Amid dire Colorado River outlook, states plan to tap their Lake Mead savings accounts
A complex and arcane water banking program in the lower Colorado River basin, adopted in 2007 and later amended, was designed to incentivize water conservation, prevent waste, and boost storage in a waning Lake Mead. The program has already proved its worth, lifting Lake Mead dozens of feet higher than it otherwise would have been…In the next two years, the program will be tested in another way, becoming a small but important source of water for Arizona and California even as the lake continues to fall to levels that haven’t been witnessed in several generations.
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