From CBS News: "Colorado River reservoirs hit record lows as Trump administration threatens major cuts." From the article:
A deepening water crisis in the Western United States has reached an impasse as disagreement among affected states is grinding progress to a halt, and the well of potential solutions is close to running dry.
The nation's two largest reservoirs — Lake Mead and Lake Powell on the Colorado River — have fallen to their lowest levels on record. It's a moment of reckoning in the drought-stricken West as seven states can't agree on how to share the rapidly shrinking water supply.
The Colorado River is a lifeline for the region, and it's the line dividing the upper basin states, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico, and the lower basin states, California, Arizona and Nevada.
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After years of failed negotiations between the states, the Trump administration is now poised to impose sweeping cuts.
California, Arizona and Nevada have offered to cut their use by about 1.6 million acre-feet, or roughly 500 billion gallons, a year for the next two years.
However, federal officials who control the water flow are considering cuts nearly twice that amount. The major cuts would likely mean higher costs for cities trying to secure water, tighter restrictions on outdoor water and significant changes for farmers who use the majority of the river's supply.
Water wars are nothing new to the western US.
ReplyDeleteYou can't legislate rain.
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