Post Carbon Fellow Sandra Postel and Lesli Allison, Executive director of the Western Landowners Alliance, cowrote this op-ed on the critical state of the Colorado and Rio Grande rivers.

From the article:

This summer, the Rio Grande may actually run dry through Albuquerque, New Mexico, a rarity. Meanwhile by 2020 the Colorado’s biggest reservoir, Lake Mead, stands a 52 percent chance of dropping to the level at which an official shortage is declared, requiring cuts in water deliveries to Arizona, Nevada and Mexico…

In Montana alone, more than 4,000 miles of streams are chronically or periodically de-watered.

But thanks to innovative policies, new collaborations, and smart technologies, zero-sum stalemates are giving way to more flexible water management, benefiting farmers, rivers and local economies at the same time…