Information and Resources
The Colorado River is a primary water supply for residents in seven states including Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California. Careful managment and planning is crucial for Colorado River user regions, especially in shortage years. This section is split into two parts: river use managment and river use planning. River use managment refers to any resource, document or presentation that addresses past or present managment strategies based on water supply demand on the Colorado River including operating criteria, water quality standards including salinity issues, and consumptive uses and losses, to name a few. River use planning refers to any study, presentation, or document that deals with modeling supply and demand scenerios or projections, or long-term planning criteria for operations management. Please see other Colorado River sections for additional resources.
Colorado River Use Management
Executive Summary, Colorado River Basin Water Managment: Evaluating and Adjusting to Hydroclimatic Variability, The National Academies Press, February 2007
Full Report Available for sale through the National Academies Press
Climate and Tourism Workshop. Tourism and recreation in the West are a large part of the economy and are strongly linked to climate. This workshop will result in an applied research and services agenda. This workshop is sponsored by WWA and The Center for Sustainable Tourism, Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), January 23-24, 2007. Researchers Pulwarty, Kenney, Alvord, Udall.
Water Resouces Archive at Colorado State University library
The Colorado State University Water Resources Archive is a joint effort of the University Libraries and the Colorado Water Resources Research Institute. Formally begun in 2001, the Archive consists of collections from individuals and organizations that have been instrumental in the development of water resources in Colorado and the West.
Upper Colorado River Basin Consumptive Uses and Losses Report, as revised after peer review. - 1971-1995 (2005)
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation standardized and revised previous estimates of consumptive uses and losses for the Upper Colorado River Basin.
Consumptive Uses and Losses Report 1996-2000 (2004)
This report from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation presents estimates of the consumptive uses and losses from the Colorado River System for each calendar year from 1996 through 2000. It includes a breakdown of the beneficial consumptive use by major types of use, by major tributary streams, and by individual States.
Fifty-sixth Annual Report of the Upper Colorado River Commission (September 30, 2004)
This is a report covering the activities of the preceding water year and an estimated budget from that year.
Fifty-seventh Annual Report of the Upper Colorado River Commission (September 30, 2005)
This is a report covering the activities of the preceding water year and an estimated budget from that year.
Correspondence between the Secretary of the Interior and Colorado River Basin states (2005).
Uneasy Times Along the Colorado River(2005)
Presentation by Doug Kenney at Western State College's Colorado River Workshop.
An Analysis of Coordinated Operation of Lakes Powell and Mead under Low Reservoir Conditions (2005)
Thesis by Carly Jerla.
Hard Times on the Colorado River: Drought, Growth, and the Future of the Compact (2005)
Twenty-sixth annual conference at the Natural Resources Law Center in Boulder, Colorado from June 8-10, 2005
2005 Annual Operating Plan for Colorado River System Reservoirs from the U.S. Bureau of Relcamation
The Colorado River at Risk: Coping with Drought in the Colorado River Basin (2005)
Colorado River Basin Study, by Dale Pontius (1997)
A report for the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission.
1988 Hydrologic Determination (1988)
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's report on water availability from the Navajo Reservoir and the Upper Colorado River Basin for use in Mexico.
American Indian Water Rights and the Use of the Colorado River Water (1982) by S.K. Smith
Water Supply and Management" article (Volume 6, pp. 75-86)Abstract: The U.S. Supreme Court decided in the case of Winters vs. U.S. that...Indians had command of the lands and the waters...on Indian reservations. Considerable litigation is underway regarding the quantification of these water rights for Indian reservactions in the Colorado River Basin. Besides domestic and agricultural water needs, fishing and sacred water uses are important to Indians. In addition, significant energy resources are located in Indian lands. Development of Indian water rights, along with other competing water demands on the Colorado River, will require more compromise than has been exhibited in the past.
International problems on the Colorado River (1982) by Myron B. Holburt
“Water Supply and Management” article by M.B. Holburt (Volume 6, pp. 105-114)
Abstract: The Colorado River is an important source of water to nearly 500,000 acres of irrigated land and more than 500,000 people in the Republic of Mexico. The discharge of highly saline pumped drainage from the Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation and Drainage District surrounding Yuma, Arizona in 1961 significantly increased the salinity of Colorado River flows delivered to Mexico. Agreement on a solution to the salinity problem was reached between the U.S. and Mexico in 1973. Some salinity control measures have already been implemented that have resulted in water deliveries to Mexico being in conformance with the agreement between the two countries. However, new water resources developments in the U.S. will require additional salinity control measures to be implemented in the near future.
Colorado River Water Allocation (1982) by Myron B. Holburt
“Water Supply and Management” article by Myron B. Holburt (Volume 6, pp. 63-73).
Abstract: The “Law of the River” consists of interstate compacts, federal legislation, water delivery contracts, state legislation, a treaty and other agreements with the Republic of Mexico, a U.S. Supreme Court decree and federal administrative actions. The water supplies are already 90% utilized, with full use of Colorado River waters expected within a decade. Since the dependable water supplies are not as great as anticipated when the waters were apportioned by compact, there is potential for serious conflict in the near future.
The utilization and impacts of climate information on the development and operations of the Colorado River system (1981) by C.W. Howe and A.H. Murphy
Article from the Panel on the Effective Use of Climate Information in Decision Making
Water supplies of the Colorado River (1965)
By Tipton and Kalmbach, a study for the Upper Colorado River Commission.
Report on Problems of Imperial Valley and Vicinity (1922)
Arthor Powell Davis report on the Lower Colorado River basin, US Senate Document 142.
Colorado River and its utilization (1916)
Report by Eugene Clyde La Rue in the USGS Water Supply Papers that discusses the use of Colorado River water in 1916.
Salinity Issues on the Colorado River
Stochastic Nonparametric Framework for Basin wide Streamflow and Salinity Modeling: Application for the Colorado River Basin, James R. Prairie, PhD disertation, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado, 2006
Colorado River Water Quality Standards for Salinity (June 2005)
As required by the Clean Water Act, the salinity standards for the Colorado River must be reviewed at least every three years.
Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum has completed the 2005 review.
Impacts of federal salinity control on water rights allocation patterns in the Colorado River Basin (1986)
Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Volume 76, pp. 157-174
Abstract: The effects of federal salinity control policy on water allocation in the Colorado River Basin remain unresolved, despite the initiation of project construction. Description of these water rights effects is a prerequisite to understanding institutional barriers to conservation as well as to guiding the social distribution of water conservaction benefits. This paper examines water rights issues within the larger hierarchy of water control institutions and shows how water rights effects depend upon the spatial patterning and relative seniority of water rights holders. A focus on a salinity control project in the Grand Valley area of Colorado reveals that, in the absence of property rights reform and new regional water markets, salinity control projects will highlight existing tensions in the water allocation system. Water diversion rates will remain excessive, interstate water agreements will falter, and water quality considerations will be poorly integrated within weater water law.
Colorado River Use Planning
Colorado River Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and Coordinated Operations for Lakes Powell and Mead
In May 2005, the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) directed Reclamation to develop additional Colorado River management strategies to address Lower Basin shortage and operations of Lake Powell and Lake Mead under low reservoir conditions. In response, Reclamation initiated a public process to develop and adopt water supply guidelines that can be used when low water conditions exist.
Additional Materials & Information
Arizona Fights Changes in Colorado River Plan, The Arizona Republic, October 4, 2007
Letter to Secretary of Interior: Arizona's Invocation of Consultation Provisions within the Colorado River Basin States' Agreement
Arizona Department of Water Resoruces, October 3, 2007
Letter to Basin State Representatives: Invocation of Consultation Provision of Colorado River Basin States Agreement
Arizona Department of Water Resources, October 3, 2007
Water Needs and Strategies for a Sustainable Future
Western Governors’ Association, June 2006
This WGA report addresses current challenges facing water resources in the West by including background information, an analysis of the source of the water availability or quality issue, and recommendations to municipal water providers and local governments on how to best mitigate these water management issues. This report addresses growth scenarios and corresponding water policy, state-wide needs and to meet future demands, complexities of current water infrastructure, quantification of Native American water rights and implications for water supplies and current management strategies, impacts resulting from climate variability and change, and future planning to remain in compliance with the Endangered Species Act and other federal and state protective legislation.
Water 2025 plan from the U. S. Department of the Interior
This plan is on preventing crises and conflict in the west is an on-going effort that originated in 2004.
Modeling of Drought Management Scenarios(2004)
Presentation by Terry Fulp of the U.S.B.R.
Presentation (2004)
Presentation by the General Manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District about future management issues.
Colorado River Compact Water Development Projection (1995)
Future water development policies (1982) by G.V. Skogerboe and G.E. Radosevich
This paper discusses energy development on the Colorado River and how to create incentives for less salt loading.
Water Supply and Management" article, Volume 6, pp. 221-232
Abstract: Significant increases in energy development are presently occurring in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The basin-wide non-degradation salinity policy for the lower stem of the Colorado River requires that each development offsets any salinity detriments by making improvements on-site or somewhere else in the basin (off-site). One of the most viable off-site alternatives is to make improvements in an irrigation system including canal lining and on-farm irrigation deiversion requirements. With modification to western water laws, economic incentives and administrative programs could be provided so that decreased diversion requirements could be sold, contracted, or rented to other water demands, with the revenues being used largely for further irrigation system improvements that would reduce the salt loads reaching the Colorado River
Article in "Managing Climatic Resources and Risks," Panel on the Effective Use of Climate Information in Decision Making, National Research Council. Washington, DC: National Academy Press pp.36-44.
Impact on the Colorado River Basin and Southwest Water Supply (1977) by John A. Dracup
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