Since the ongoing Western drought, things have been getting worse out there, and I've been waiting for someone to give a digestible summary of what's happening with negotiations on the Colorado River because it's a complex, multi-state and multi-country problem. A few days ago, the New York Times ran just such a story (here, outside the paywall).
These are the main points:
- The seven states that share water from the Colorado River have not agreed to changes in the agreement, cutting the amount of water taken, so the Interior Department is going to step in.
- The cuts are needed because Lake Mead is at its lowest level ever and it's getting close to the level where the Hoover Dam will no longer be able to generate electricity. A bit lower than that and no water will be able to flow out at all.
- The original 1922 agreement over-allocated the amount of water available even in normal times, and the drought has lowered the amount significantly.
- California is allocated the most water and Nevada the least, though if it were adjusted for population I'm sure that would even out. According to the story, Las Vegas would be "effectively uninhabitable" without the water allocation. But it seems to me that would probably be true of many other major metropolitan areas affected.
Population continues to increase in the Southwest, and people go golfing. On acres of grass. While Arizona sells its aquifer water to the Saudis to grow alfalfa.
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