Colorado River water conservation efforts get only halfway to a solution

In August 2026, the two largest reservoirs on the Colorado River, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, reached their lowest levels since being filled in 1936 and 1963, respectively. The federal government and the seven states in the Colorado River basin – Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming – have failed to agree on water usage reductions to prevent catastrophic declines in lake levels.

The required cuts are significant, with at least 3 million acre-feet (980 million gallons) of water needing to be reduced annually, and possibly as much as 4 million acre-feet (1.3 trillion gallons). While the Lower Basin states, which include Arizona, California and Nevada, have reduced their water use, those decreases add up to only about 3.7 million acre-feet over two years - roughly half of what is likely needed.

If deeper cuts are not made, the reservoirs that store surplus water could shrink to the point that only the natural flow of the river would be released downstream, resulting in drastic water supply cuts for the Lower Basin. The lack of adequate water is primarily due to insufficient snowpack and reduced snowmelt, as well as high evaporation rates from the massive reservoirs located in a hot, dry region.

Even if sufficient water were released from Lake Powell to Lake Mead, Lake Mead would still lose water due to evaporation. The impacts of water shortages would be felt by farmers and ranchers in the Upper Basin, as well as entities in the Lower Basin that receive water from the Central Arizona Project. Prospects for resolving the crisis include legal battles that could take up to a decade to resolve, and negotiators in the Lower Basin expressing dissatisfaction with the Bureau of Reclamation's proposed plan.