The Colorado River is tapped out.
Another dry year has left the waterway that supplies 40 million people in the Southwest parched. A 21-year warming and drying trend is pushing the nation’s two largest reservoirs to record lows. For the first time this summer, the federal government will declare a shortage, triggering cutbacks for some users.
Climate change is exacerbating the current drought as warming temperatures upend how the water cycle functions in the Southwest. The 1,450-mile long river is a drinking water supply, a hydroelectric power generator, and an irrigator of crop fields across seven Western states and two in Mexico. Scientists say the only way forward is to rein in demands on the river’s water to match its decline...