Morgan

Water Science Centers and Regions A list of all of the USGS Water Resources Mission Area Science Centers and regions, hubs for critical water science funded by Federal, State, and other partners and stakeholders located throughout the...

Want to see something really insane? Look at this website for USGS's Water Science Centers and Regions and see how many of their directors have "Former Employee" after their names. Everyone's gone! My best friend from grad school was one of them. Who's monitoring floods, droughts, etc?

New Colorado River proposal breaks over year long negotiation deadlock Colorado River states appear to be coalescing around the early makings of a new plan to share water in a way that accounts for climate change.

A refreshing breakthrough on #ColoradoRiver negotiations: let's manage the river based on the actual water it has, not what was legally promised 100 years ago. (The fact that this idea is simultaneously "innovative" and...obvious...says a lot about western water policy) www.upr.org/mountain-wes...

Don’t tell me democrats are powerless - my 7 lb cat once stole the rabies syringe from the vet and escaped from 3 vet techs and the vet while waving the needle wildly in the direction of anyone who came near. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

2027 is shaping up to be a big year for the Colorado River with the potential for numerous firsts. Not sure we want to find out what those firsts lead to.

Lake Powell, the nation's second largest reservoir, is on track to have its second worst runoff season in the past 6 years. Flows are currently projected to be 49% of the long-term average.

What India’s river moves mean for South Asian water cooperation India’s suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty marks a turning point in transboundary water diplomacy with Pakistan – and could destabilise South Asian regional cooperation

Speaking with 'Dialogue Earth' about India's suspension of the Indus Water Treaty, I tell how using transboundary rivers as tools of coercion will affect India's credibility among neighbouring countries in South Asia. dialogue.earth/en/water/wha...

Like bellbottoms, I’m just glad I managed to hold onto old cars with knobs and buttons long enough to bypass the damn touch screens.

Executive Director, CMU Ruth Powell Hutchins Water Center See job ad.

Please share with the water wonks in your life!

Colorado Mesa University is hiring an Executive Director for the Ruth Powell Hutchins Water Center. For more information and to apply, go to tinyurl.com/4v4x9vvs

FYI: Rapid snowmelt happening in Upper Colorado R Basin this wk...w/most of it heading on to Mead instead of staying in basin (thus, no rise in within-basin reservoirs or Powell).

cnap.ucsd.edu/water-storag...

For Sierra (a bit further back re: melt status), see

cw3e.ucsd.edu/water_storag...

Water compact deliveries based on volumes instead of hydrology were a terrible idea 100+ years ago. But upholding those requirements now is an even worse idea.

I’ve been managing my health by staying off social media, but jumped back to share some stuff my colleagues and I have been writing about the Colorado River that feels important. A thread….

Yeesh.
www.politico.com/news/2025/03...

New on my Substack: I talked with UNM's @jfleck.bsky.social about why Colorado River negotiations are at an impasse and what happens when the federal government becomes an unreliable partner. www.westernwaternotes.com/p/q-and-a-th...

After Thirty Years, Dave Kanzer to Retire - Colorado River District 2024 Dave Kanzer, Director of Science and Interstate Matters, to retire from the Colorado River District after thirty years of service.

Congrats to DK! I hope him the best in retirement, but will say the Colorado River Basin will miss him. Maybe he'll pull an Eric Kuhn and won't go far?? And we can still benefit from his wealth of knowledge??

www.coloradoriverdistrict.org/after-thirty...

The basin will feel the impacts of federal cuts/freezes for many years to come through depressed rural economies, degraded ecology and positive feedback loops resulting in decreased runoff.

Switching to perennial drought tolerant crops, improving soil health, etc. take time, water, and money. If we wait until the cuts happen, it will be too late. The longer we wait, the more difficult, if not impossible, this adaptation becomes.

There simply isn’t the money at the state level for drought adaptation to be done in an ecologically and economically sustainable manner.

Graph of snowpack in the San Miguel-Dolores-Animas-San Juan basin as of February 7, 2025. Snowpack is at 65% of median for this date over the last 30 years.

I understand there are more pressing issues at the moment, but gutting domestic programs is going to have long term impacts in the CO River Basin. Drought adaptation is expensive and essential. It takes time and investment.

Norm Nevills' Glen Canyon thirst trap 1938

Water for Navajo is the latest victim of Colorado River Basin governance dysfunction Winters rights are no match for the current dysfunction of Colorado River Basin governance. Shannon Mullane at the Colorado Sun has been on this, and last week had some useful details: Advocates of…

Collateral damage from the current dysfunction in the Colorado River Basin governance community: www.inkstain.net/2025/01/wate...

The argument is more that the issue is indeed extremely nuanced and complicated, and not as simple as “stop growing things.” When economic devastation to rural communities is on the table, combined with reimagining the entire water, food and land management system, “it’s complicated” is accurate.

I’m also not sure where else America would get its winter vegetables? Admittedly, not the primary agricultural product produced by water in the west (alfalfa), but one much of the country is dependent on.

health which reduces the water holding capacity of land, increasing catastrophic runoff and the impacts of drought. Obviously the main barriers are the legal and economic frameworks through which water in the west operates, but there are other nuances as well.

Well, yes. But also, if you just whole scale stop producing cattle feed without the time, money, and water consumptive process of reestablishing native, drought tolerant vegetation; you end up with large scale dust events that contribute to dust on snow and decreased runoff. You also decrease soil

YouTube video by Returning Rapids Project Methane Mud Volcano

Methane is an issue even in desert reservoirs. Methane mud volcanoes are emerging in the exposed sediments of Lake Powell. youtu.be/srMlFtNEZu4?...

Life After Deadpool with Zak Podmore The voice of stewardship in the American West

Fun podcast with @zakpodmore.bsky.social
onland.westernlandowners.org/2024/podcast...

How Colorado’s snowpack is stacking up so far this season.

After a great November (salmon-colored), it’s been a lousy December (beige) for snow in the high country.

nwcc-apps.sc.egov.usda.gov/awdb/basin-p...

Colorado has big dreams to use more water from the Colorado River. But will planned reservoirs ever be built? The planned water development represents the hopes and dreams for the future growth of the Colorado River’s Upper Basin states — Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico.

At last week's meet up of Colorado River negotiators, there was a lot of talk about the "hopes and dreams" for future Upper Basin water development.

Reporter Heather Sackett (Aspen Journalism) and I spent the last few months trying to put numbers behind those dreams: waterdesk.org/2024/12/colo...

None of this is new. Things in the basin remain pretty much consistent. Same issues and same status. New info and developments included progress on Tribal issues and more information on the proposed alternatives.

As Eric Kuhn said, the issue remains: we have to cut 1.5maf plus the volume of tribal water rights of agricultural water use.