Glen Canyon Dam

A pontoon boat is tied up at the shore of a recently-revealed beach in one of Lake Powell's side canyons on April 10, 2023. The evening sunlight casts a reflection of the canyons "bathtub rings" on the still water.

Exploring Glen Canyon is an ‘amazing silver lining’ to Lake Powell’s low water

Alex Hager

The nation's second-largest reservoir has been shrinking as drought and steady demand strain the Colorado River. With Lake Powell's low water levels, canyons and ecosystems are emerging from the depths.

A forest of dead cottonwood trees line a flowing creek in one of the side canyons near Lake Powell on July 6, 2022. The trees were submerged by the reservoir's water until recently.

Health, Science & Environment

Somewhere between demand and supply is the ‘Thirst Gap’ that’s shrinking Lake Powell

Pamela McCall

A new six-part podcast explores the questions, challenges and possible solutions to saving the 1,450 mile long lifeline of the West — The Colorado River.

Tourists visit the South Rim of the Grand Canyon on November 1, 2022. The portion of the Colorado River which runs through the canyon is receiving a boost of water designed to rebuild beaches and sandbars.

Health, Science & Environment

An extra boost of water is flowing into Grand Canyon after a wet winter

Alex Hager

The Bureau of Reclamation is releasing a "high-flow experiment" from Glen Canyon Dam after forecasts showed a boost to Lake Powell.

FILE - Water from the Colorado River diverted through the Central Arizona Project fills an irrigation canal on Aug. 18, 2022, in Maricopa, Ariz. The Biden administration on Tuesday, April 11, 2023, released an environmental analysis of competing plans for how Western states and tribes reliant on the dwindling Colorado River should cut their use.

Health, Science & Environment

There are 2 federal ideas on the table to save Colorado River water. Now what?

Associated Press

The Interior Department's news analysis considers two different ways to force cuts to Arizona, Nevada and California. The two options mean varying impacts for cities, farms and people living in the Southwest.

Water in the Colorado River system fills Flaming Gorge Reservoir on June 26, 2021. Federal authorities chose to suspend extra water releases about two months early. Water from Flaming Gorge is used to prop up Lake Powell.

Health, Science & Environment

Feds pause water releases from Flaming Gorge Reservoir

Alex Hager

The Bureau of Reclamation is responding to a request from Utah and its neighbors and suspending the releases from the 3rd-largest reservoir on the Colorado River that were propping up Lake Powell.

Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico are asking the federal government to pause some releases from Flaming Gorge Reservoir, which straddles the border between Wyoming and Utah. The reservoir, pictured here in 2021, is the third-largest in the Colorado River system.

Health, Science & Environment

Upper Colorado River states want to pause Flaming Gorge water releases

Alex Hager

Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico are asking the Bureau of Reclamation to pause the water releases from Flaming Gorge Reservoir that are helping prop up Lake Powell.

Eric Balken, executive director of Glen Canyon Institute, walks along a sandbar once submerged by Lake Powell. As the reservoir drops to record lows, it draws out of areas that were underwater for decades.

Health, Science & Environment

Lake Powell hits a new record low

Alex Hager

The Bureau of Reclamation is scrambling to keep hydropower generators running in Glen Canyon Dam.

Colorado Senator John Hickenlooper speaks with Interior Secretary Deb Harland ahead of a press conference in Boulder County. Hickenlooper has convened a group of senators from seven Western states that use water from the Colorado River to discuss the future of water supplies for 40 million people.

Health, Science & Environment

Will the Colorado River Senate caucus help states come together on the river’s future?

Alex Hager

“I'm not looking for the federal government to create some magical law or solve all the problems through federal legal systems,” said founding Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado. “We're really more facilitators.”

A view of Lake Powell, which stradles the border of Utah and Arizona, from NASA's Landsat satellite, Aug. 27, 2021.

Health, Science & Environment

California is the holdout after Colorado River states agree on cuts

Associated Press

While the states missed a mid-August deadline to heed the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's call to conserve 2 million to 4 million acre-feet, they regrouped to reach consensus by the end of January.

People walk by cracked earth in an area once under the water of Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Friday, Jan. 27, 2023, near Boulder City, Nev. Competing priorities, outsized demands and the federal government's retreat from a threatened deadline all combined to thwart a voluntary deal last summer on how to drastically cut water use from the parched Colorado River, according to emails obtained by The Associated Press.

Health, Science & Environment

Emails reveal the tensions that undid last summer’s attempts at Colorado River cuts

Associated Press

Emails obtained by The Associated Press depict a desire to reach a consensus but persistent disagreement over how much each of the seven basin states could or should give. Ultimately, the mid-August deadline came and went with no deal.

FILE - A buoy sits high and dry on cracked earth previously under the waters of Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Boulder City, Nev., on June 28, 2022. Living with less water in the U.S. Southwest is the focus for a conference starting Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022, in Las Vegas, about the drought-stricken and overpromised Colorado River.

Health, Science & Environment

More questions than answers at Colorado River water meetings

Associated Press

More questions than answers are surfacing at a conference in Las Vegas about what to do about projected shortages of Colorado River water relied upon by seven U.S. states, Native American tribes and Mexico.

Bob Martin, who manages hydropower at Glen Canyon Dam, is grappling with the reality that generators could soon be shut off because of low water levels in Lake Powell. The Colorado River faces a growing supply-demand imbalance, and normal operations at the dam may suffer.

Health, Science & Environment

The ‘power of aridity’ is bringing Glen Canyon Dam to its knees

Alex Hager

As drought and steady demand shrink the Colorado River and Lake Powell, Glen Canyon Dam faces an existential threat. It's a rare example of the Southwest's water crisis made visible.