Colorado River can no longer sustain Western thirst
Back when the Colorado River Compact was being negotiated about 100 years ago, water was not viewed as a problem. Officials deemed there was plenty to go around. Fast forward a century and the seven Colorado River Basin states – particularly the three lower basin states of California, Arizona, and Nevada – are using more than the system can sustain….Chris Harris, executive director of the Colorado River Board of California, says the basin states must grapple with the “new normal” of reduced flows in a river system once thought to provide ample water for the West….Harris says it’s not just the sustainability of the Colorado River system that needs addressing, but the wider Western water reliability of the federal Central Valley Project (CVP) and California’s State Water Project (SWP).
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