Originally published in Colorado Politics.
In late spring of this year, residents of Colorado’s agricultural hub in the Grand Valley witnessed an unsettling sight that should serve as a permanent wake-up call for the entire American West: a nearly dry Colorado River roughly 200 miles below its headwaters in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Levels were so low that the river — the lifeblood of 40 million people, 5 million acres of farmland and our region’s vibrant biodiversity — triggered algae blooms and low-water alarms in local utility offices near Grand Junction. We are accustomed to seeing the river seasonally ebb and flow, but seeing the bottom drop out when the spring runoff should be surging should have us all on high alert over a water management system that is fundamentally out of sync with the physical reality of our environment.
For more than a century, we have treated the Colorado River as an endless, reliable plumbing system. We built our economies, our cities and our farms on the assumption of abundance. Now we’re struggling to manage modern climate chaos on the structure of a bygone era.
The math has changed, and we must adapt. We are more than two decades into a severe, long-term drying trend and temperatures continue to rise. Climate scientists call it “aridification” — a permanent shift toward a hotter, drier reality — and the data is undeniable. The only question left is, what do we do?
Our rivers and streams are running perilously low statewide, some hitting their lowest streamflows in a century. And though last winter saw the lowest snowpack in recorded history, this isn’t a one-off cycle. We’re facing statewide systematic failure as snowpack is melting more than a month ahead of schedule and the parched soil is absorbing moisture before it ever reaches our reservoirs.
While we feel the effects in countless ways — including devastating wildfires, economic downturns, diminishing quality of life and more — solutions are in short supply. Consensus on how to manage the crisis follows the familiar political pattern of gridlock at the top, suffering at the bottom, leaving it to us to save ourselves.
It’s time we move beyond the tired debate of “who gets how much” and start focusing on the structural transformation of our water economy. Conservation is the essential first step, but it is only one piece of the equation. We need a new way forward — a fundamental, systemic overhaul of how we store, use and protect our water. And we need it now.
We have seen this work before in Colorado. I was proud to support Propositions DD and JJ, which have funneled more than $140 million into water conservation and protection. Similar measures that invest in smart growth, incentivize high-efficiency agricultural and industrial practices and prioritize watershed health — not just delivery capacity — can help establish a more resilient water system today.
It begins with modernizing our approach to agricultural water use. Agriculture accounts for roughly 74% of the water used in the Colorado River Basin and up to 90% statewide. We have to recognize our current methods are not sustainable and invest in crop technology and techniques that deliver more value with less water.
But farmers and ranchers cannot be expected to carry the financial risk of a changing climate alone. We need programs that support these producers in transitioning to lower-water-use technologies, ensuring their livelihoods remain intact even as their water usage footprint shrinks.
We are beginning to see the kind of proactive governance that creates a path forward, albeit incrementally. Earlier this summer, Colorado officials took a critical step by announcing the creation of a new state-run conservation program. Backed by $100 million in federal funding from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, this “near-term contribution program” will pay water users to voluntarily cut back consumption through 2028. Importantly, it is designed to engage participants across all sectors — not just agriculture, but municipal and industrial users as well.
Incentivizing efficiency in a way that respects local communities and ensures our shared prosperity is the blueprint for a functioning water economy. But it’s equally important to integrate environmental restoration into our management policies.
Our rivers cannot provide clean, reliable water if they don’t function as healthy ecosystems. Strategies like “operationally neutral conservation pools,” where water is stored specifically for environmental protection, can bolster fish and wildlife habitats and maintain the river’s health without sacrificing the water needs of cities and farms. Such strategies should also be prioritized.
Changes in the water cycle are demanding foundational changes in water management, and Colorado’s economic and environmental future will be determined by our ability to adjust to this new math. We cannot make it snow, and we cannot force the rain to fall. But we can decide what kind of infrastructure we build, what policies we enact and how we value our most precious resource.
We must stop debating the inevitable and start building the water system we actually need — not the one we were promised a century ago. The era of planning for an “average” water year is over. And our moment to act is overdue.
