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At the annual Colorado River Water Users Conference, held last week in Las Vegas, Nevada, there was broad agreement that the river is in crisis but no agreement yet as to what to do about it. Meanwhile, between overallocation of the river's water and an ongoing drought, reservoirs continue to shrink. Federal officials now warn that in two years, Lake Mead could reach "dead pool" — a water level so low that water will no longer flow past Hoover Dam to users downstream.
Despite the widely-acknowledged seriousness of the situation, negotiators have not yet come to a voluntary agreement that would make meaningful cuts to water use. If water managers from across the Colorado River Basin cannot reach an agreement, the federal government may impose drastic and mandatory cuts.
But even this may be too little too late to avoid catastrophic impacts. "The circumstances on the ground are overtaking the pace of negotiations and discussions," said John Entsminger, the general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. “One way or another, physics and Mother Nature are going to dictate outcomes if we don’t come up with some solutions."
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We can't rely on what we've done in the past to be adequate for the future.”
