Publication Date June 14, 2022 | Los Angeles Times

Major water cutbacks loom as shrinking Colorado River nears ‘moment of reckoning’

Colorado River Basin, US
Exposed banks of Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam show how low water levels have dropped on the Colorado River-fed reservoir due to persistent and worsening drought.(Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
Exposed banks of Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam show how low water levels have dropped on the Colorado River-fed reservoir due to persistent and worsening drought.(Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Climate Signals summary: Human-caused climate change continues to worsen the megadrought in the western United States, threatening water security in the Colorado River basin.


Article excerpt: 

As the West endures another year of unrelenting drought worsened by climate change, the Colorado River’s reservoirs have declined so low that major water cuts will be necessary next year to reduce risks of supplies reaching perilously low levels, a top federal water official said Tuesday.

Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said during a Senate hearing in Washington that federal officials now believe protecting “critical levels” at the country’s largest reservoirs — Lake Mead and Lake Powell — will require much larger reductions in water deliveries.

“A warmer, drier West is what we are seeing today,” Touton told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “And the challenges we are seeing today are unlike anything we have seen in our history.”

You can read the rest of this article here: 

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2022-06-14/big-water-cutbacks-ordered-amid-colorado-river-shortage