Alex Hager
KUNC
When the snows come to the mountains of Colorado, it’s good news for skiers but also the first step to recharging the Colorado River.
But this winter’s precipitation outlook is unclear, and how it unfolds will have an outsized impact on the next few years of management of the river, which supplies water to tens of millions of people from Wyoming to Mexico and gets most of that water from high-altitude snow, two-thirds of which falls in Colorado.
A wet winter last year created more space for long-term negotiations about how to share river, but policy analysts say things could quickly turn in the wrong direction if snowfall is low in the coming months.
“Rivers are a great example of how we’re all connected,” said James Dilzell, director of the nonprofit Eagle River Watershed Council, as he stood on the banks of Homestake Creek in Eagle County, Colorado, this fall. “It’s not a totally separate place to be here in the headwaters in Eagle County versus somewhere in Utah or Phoenix. We’re all in this together, and it’s all the same water.
“It’s amazing to think of the journey,” he said, noting that what happens to the rivers and streams near the resort town of Vail has far-reaching impacts.
The Eagle River watershed, mostly comprised of tranquil mountain creeks that surge with spring snowmelt, contributes about 3% of all the Colorado River’s water. Soon, feet of snow should blow into Eagle County valleys and wetlands, giving water managers a clearer picture of how the river and the seven states that use it – Arizona, Colorado, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico – will fare in the near future.
But right now, that picture is far from clear.
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