And out of the ground the lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. – Genesis 2-19 (King James) When I was a youngster …
By Eric Kuhn, John Fleck, and Jack Schmidt On January 16th, the Bureau of Reclamation released the January 2025 24-Month Study. Based on the January 1st runoff forecast into Lake Powell, the projected “most probable” annual release from Glen Canyon Dam for Water Year 2026 is now 7.48 maf. This needs to be taken as …
By John Fleck and Jack Schmidt Preliminary year-end Colorado River numbers are stark. Total basin-wide storage for the last two years has stabilized, oscillating between 30 and 27 maf (million acre-feet), where storage sits at the start of 2025[1]. That is lower than any sustained period since the River’s reservoirs were built (Fig. 1). Stable …
Continue reading ‘Stable on the Colorado River: When “good” is not good enough’ »
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 a deal to secure reliable water for thousands of tribal members in Arizona raced to win Congressional approval until the final hours …
Matt Pearce, formerly of the LA Times, shares the sadness I feel about the calling to which I devoted so much of my life: One of the odd experiences of this week’s local disaster for me was that it was my first in years where I wasn’t working in a newsroom, a privileged position where …
The January NRCS Rio Grande runoff forecast is lousy: a mid-point forecast of 65 percent of average at Otowi (upstream of Albuquerque) and 37 percent of average at San Marcial (downstream of Albuquerque). Based on the current snowpack, I expected worse. Forecaster Karl Wetlaufer, in the email distributing the numbers, explains: After a wet start …
Continue reading ‘Lousy Rio Grande snowpack, but the runoff forecast is not as bad as I thought!’ »
By Eric Kuhn and Jack Schmidt The press coverage of the December 2024 Colorado River Water Users Association (CRWUA) meeting mostly focused on the ongoing stalemate between representatives of the Upper and Lower Division States over their competing proposals for how the Colorado River Systems’ big reservoirs will be operated after the 2007 Interim Guidelines …
We took the New Mexico Rail Runner train north for yesterday’s bike ride to Bernalillo, crossed over the Rio Grande, and worked our way down through the weird neighborhoods of Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The homes in that part of Rio Rancho are scattered one-offs, with a lot of unpaved roads wrapping their way up …
My usual Sunday riding buddy was gone last week, so I took my road bike out for a longer-than-usual spin, out past the dinosaur sculpture I call “My Red Friend.” I got the requisite Blake’s breakfast burrito early (they’re the right shape to fit in a bike shirt pocket, and properly nibbled over time can …
If traffic to this blog is an indicator, y’all are really interested in thoughtful independent analysis of the standard talking points in the Colorado River negotiations. Also, the work of my longtime collaborator Eric Kuhn (which is unsurprising, I’ve long been really interested in Eric’s work). Three of the four most-read Inkstain posts this year …
Continue reading ‘Inkstain 2024 – y’all really like Eric Kuhn’s writing’ »