The Colorado River is in dire straits, and as it becomes clear that the river does not have nearly as much water as it once did, states that have relied on it for over a century are fighting over what remains.
On Tuesday, government officials from the Department of the Interior released a draft analysis with ideas on how to slow the Colorado River’s depletion. It provides freshwater to 40 million Americans and is the eventual meeting point of waterways in a massive area of around 246,000 square miles, but climate change and overuse have shrunk the river drastically over the past few years. Its flow has dropped 20% over the last century, and drought last year left two of the river’s largest artificial reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, at under 30% capacity.
