Conditions on the Colorado River are, to put it bluntly, dire. The reservoirs that, when full, provide Colorado River water users with roughly 4 years of annual flows are now more than two-thirds empty. Additionally, the tradition of collaborative crisis management among the seven basin states may have reached its breaking point, as the ongoing EIS process for developing post-2026 rules has made it increasingly clear that finding truly sustainable solutions is both an exceptionally difficult challenge and is one that can no longer be kicked down the road.

Both the water supply and institutional systems are failing; many of the environmental systems failed years ago, with others just hanging on desperately. Another year or two of low inflows and we will completely blow through the cushions provided by reservoir storage and the 20-year truce known as the Interim Guidelines, entering a world where physically moving water downstream becomes limited both by hydrology and engineering, and where the Compact “tripwire” of 10-year annual releases are potentially violated. As our report’s sub-title suggests, we have now entered a new era: Dancing with Deadpool.