Shoshone Showdown: Why Western Slope Farmers See a Loss of Control Coming

As Colorado debates the $99M Shoshone water rights deal, farmers brace for tighter curtailments, higher uncertainty, and a precedent that could redefine who controls the river’s most senior flows.

Colorado’s water heavyweights are fighting over one of the most senior rights on the main-stem Colorado River—the Shoshone hydropower right near Glenwood Springs. The Colorado River District (representing 15 Western Slope counties) has a $99M agreement to buy the right from Xcel and pair it with an instream-flow protection so water stays in the channel for the river’s health. Front Range utilities worry that doing so (and how it’s done) could lock in higher required flows and constrain existing transmountain and junior diversions. After a 14-hour public hearing last week, state officials pushed a decision to November to give parties more time to negotiate—an unmistakable sign of how fraught this is.