The Department of the Interior last week reversed its earlier decision to not participate in the purchase of senior nonconsumptive water rights on the Colorado River through Glenwood Canyon, helping ensure that the water will continue serving Western Slope agricultural, recreational and environmental interests rather than potentially becoming available for consumptive diversion to the Front Range.
The Shoshone hydroelectric power plant was constructed more than 110 years ago and generates about 15 megawatts of power, equal to about 15,000 customers. The concern has long been that the aging plant, owned by Xcel Energy, could eventually face maintenance or operational challenges significant enough to threaten continued operation, potentially changing the status of its historic water right and opening the door to future consumptive use elsewhere in Colorado.
Contributions toward the $99 million purchase price came in relatively small but important amounts from dozens of Western Slope water districts, local governments and conservation interests that understand the importance of preserving Shoshone flows. Colorado’s water board committed $20 million. What remained uncertain was the $40 million promised during the Biden administration through federal Colorado River drought-response funding.
That federal commitment was effectively shut off after Donald Trump took office and froze or reevaluated portions of Inflation Reduction Act spending tied to Colorado River resiliency projects. Colorado’s entire congressional delegation – Democrats and Republicans alike – later urged the administration to release roughly $140 million in stalled Colorado River drought-response funding affecting projects across the Western Slope and Southwest Colorado. (Herald, Aug. 5, 2025).
Then, in mid-May, some of the gates finally began to reopen. According to The Colorado Sun, federal officials released $47 million for previously frozen Colorado water projects, including drought mitigation work in Southwest Colorado; ecosystem and watershed improvements on the Southern Ute Reservation; wetland and flood plain restoration projects in western Colorado; and habitat work in the Gunnison Basin. About a week after Gov. Jared Polis announced clemency for Tina Peters on May 15, the Department of the Interior also released the long-awaited $40 million award for the Shoshone Water Rights Preservation Project.
Whether the renewed movement of federal water funding was purely administrative, the result of bipartisan congressional pressure, or influenced by broader political dynamics may never be fully known. But after more than a year of uncertainty, Washington has finally begun releasing some of the long-promised Colorado River funding.
Congressman Jeff Hurd, whose district includes this stretch of river geography, deserves significant credit for persistently pressing the issue with the administration. But the eventual funding release also reflected unusually broad bipartisan support. Colorado’s congressional delegation – including Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert, Jeff Crank and Gabe Evans alongside Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and Reps. Joe Neguse, Jason Crow, Diana DeGette, Brittany Pettersen and others – publicly urged federal agencies to move the stalled projects forward. The Colorado River District likewise credited local governments, ditch companies, conservation groups and water providers across the Western Slope for sustaining the effort.
Although about $97 million of the $99 million has now been committed, the purchase still requires final approval from the Colorado Public Utilities Commission as well as completion of ongoing proceedings in Colorado water court.
The urgency is real. Colorado River groups across the basin recently warned Congress that 2026 is shaping up as one of the most difficult water years in generations, with historically poor snowpack, drought across most of the watershed and projections of extremely low inflows into Lake Powell. In that context, preserving dependable West Slope flows through Glenwood Canyon is more than symbolic – it is part of a much broader fight over the future reliability of the Colorado River system itself.
Protecting flows through Glenwood Canyon will not solve the Colorado River’s long-term shortages, but preserving the Shoshone right helps sustain rafting, fishing, agriculture, ecosystems and the broader West Slope economy that depends on healthy river flows.
Here’s hoping there’s not another abrupt change in direction from Washington and that protection of the Shoshone flows can finally be made permanent. The Colorado River – and the communities that rely on it – deserve that certainty.
