“You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” Sen. Hickenlooper says, explaining why precision snow monitoring is increasingly important in the warming West.

Now, Western lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, want to know — exactly — how much snow and water is in the Colorado River Basin.

The legislators Thursday introduced a bill focused on improving how the basin measures its water supply. It’s a tough subject: Rising temperatures, prolonged drought and persistent demands have cast uncertainty over the future water supply of 40 million people.

With better measurement techniques, water users will be better prepared to decide how to manage reservoirs, put water on crops and manage drinking water systems, according to Hickenlooper, a Democrat, and U.S. Sen. John Curtis, a Republican from Utah.

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” Hickenlooper said. “Snowmelt is Colorado’s largest reservoir. Leveraging advanced snow monitoring tech will give us more accurate water predictions and unlock a better understanding of how to make the most of our water in an era of extreme drought.”

Click here to read the rest of The Colorado Sun’s report on snow level measurement in the Colorado River Basin.