Feds Slash Colorado River Release to Historic Lows
The Bureau of Reclamation has reduced the amount of water that can be released from Lake Powell at Glen Canyon Dam, which serves much of the West in the Colorado River Basin, thanks to drought.
A new report has brought a sense of urgency to the slow-moving disaster represented by the shrinking Colorado River.
For days and weeks, water officials fretted that the federal Bureau of Reclamation's anticipated 24-month study would deliver bad news, and it did. The agency—a division of the Department of Interior that provides water and power in the West—announced today it would cut water released from Lake Powell's Glen Canyon Dam by 750,000 acre-feet next year. That's about enough water to serve 1.5 million homes.
"Unprecedented," said Scott Huntley, spokesperson for the Las Vegas-based Southern Nevada Water Authority, whose chief, Pat Mulroy, has mentioned the idea of seeking federal aid.
A business coalition warned of an "unprecedented water crisis within the next
