The Rundown
- The high court closes a dispute between Texas and New Mexico over groundwater pumping and water use in the Rio Grande basin.
- FERC receives a preliminary permit application for a pumped storage hydropower project in northeastern Arizona.
- EPA science advisers will meet this summer to discuss the agency’s proposed list of unregulated drinking water contaminants.
- USGS will begin a study of which Upper Midwest lakes are most at risk from groundwater pumping.
And lastly, the EPA administrator visits Great Salt Lake.
“Not just for Utah, but also for our nation, Great Salt Lake is vital to our economy, national security, and environment, and it’s entirely necessary to save.” – Lee Zeldin, EPA administrator, in a statement posted to X. Zeldin joined Utah congressional representatives on May 23 at Great Salt Lake. The lake is threatened by a warming climate and excessive water diversions.
News Briefs
Rio Grande Dispute Settled
The Supreme Court finalized a long-awaited settlement in a dispute over groundwater pumping and water use in the Rio Grande basin.
Texas brought the case to the court in 2013, arguing that New Mexico was violating an interstate compact that divided the river’s water. How? By allowing too much groundwater to be pumped for irrigation, thus capturing some of the surface water flow and depriving Texas of its share from the river.
“The settlement calls for reducing groundwater pumping along the dwindling river and retiring water rights from irrigated farmland in southern New Mexico,” the Associated Press reports. “The states held up the proposal as a promise to restore order to an elaborate system of storing and sharing water between two vast irrigation districts in southern New Mexico and western Texas.”
The special master, amusingly, took the long view in his lengthy report outlining the settlement.
“First articulated by Texas in its 2013 Complaint, the dispute, in some sense, began about 8,000 years ago, in ancient Mesopotamia, when the Sumerians invented the concept of irrigation and incited a run on Earth’s navigable waterways.”
Studies and Reports
Mapping the Colorado River
The U.S. Geological Survey produced the first riverbed map of a section of the Colorado River in and around the Grand Canyon.
The new maps will assist river modeling and management efforts, the agency says.
The 282-mile section extends from Pearce Ferry, near the Arizona-Nevada border, to Lees Ferry, just downstream from Glen Canyon Dam.
Midwest Lakes at Risk
The U.S. Geological Survey announced a new research project starting in fiscal year 2027 that will investigate which lakes in the Upper Midwest are most vulnerable to groundwater pumping. This includes changes to aquatic habitats, water levels, and water quality.
On the Radar
Drinking Water Contaminants Meetings
An EPA Science Advisory Board drinking water committee will hold a series of five public meetings in June, July, and August to discuss the agency’s proposed list of unregulated contaminants that are candidates for future regulation.
The list, for the first time, includes microplastics. This is the agency’s sixth list of unregulated contaminants. None from list #5 were regulated.
The committee’s first meeting, which will be streamed online, is scheduled for June 15.
Pumped Storage in Arizona
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission received an application for a preliminary permit for a 1,000-megawatt pumped storage hydropower project in northeastern Arizona.
The project is on federal land managed by the Navajo Nation. A preliminary permit holds a place in the permitting queue and allows for site studies but it does not authorize any construction work.
The Chilchinbeto Pumped Storage Project would comprise two reservoirs, an upper and a lower unit, each with 10,000 acre-feet water storage capacity. It is one of several pumped storage projects proposed in recent years for the Colorado Plateau.
In context: Massive Energy Storage Project Eyed for Four Corners Region
Congressional Hearings
The U.S. Forest Service is in the spotlight this week.
On June 2, the Senate Agriculture Committee will hold an oversight hearing for the agency. Then on June 4, a House Natural Resources subcommittee will be briefed on the 2026 wildfire outlook and the state of federally managed forests.
And on June 4, the House Science Committee will discuss the use of science and technology for environmental protection.
Federal Water Tap is a weekly digest spotting trends in U.S. government water policy. To get more water news, follow Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.
