Snowmelt is shrinking and runoff is coming earlier on the Upper Colorado River, source of 90 percent of the water for 40 million people. This is leading to vegetation changes, water-quality issues and other concerns. But it may be possible to operate reservoirs differently to ease some of these effects.

On this episode of Deeply Talks, Water Deeply managing editor Matt Weiser talks to Bhavna Arora, hydrological scientist, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and Jack Schmidt, professor of watershed sciences, Utah State University.