The scale of the disaster is visible along the shores of Lake Mead, where a white “bathtub ring” reveals where water used to be. The so-called Millennium Drought, now in its 23rd year, has reduced precipitation and snow runoff into the river and lakes so dramatically that a true water catastrophe now looms for an enormous chunk of the country. By the end of this year, Lake Mead is projected to be 27 percent full, with a water level 45 feet lower than it was only two years ago for Lake Powell, the number is 22 percent, and its surface is 70 feet below the same time in 2020. In 2000, Lakes Mead and Powell, the two huge reservoirs along the Colorado, were about 95 percent full. But the 1922 agreement that governs use of the Colorado along with more recent legal plans made to address diminishing resources mandate water usage cuts as river flow and lake levels fall. The Supreme Court just limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate emissions from power plants, and President Joe Biden’s legislative climate agenda remains stalled out in an obdurate Congress. It’s also one of the rare climate disasters that government officials will be legally required to address if current trends continue. “We’ve got to come together and find a way to manage and govern the system differently under climate change or there’s going to be catastrophic consequences for the Southwest, and I’m not overstating that.” “We really don’t have a choice to fail on this,” said Christopher Kuzdas, a senior water program manager with the Environmental Defense Fund. thirstier and thirstier, and offering up what may be the first climate change impact that the country literally cannot ignore.
The water source for 40 million people across seven states and part of Mexico is rapidly drying out, leaving the two biggest reservoirs in the U.S.
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