The word “crisis” ended a Colorado River conference that drew representatives from Southwest U.S. states, tribes and Mexico to Las Vegas this week.
river water split among recipients in seven Western U.S. states, 30 Native American tribes and Mexico.
The problem was demonstrated again and again since Wednesday in new data and charts at workshops and panels:into the river in the so-called Upper Basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming than is drawn from it by the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada. But unrelenting drought has dropped the river’s largest reservoirs to unprecedented low levels. Combined, Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam on the Nevada-Arizona state line and Lake Powell formed by Glen Canyon Dam on the Arizona-Utah line were at 92% capacity in 1999. Today, they are at 26%.
“I can feel the anxiety and the uncertainty in this room, and in the basin, as we look at the river and the hydrology that we face,” said Camille Touton, the Bureau of Reclamation commissioner with the power to act if water users don't.
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