The Colorado River is in danger of drying up. How did the Colorado River drought crisis occur?
The problem has persisted for decades but has become acute in recent years as major reservoirs built on the river have dropped to dangerously low levels.
As a result, this prompted the Biden administration to call for unprecedented cuts in water use among the 40 million people who depend on the river.
The Colorado River provides water to almost 40 million people in two countries, seven states, 29 federally recognized Indian tribes, and 4 million acres of farmland.
What causes the Colorado River to dry up?
Due to a combination of continuing exploitation of water resources and catastrophic drought, the Colorado River is drying up.
Drought periods have persisted for more than 20 years, mainly due to a warming climate, which is mostly caused by humans burning fossil fuels.
In a presentation in Las Vegas in Dec., James Prairie said, "The amount of water being used by the seven western states and Mexico far exceeds how much water is running through the river."
The Colorado River's average natural flow was 13.4 million acre-feet between 2000 and 2020.
During the same time period, water usage averaged 15 million acre-feet.
Water use has outstripped supply by 33.6 million acre-feet since the drought began.
“These reservoirs have served us for 23 years but we’re now pushing them to their limits,” He said.
The changing connection between the snowpack in the mountains and runoff into the reservoirs is one of the most terrifying phenomena that has been unfolding in recent years.
Although there was a good amount of snowfall in the previous year — nearly 90% of the normal amount of snow fell — but only 60% of the usual runoff reached the reservoirs.
In 2021, the situation was much worse: another 90% snow year, but only 29% of the average runoff reached the reservoirs.
Climate change — specifically the hotter and drier conditions now permeating the West — is blamed by scientists for this collapse or breakdown.
Drier soils soak up more water before it reaches the lakes. Hot weather evaporates more water and increases the growing season for plants, sucking up more water.
Lakes Powell and Mead -
"Lake Powell" on the Arizona-Utah border and "Lake Mead" on the Arizona-Nevada border are the major artificial reservoirs on the Colorado River.
These hotter and drier climates have drained these two lakes of the western United States to levels unseen since these reservoirs were first filled decades ago.
The year before the drought began in 1999, those two lakes together held 47.6 million acre-feet of water, that’s about 92% full.
They were about 25% full this week, holding a total of 12.9 million acre-feet of water. An acre-foot is equal to 326,000 gallons of water, or roughly the annual water use of two to three typical households.