Watershed Symposium 2022

The Colorado River Basin is facing a daunting new reality with our region getting drier, yet most of the water policies governing the region are 100 years behind the times. This workshop explores what the aridification future of the Colorado River holds for the Wasatch Front and what we need to do now to prepare for this drier world.

The Colorado River has shrunk 20% in the last two decades in the face of climate change’s shrinking of headwater snowpacks in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming. More than just a drought, scientists have reframed the problem around acidification, the idea that the entire region is drying out and this change will likely continue for decades to come. Home to 40 million people, the Colorado River Basin’s water problems have attracted attention from around the globe and forced an entirely new set of policy paradigms evolving out of this drier world. Many Wasatch Front residents wonder whether the Colorado River Basin’s water problems might affect them. Amidst record-low reservoir levels for Lake Powell and Lake Mead, millions of Wasatch Front residents are concerned about the plight of America’s two largest reservoirs, but they feel disconnected from the Colorado River problems being debated across the seven state region of the Basin. Is the Wasatch Front insulated from the challenges on the Colorado River?

In this workshop we deconstruct how much water the Wasatch Front receives from the Colorado River Basin that are feeding our cities and farms and we explore how susceptible we are to the impacts caused by aridification on the other side of the Wasatch Mountains. We will look back at some of the recent impacts caused by aridification in the Basin, bring participants up to speed on the lightning-fast policy changes being discussed today, and we will explore some of the daunting new problems emerging around the bend which threaten Salt Lake County’s water supply. With the rapid depletion of Lakes Powell and Mead in recent years, the seven Colorado River Basin states, Mexico, and 30 tribes are all rushing to find sustainable solutions to the western water crisis. In June of this year, the Bureau of Reclamation announced that the Basin States must come up with a plan to cut use by 2-4 million acre feet, nearly one third of the river’s annual flow. Meanwhile Glen Canyon Dam is dropping near the level at which it can no longer generate hydropower, and more importantly, the level at which it becomes physically impossible for Utah and other Upper Basin states to release our legally required water deliveries downstream. We will offer strategies and adaptation policies we could implement to sustain our water supply on the Wasatch Front, protect our state’s best interest and live in relative peace with neighboring states and Mexico. Water policy is changing rapidly across the entire Colorado River Basin, and while it may seem removed from the Wasatch Front, the reforms taking place in the coming years will likely have direct impacts on all Utahns.

While the basin states still haven't come up with a solution for the drastic water cuts called for by the Bureau of Reclamation, one thing is clear: every city, town, and farm will be forced to adapt to life with less water.