Monitors observing Lake Powell’s water levels are issuing a dire warning: The second largest reservoir in the country, and one of the most popular destinations for Arizonans and Western tourists, will suffer yet another year of drought and accelerated decline. Hydrologists say this is the consequence of a lack of winter 2024 runoff, itself the product of an unseasonably dry cold season. Experts predict the winter melt, which is responsible for replenishing the endangered lake, will total just 55% of the annual average. … As the lake continues to shrink, surrounding states disagree on how to reduce their 40 million residents’ collective water use to stave off the reservoir’s total destruction. Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming legislators are sparing over which locales should decrease their residential, commercial, and agricultural intakes. 

Other Colorado River Basin news:

• KJZZ (Phoenix, Ariz.): Arizona Senate leader suggests making desalination a part of Colorado Rivers talks
• ABC15 (Phoenix, Ariz.): ASU researcher warns: Without groundwater changes, few will be able to dig wells
• Inside Climate News: Colorado River Basin aquifers are declining even more steeply than the river, new research shows
• KESQ (Thousand Palms, Calif.): Groundwater in the Colorado River Basin is being depleted. What that means for the Coachella Valley