LAS VEGAS — As western water managers get set to gather in Las Vegas this week, a long-sought deal to curtail water use along the cratering Colorado River still seems a ways off.
Nearly six months have passed since Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton first asked the western states to come up with a plan to cut back on water use from the river next year by as much as 30%, but a cohesive proposal from the seven states that pull from the Colorado that supplies water to some 40 million people has yet to emerge.
Things have only gotten worse along the river since Touton’s request, and that decline shows no signs of slowing down. Reclamation officials said during public meetings in recent weeks that without any adjustments to current operations on the river, Lake Powell could drop to a point where Glen Canyon Dam would not be able to generate hydropower as early as the middle of next year while Lake Mead could drop another 100 feet — putting Hoover Dam’s power generation capabilities in jeopardy — by spring of 2025.
