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Without extensive water infrastructure like Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the American West would likely look very different—there would be no sprawling desert cities, no endless miles of irrigated agriculture. Rivers in the West, especially the Colorado River, shaped the way that the West developed. Nearly 40 million people, including dozens of tribes, depend on the river’s water. Now, the climate crisis threatens to break that foundation. "We bent nature to suit our own needs," said Brad Udall, a climate and water expert at Colorado State University. "And now nature is going to bend us."
Lakes Mead and Powell on the Colorado River are the nation's two largest reservoirs, and a prolonged trend of warm and dry conditions is pushing them to record lows. A water shortage is expected to be declared by the federal government for the first time later this summer. The Colorado River in its entirety experienced its driest 12-month period on record from May 2020 to April 2021, and the flow into Lake Mead is now just a quarter of normal. The reservoir is now barely a third full. Record-low levels of soil moisture diminished this past spring's runoff, locking in water supply shortfalls until at least next winter.
In June, the level of Lake Mead plunged below 1,075ft, triggering a first-ever federally mandated cut in water allocations next year. Water managers expect this historic low to spiral even lower by the end of 2022, triggering a second round of cuts. Should second tier cuts occur, Arizona will lose nearly a fifth of the water it gets from the Colorado River. But it's not just the Colorado River that is suffering. Rivers all across the region are running low, such as the Arizona Salt River, which has a fascinating history.
The low water levels are already causing fishing and recreation closures. Lack of water could also cause an electrical shortage in the West as hydroelectric facilities shut down; such a possibility prompted a warning from the United States Energy Association that a "megadrought-induced electricity shortage could be catastrophic, affecting everything from food production to industrial manufacturing."
Scientists have made clear the current conditions would be virtually impossible without human-caused climate change, pointing to a longer-term aridification of the region. With climate change here to stay, the question is now, "How will the West solve its water crisis?" According to experts, the answer lies in water management and conservation, reining in demands on the region's water. In general, people should be working to use less water. For example, this year the Nevada legislature voted to declare so-called "nonfunctional turf" in the Las Vegas area illegal in an effort to conserve water. The situation is bad enough that people have begun to offer drastic solutions, such as a bold national infrastructure project of building a water pipeline from the South to the Southwest.
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The amount of water now available across the US West is well below that of any time in modern civilization."
