to elect governors. Most of those races are likely to have results consistent with the states’ current partisan splits. The Democratic nominee in California, Xavier Becerra, is heavily favored to win his race over Republican Steve Hilton. In Colorado, Democrat Phil Weiser, the current attorney general, has a strong lead over Republican Victor Marx, and...

In Nevada, Attorney General and Democratic candidate for governor Aaron Ford’s campaign has said Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican, “botched negotiations” over the future of the Colorado River. In neighboring Arizona, Rep. Andy Biggs, the Republican Party’s candidate for governor, has said Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs has cost the state millions of gallons of water from the river. And the Trump administration accused Hobbs of “playing politics instead of working toward meaningful solutions” when the state filed a motion to join Nevada in its lawsuit against the federal government’s new framework for managing the river after offering no comment on the initial suit filed by the Republican-led state. None of the candidates’ campaigns responded to requests for comment from Inside Climate News. These barbs come in the waning days before the midterm elections, when six of the seven Colorado River Basin states will cast ballots to elect governors. Most of those races are likely to have results consistent with the states’ current partisan splits. The Democratic nominee in California, Xavier Becerra, is heavily favored to win his race over Republican Steve Hilton. In Colorado, Democrat Phil Weiser, the current attorney general, has a strong lead over Republican Victor Marx, and...

SALT LAKE CITY — Some of the state's most powerful and influential people huddled around tables in a conference room on Utah's Capitol Hill for a "war games" exercise over the Colorado River. "I think there’s a lot of real-world implications," Grand County Commissioner Brian Martinez told FOX 13 News following the activity. The Colorado River supplies water to more than 40 million across the American West. There is more demand than there is supply and some studies are warning the entire system is headed for a crash. The states along the river have been unable to reach an agreement to manage it, so the U.S. Department of Interior is running things for now. They've ordered water released from Flaming Gorge to prop up Lake Powell, cuts in the amount of water allocated to some states, demanded more conservation from others and some of their decisions have sparked a lawsuit. Thursday's tabletop exercise put political leaders, experts, advocates and others in a room for hours, working through scenarios for getting more water into the Colorado River Basin in Utah. While the Colorado River's issues are multi-state, Thursday's exercise kept it focused on Utah. "There’s not enough water and so how...

Another powerhouse in Arizona water, the Central Arizona Project, plans to join a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its plan for dividing up the Colorado River’s water supply with steep cuts for several states. The lawsuit, originally filed by Nevada, takes aim at the federal government for its recently announced management plan for key Colorado River reservoirs, lakes Mead and Powell. The 10-year plan includes heavy, mandatory water cuts for the three Lower Basin states — Arizona, California and Nevada — during dry years. Arizona announced its plans to join the lawsuit this month. One of the central complaints for the downstream water agencies is that the plan calls on upstream states, like Colorado, to voluntarily cut back on water use, but does not require mandatory cuts. The Central Arizona Project, which provides Colorado River water to the Phoenix metropolitan area, asked to join the lawsuit to be able to defend its interests in the basin. No hearing date was set for the case, and a judge had yet to rule on the two motions out of Arizona to join the lawsuit as of Thursday. “The actions by the federal government disregard the Colorado River Compact and other laws...