The Lower Basin of the Colorado River is now operating in a tier 2 shortage condition for the first time ever. That means states like Arizona and Nevada must now reduce their consumption of the river’s water.
- The Colorado River supplies water to 40 million people and millions of acres of farmland, Camille Calimlim Touton, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, said.
- The Bureau of Reclamation is working with basin states, tribes and Mexico to find a solution on how to manage the river, according to Touton.
- Touton explained that the Bureau of Reclamation is allocating money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to the Colorado River Basin to invest in better infrastructure for things like water recycling.
SEE ALSO | US Fish and Wildlife Service conservation projects
Beautiful landscape view of curved colorado river in Grand canyon, Arizona, USA (Photo/Adobe Stock)
PAGE, AZ - MARCH 25: A bleached "bathtub ring", the result of a six-year drought that has dramatically dropped the level of the reservoir, shows in Face Canyon at Lake Powell on March 25, 2007 near Page, Arizona. Lake Powell and the next biggest Colorado River reservoir, the nearly 100-year-old Lake Mead, are at the lowest levels ever recorded. Environmentalists have long-lamented the damming of scenic Glen Canyon, the eastern sibling of the Grand Canyon, in the early 1960?s to create the 186-mile-long Lake Powell. The US Bureau of Reclamation is evaluating four proposals to manage the drought on the Colorado River which supplies water and power to millions of people in the western states. The bureau has warned that shortages are possible as early as 2010. If the water drops too far, power generators at the dams will become inoperable. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
PAGE, ARIZONA - MARCH 27: A view Lake Powell on March 27, 2022 in Page, Arizona. As severe drought grips parts of the Western United States, water levels at Lake Powell dropped to their lowest level since the lake was created by the damming the Colorado River in 1963. Lake Powell is currently at 25 percent of capacity, a historic low, and has also lost at least 7 percent of its total capacity. The Colorado River Basin connects Lake Powell and Lake Mead and supplies water to 40 million people in seven western states. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
