Wednesday Top of the Scroll: Major water cutbacks loom as shrinking Colorado River nears ‘moment of reckoning’
As the West endures another year of unrelenting drought worsened by climate change, the Colorado River’s reservoirs have declined so low that major water cuts will be necessary next year to reduce risks of supplies reaching perilously low levels, a top federal water official said Tuesday. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said during a Senate hearing in Washington that federal officials now believe protecting “critical levels” at the country’s largest reservoirs — Lake Mead and Lake Powell — will require much larger reductions in water deliveries. … The needed cuts, she said, amount to between 2 million and 4 million acre-feet next year.
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- U.S. Bureau of Reclamation: Statement of Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton
- Colorado Sun: Opinion – A Colorado foundation gives it all away — now — to battle the climate crisis
- Business Wire: Metropolitan General Manager Issues Statement on Need to Respond to Declining Colorado River Conditions