Colorado River

On this episode of Colorado Edition, we focus on water. We have two stories from our ongoing coverage of the Colorado River: Checking in with the people who have a front row seat to the crisis, and seeing if the Colorado River Compact is still working.

The Colorado River's foundational agreement is 100 years old this month. And while the document among seven western states was groundbreaking for its time, it's currently left the southwest to grapple with a massive gap between water supply and demand.

In Page, Arizona, a shrinking Lake Powell is causing problems for the local water utility. A short-term fix is underway, but Page says it needs more money for a backup.

A Nevada water agency has taken the first concrete step toward accounting for evaporation and other losses in the Colorado River’s Lower Basin. The new analysis attempts to pinpoint exactly how much water is lost, and who should cut back to bring the system closer to a balance between supply and demand.

The Gila River Indian Community will leave some of its water in Lake Mead, and aims to receive federal funds from the Inflation Reduction Act.

Ongoing warming in the Southwest has bottomed out major reservoirs on the Colorado River and raised alarms among cities and farms that rely on the water. But the region’s rapid warming and drying trend is also a threat to the environment in one of the world’s most recognizable wonders: the Grand Canyon.

Federal officials say they are ready to have a “candid conversation” about accounting for water lost to evaporation in the Colorado River’s Lower Basin. They are giving states until the end of 2024 to prepare for what would amount to a significant cut in annual water allocations to users in Nevada, California and Arizona.

This past spring Grand Canyon National Park became the site of an extended norovirus outbreak, with more than 200 cases of gastrointestinal illness among rafters and backpackers.

Cities in the arid Southwest are investing in water reuse technology, keeping more water in the system and bolstering drinking supplies in an area hit hard by drought.

The intensifying crisis facing the Colorado River amounts to what is fundamentally a math problem. The 40 million people who depend on the river to fill up a glass of water at the dinner table or wash their clothes or grow food across millions of acres use significantly more each year than actually flows through the banks of the Colorado.