The Colorado River Crisis
The river that supplies 40 million people has lost roughly a fifth of its flow since 2000, forcing a renegotiation of how seven states share the water.
The Colorado River supplies water to about 40 million people across seven states and Mexico, irrigates millions of acres of farmland, and fills Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the two largest reservoirs in the United States. Since 2000 the river has lost roughly 20 percent of its flow.
Both reservoirs hit record lows in 2022 and 2023, prompting emergency federal action and a high-stakes renegotiation of the operating rules that govern the basin after 2026. The Upper Basin (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico) and Lower Basin (California, Arizona, Nevada) disagree sharply over who should cut use.
The crisis has pushed river-dependent communities toward aggressive conservation and alternative supplies. Proposed mega-projects like Utah's Lake Powell Pipeline have stalled under federal scrutiny and opposition from other basin states, accelerating the turn toward reuse.
Sources & further reading
States facing this
Colorado
Nevada
New Mexico
Utah
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