Colorado

Crazy or genius? A nuclear-powered solution to the West’s water crisis

Published

3 months ago

March 15, 2026

Press Room

Crazy or genius? A nuclear-powered solution to the West’s water crisis

PAGE, Arizona ‒ In the middle of the desert sits a sign: “Caution docks may be slippery.”

They are not.

In fact, there’s not a drop of water to be seen at Antelope Point Marina, which once sat near the shore of Lake Powell, the nation’s second-largest reservoir. The sparkling Colorado River now laps at the Glen Canyon walls about 180 feet below, completely invisible from a dock that once floated atop the water.

Instead of reflecting the bright blue Arizona sky near the Four Corners region of the Southwest, the lake’s water level reflects the dire reality that the Colorado River is running out of water. And the dock with the sign dangles off a 100-foot cliff, waiting for a refill that climatologists say will likely never come.

“Things are really, really rough on the Colorado River. It’s ugly,” said Eric Balken, the executive director of the Glen Canyon Institute. “Everybody is at a place right now where we’re all asking, ‘what the heck happens now? What are we doing?’”

Now, a public lands access group has proposed an eye-poppingly ambitious plan to build eight massive desalination plants off the California coastline, turning ocean water into fresh for farming, and reducing demand on the ailing Colorado River. To meet the energy demand, the plants might have to be powered with nuclear reactors.

Although desalination plants are widely used in the Middle East, they consume huge amounts of electricity to generate a relatively small amount of water. No country has ever tried something on this scale before.

The Colorado River basin ‒ and the seven states that depend on the river for water ‒ is facing significant shortfalls this summer following an unusually hot and dry winter. The plan’s authors at the Idaho-based BlueRibbon Coalition say their $40 billion proposal offers a viable long-term solution at a time when President Donald Trump is slashing environment-based regulatory delays and encouraging the country to think big.

“At some point we’re going to hit a hard reality there’s no more water in the Colorado River,” said Ben Burr, the coalition’s executive director. “You can only squeeze so much more juice out of it.”

Some critics say the plan is both utterly unaffordable and potentially catastrophic for the environment.

The BlueRibbon Coalition is undeterred, deliberately invoking the massive federal efforts that built the Glen Canyon and Hoover dams and filled Lake Powell and Lake Mead with Colorado River water. Those reservoir projects allowed the United States to flourish in Arizona, Nevada and California, supercharging economic growth, powering cities and turning dusty desert into fertile farmland.

The group’s plan is the newest ambitious idea to solve western water woes. Other proposals floated over the decades included towing icebergs from Alaska or Antarctica, diverting rivers from the rainy Pacific Northwest or even piping Great Lakes water thousands of miles west across the Continental Divide.

Peter Goble, the assistant state climatologist for Colorado, said the ongoing drought is increasing pressure on western states to find a solution. The West is warming faster than the country overall, which ultimately means even less water available for farmers, businesses and residents, he said.

“There’s no way to look at the numbers and think the Colorado River is doing well right now,” Goble said. “In a world that’s warmer, all signs point to droughts that will be more intense and more frequent.”

Drought, squabbles among states threaten river’s future

Seven states ‒ Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming ‒ collaboratively manage and use the Colorado River.

But the amount of water flowing downstream has been dropping due to a long-term drought at the same time, causing squabbles among the states over who gets how much for farming, drinking and industrial uses. And a certain amount of water must constantly flow out of the two dams so they can produce power for millions of households and businesses. Mexico and Native American tribes also have water-use rights and have a say in the management.

Although it’s at the end of the river, California legally has the right to use more water than any of the other states, primarily to grow alfalfa to feed cattle. And although he has not endorsed this specific plan, California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a Feb. 11 letter to fellow Colorado River governors suggested that desalination and other “advanced technologies” may ultimately be necessary. Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment specifically on the BlueRibbon plan.

“We welcome shared investments in infrastructure, from water reuse to desalination, that can reduce pressure on precious water supplies in Lake Powell and Lake Mead,” Newsom wrote. “Our reality is clear. We need to manage with less rain and snow to provide water for our communities and farms each year. It is a shared reality that requires a shared solution.”

Burr said the plants could generate 7 million acre-feet of water. An acre foot of water, which is 325,851 gallons, is equivalent to about what two or three U.S. homes use annually. In comparison, growing a single acre of alfalfa consumes as much as 6 acre-feet of water each year, according to University of Arizona’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

What’s in the $40 billion plan?

The BlueRibbon plan envisions:

Eight large desalination plants off the coast of California and Mexico, powered potentially by small nuclear generators of the kind championed by the White House. Electricity could also come from solar or wind farms, although President Donald Trump has repeatedly tried to kill such projects. Building the plants would cost about $40 billion, Burr estimated.
The plants would potentially be built in the Sea of Cortez and in federal enclaves on California’s Pacific coast. Doing so would limit environmental roadblocks, speeding their construction. Desalination plants work by removing salt from ocean water, creating extra-salty water that would have to be diluted before being dumped back into the ocean, otherwise it might be toxic to aquatic life.
Fresh water would be pumped at least 100 miles inland to reach California’s Imperial Valley, a vast desert that today is irrigated with Colorado River water to grow crops from alfalfa to lettuce and onions. The “new” water would allow California to give up some of its Colorado River allocations to other states to use.

Burr said he believes the plan, which could be privately or publicly funded, is being offered at the right time. He said the pendulum against over-regulation and environmentalism is swinging back in favor of ordinary Americans and business owners, and against the environmental groups that would otherwise have prevented the construction of Lake Powell or Lake Mead.

The BlueRibbon group’s supporters include companies that would benefit from increased water levels in Lake Powell, and that have fought to maintain higher water levels.

“I think you’re seeing that we’re realizing as a country we have to be building real infrastructure and not just jobs programs for environmental lawyers,” Burr said. “We need a new real water system.”

Throwing seawater at the problem: ‘That’s just crazy,’ one expert warns

Aaron Weiss, the deputy director of the Denver-based Center for Western Priorities, considers the BlueRibbon plan laughable. The center advocates for increased land and water conservation across the West, but is nonpartisan.

Weiss said the infrastructure necessary to move fresh water from the coast back uphill for farmers would be staggeringly expensive, likely adding tens of billons of dollars to the overall cost.

“Their solution to the problem is throw seawater at it. And that’s just crazy,” Weiss said. “No one has ever considered desalinating water on this scale. It’s not audacious. It’s just stupid. Just based on what we know that it costs to desalinate water and move water, there’s no way $40 billion is anywhere close to the actual price tag.”

Among other countries, Israel depends heavily on desalination to meet its drinking and farm water needs. But that also consumes about 5% of the country’s overall electricity, according to a study by Tel Aviv University.

Weiss said there’s also significant uncertainty on how the desalination plants would handle the extra-salty water created by the process. Israel’s plants mix that water back into the Mediterranean, where it’s diluted enough to not endanger aquatic life.

Like Burr, Weiss said the low snowpack levels across the West this winter are putting pressure on states to find some kind of solution. During the Biden presidency, the federal government paid farmers billions of dollars to stop growing crops like alfalfa, freeing up water for other uses. That funding was temporary, however, and the Trump administration has been pushing states to find a longer-term solution.

Federal forecasters are warning this could be one of the worst years on record for Lake Powell water levels, due to the poor snowpack and warm winter. As of mid-March, the lake’s surface stood at 3,529 feet above sea level, down from 3,587 feet in 2024, its most recent high. Some forecasters worry the lake could lose so much water this year that it will reach what’s known as “power pool,” the minimum level necessary to continue generating hydroelectricity.

The lake reached its highest-ever level of 3,708 feet above sea level in 1983, and has never been full since. A white “bathtub ring” remains visible from that high-water mark.

Forcing farmers to use less water could raise food costs for Americans, although some environmental groups say the solution is to grow less alfalfa, which is often sold to China, Japan and Saudia Arabia for their herds, according to the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources service. Burr said it’s silly to pay farmers not to grow crops – wouldn’t that money be better spent creating more water to use? he asked.

Weiss, however, said conservation is the fastest, easiest way to reduce water use. He said the BlueRibbon plan would take decades to complete ‒ and the Colorado River is in crisis now.

“At the end of the day, basic physics takes over,” Weiss said. “Our only solution is to conserve our way out of this aggressively.”

Balken, who runs the Glen Canyon Institute, has been pushing a plan to completely remove the 710-foot-tall Glen Canyon dam, or at least modify it so all the water in Lake Powell can flow downstream into Lake Mead. The institute ultimately wants to see the Colorado River returned to its natural state through the Glen Canyon.

“Given the low snowpack and given the heatwave that’s about to zap the snowpack, we’re probably looking at one of the worst runoffs in history, at one of the worst times. It’s almost certain we will see some sort of crash soon at Lake Powell,” Balken said. “This may be unprecedented, but it is the most predictable disaster of all time. We have known this moment has been coming for 20 years.”

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Colorado

Colorado governor vetoes bill that would have allowed lawsuits against federal immigration officers, signs another to regulate detention centers

Published

5 hours ago

June 4, 2026

Press Room

Colorado governor vetoes bill that would have allowed lawsuits against federal immigration officers, signs another to regulate detention centers

Two immigration protection bills passed by Democrats in the state legislature met different fates this week, with Gov. Jared Polis vetoing one and signing the other into law.

Polis vetoed Senate Bill 5 on Wednesday, June 3, a measure that would have allowed people to sue federal immigration officers in Colorado civil court if those officers violated their constitutional rights.

It was sponsored by Sens. Mike Weissman, D-Aurora, and Julie Gonzales, D-Denver, and Reps. Javier Mabrey, D-Denver, and Yara Zokaie, D-Fort Collins.

Supporters of the bill said it was aimed at holding federal agents, like Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, accountable. The measure was passed following national backlash to the January shootings and deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, which involved federal agents.

In a letter describing his reasons for the veto, Polis said the bill was too narrow and could weaken other civil rights protections if it were to be struck down by a court. Polis said the bill only applies to violations during immigration enforcement, and does not provide an avenue to sue the federal government for violating rights during protests, elections, prisons or in the workplace.

“It’s that narrow focus that unfortunately creates legal jeopardy,” Polis wrote. “I believe Colorado has a chance to get this right — and we must pass a broader version of this bill that protects all constitutional rights, including in the immigration context, that will serve to truly hold public officials accountable.”

The same Democrats who sponsored SB 5 tried to pass a broader version of the legislation that would have allowed lawsuits against any government employee, including local, state and federal officials, for any civil rights violations.

That measure, Senate Bill 176, dubbed the “No Kings Act,” was killed during a committee hearing in May after two Democrats — Sens. Dylan Roberts of Frisco and Lindsey Daugherty of Arvada — joined the committee’s two Republicans in voting it down. The bill faced pushback from local governments, police groups and district attorneys, as well as from Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who criticized the legislation for being overly broad and said it would lead to a flood of lawsuits against local and state officials.

Polis, in his veto letter, wrote that he supported that bill and that his office worked with sponsors on the legislation, which he believed “would withstand legal scrutiny.” Polis blamed “overly intense and misleading lobbying from local governments and public entities” for the bill’s failure.

Polis, who is term-limited after this year, urged lawmakers and groups involved with that bill to continue working toward a solution. He also acknowledged the need to hold federal officials to the same standards as state and local ones, writing that “we have seen too many examples of senseless deaths and constitutional rights violations during immigration enforcement operations and raids in recent years, and there is an urgent need for federal immigration agents to be held accountable for these lawless actions.”

So far this year, Polis has vetoed 12 bills, the most of his tenure as governor.

Alex Sanchez, president and CEO for the Western Slope-based immigrant advocacy group Voces Unidas, said in a text message that he is “deeply disappointed” in the governor’s veto.

“This veto caps one of the most disappointing legislative sessions for Latinos and immigrants in recent Colorado history — and Democrats, who control state government, are responsible,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez criticized a bill passed by Republicans and some Democrats that raises the hourly threshold for overtime pay for agricultural workers from 48 hours to 56 hours, which Polis signed last month. He also blasted Democrats for killing a bill earlier this year that would have required state and local law enforcement to arrest federal immigration officers who violate state law and prohibited state and local law enforcement from concealing their identity.

“Colorado’s Latino communities deserved strong leadership,” Sanchez said. “We got excuses instead.”

Polis signs bill on immigration detention facilities

Polis did sign another immigration-related measure on Thursday.

House Bill 1276 expands the state’s ability to inspect and regulate immigration detention centers. The measure allows the state to inspect detention centers’ food, water quality and other conditions, and requires those centers to pay for the inspections. Detention centers will also need to submit data annually to the state on the health outcomes of detainees and pass an environmental impact study.

Additionally, the measure bans local and state transit services from transporting immigrants for detention and requires state agencies to publicly disclose when they have received a subpoena from federal immigration officers.

A previous version of the bill would have held state agencies, not just their employees, liable for violating state laws on immigration information sharing, but that provision was removed after bill sponsors said they heard concerns from Polis.

“We won’t let the federal government operate dangerous and inhumane detention centers without oversight, and our bill ensures facilities are regularly inspected,” said bill sponsor Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, D-Glenwood Springs, in a statement. “All Coloradans deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, and this law establishes some important guardrails for detention centers and safeguards Coloradans’ privacy.”

The bill’s other sponsors were Weissman, Sen. Iman Jodeh, D-Aurora, and Rep. Lorena Garcia, D-Adams County.

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Colorado

Anyone can fish for free — without buying a license — this weekend in Colorado

Published

15 hours ago

June 4, 2026

Press Room

Anyone can fish for free — without buying a license — this weekend in Colorado

Colorado will host its annual Free Fishing Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, June 6-7.

This weekend, the state is waiving its usual fishing license and habitat requirements, allowing residents, non-residents and anglers of all ages to fish for free, according to a news release from Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

“Fishing is a great activity to share with family and friends, and the perfect chance to get outside and enjoy Colorado’s natural resources,” said Colorado Parks and Wildlife Angler Education Coordinator Andre Egli in a statement.

Colorado has more than 6,000 miles of streams and over 1,300 lakes, including spots that the agency’s biologists have rated as Gold Medal and Quality Waters for anglers due to their abundance of fishing opportunities. The state offers a diverse range of fish for anglers to catch, including over 35 species, according to Parks and Wildlife.

All Colorado fishing regulations still apply this weekend, so anyone who is planning to fish for free should review the 2026 Colorado Fishing Brochure. Anglers can find out more about Colorado fishing locations, classes, events, tournaments and regulations by visiting CPW.State.co.us/fishing.

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