Lake Mead

Six of the seven states that use water from the Colorado River proposed a way for the federal government to cut back on water use and protect dropping water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell.

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.

The Bureau of Reclamation filed a Notice of Intent to propose changes to the amount of water released from Lake Powell and Lake Mead.

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 Department of the Interior designated $4 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act for drought mitigation in the Colorado River basin.

Since Glen Canyon Dam was commissioned in 1964 and it first began filling, Lake Powell has never been like it is right now, at just 27% of its capacity. It’s threatening to dip below the minimum elevation needed to produce hydropower within the next year. A string of dry winters could push it to dead pool status.

Crews quickly extinguished a transformer that caught fire near the base of the Hoover Dam.

Water agencies from Arizona, Nevada, California and the federal government agreed to a multimillion dollar plan to keep more water in Lake Mead. The deal was signed at the Colorado River Water Users Association conference in Las Vegas.

The U.S. government released projections Wednesday that indicate an even more troubling outlook for a river that serves 40 million people in the American West.

Federal officials declared a first-ever water shortage for the lower Colorado River, triggering mandatory cutbacks for some users. Ongoing drought across the West, increased demand and the wide-reaching effects of climate change have steadily reduced water levels in the nation’s largest reservoirs. Usage restrictions will begin in January, and are expected to be felt most sharply by farmers in Arizona.