Shannon Mullane

Max Wilson, like water managers around the Colorado River Basin, spent Monday waiting for a new federal report outlining the river's future — and future water cuts.

Floating a plan Western water managers anxiously await feds’ Colorado River plan, due this week

Federal agencies released Friday the first of several highly anticipated reports that will outline how the river will be managed for years to come. But the negotiations don't stop here.

Downstream states are facing big water cuts while Colorado is on call for more conservation in the first of several highly anticipated Colorado River reports that will outline how the river will be managed for years to come. But the negotiations don’t stop here.

Communities in the struggling Colorado River Basin looking for ways to shore up water supplies after decades of drought are turning to new forms of cloud seeding. Is it snake oil or science?

Colorado water officials knew that they and the three other Upper Basin states would likely be asked to conserve Colorado River water under a new plan spanning the next decade. Now they know the target amount: up to 200,000 acre-feet, or 65 billion gallons of savings among the four states.

The river, which supports millions of people across the West, saw its lowest flows in over a decade this week

The federal reservoir is a proxy for water conditions in Colorado and the immense Colorado River reservoir, Lake Powell. This year, it's showing the strain.

Blue Mesa Reservoir, the largest in Colorado and an emergency savings bank for Lake Powell, has been on a crash course with critically low water levels this summer, the kind that halt power production and keep dam managers up at night.

Largest Colorado Reservoirs