Colorado River

More than 500 households in the rural Arizona desert are set to be without running water starting January, 1 2023, as first reported by NBC News. The homes, located in Rio Verde Foothills—an affluent, unincorporated community in the state’s Maricopa County, were built without complying to Arizona’s usual 100-year water supply requirement. Rio Verde Foothills doesn’t have its own water system. Instead, people living in the arid locale rely on private wells or water trucked up fromthe nearby city of Scottsdale.However, in…

U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) speaks to the media at a canvasing location at Llantera Garcia’s Auto Service on November 07, 2022 in Tucson, Arizona.Photo: Kevin Dietsch (Getty Images)This story is part of the Grist series Parched, an in-depth look at how climate change-fueled drought is reshaping communities, economies, and ecosystems. You can subscribe to Grist’s weekly newsletter here.Mark Kelly, the incumbent Democratic senator from Arizona, is facing a strong reelection challenge from far-right Republican nominee Blake…

Low-water restrictions on the barge loads make for cautious navigation through the Mississippi River as evidenced by this tow passing under the Mississippi River bridges in Vicksburg, Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022.Photo: Rogelio V. Solis (Getty Images)The Mississippi River’s water levels are so low that it’s messing with barge traffic and recreational boat travel along the crucial waterway. These are the lowest water levels that the river has seen in about 10 years, brought on by drought across the Midwest this year and low…

The Hoover Dam water intake towers at Lake Mead, the country's largest man-made water reservoir, formed by the dam on the Colorado River in the Southwestern United States, has dropped 2 inches every day since February (26 feet in one year), are viewed at approximately 25% capacity on July 12, 2022 near Boulder City, Nevada. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)George Rose | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesThe Interior Department this week announced that it will use some of the $4 billion in drought mitigation funding from…

A bleached ‘bathtub ring’ is visible on the banks of Lake Mead near the Hoover Dam on August 19, 2022 in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Arizona.Photo: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images)Officials out West are worried that crucial reservoirs in the Colorado River Basin states are going to run dry in only three years if significant water reductions aren’t implemented soon.At a conference last Friday, Colorado River Water Conservation District General Manager Andy Mueller told attendees that major cuts need to be made to…

Photo: Mario Taima (Getty Images)Like Lake Mead and Lake Powell along the Colorado River, New Mexico’s largest reservoir has reached alarmingly low levels. Photos taken last week at Elephant Butte Reservoir, which is located along the Rio Grande, show stark “bathtub rings”—mineral lines that show where the water levels previously sat—and huge swathes of newly exposed shore as the water keeps dropping.As of Thursday, the water level in the reservoir sat at just above 4,291 feet (1,308 meters)—well below the August monthly…

The Colorado River, which provides drinking water to about 40 million people in the U.S., is in dire straits. Widespread and severe drought (worsened by climate change), coupled with ongoing high water demand, have left the river and the reservoirs along it at record lows. This week, a key deadline for decisive planning action has come and gone, with no resolution.Federal officials issued something of an ultimatum to all seven states that rely on the waterway back in June: Figure out how to cut down on water usage by a…

Much of the riverbed is exposed in Bernalillo, New Mexico, some 15 miles north of Albuquerque, on July 21, 2022.Photo: Susan Montoya Bryan (AP)The latest news from the parched West is unsurprising but still shockingly bad: One of the region’s most important rivers is running dry in places where water is usually plentiful. Following a period of incredibly hot days in July, a stretch of the Rio Grande river in Albuquerque, New Mexico is nothing more than a muddy creek bed—something that hasn’t happened in decades. As of…

Low water levels at Lake Mead. Photo: Mario Tama (Getty Images)Lake Mead’s water levels have reached a new low. This time, the reservoir’s levels are as low as they were back in 1936 when it was developed.Data from the Bureau of Reclamation shows that water levels in the reservoir, which sits on the border of Arizona and Nevada along the Colorado River, were about 1,044 feet above sea level this week. Water levels last month stood at 1,047.69 feet—that’s more than 20 feet below levels at this time in 2021, which was also…

A mountain meadow in Summit County, Colorado in 2021.Photo: JASON CONNOLLY/AFP (Getty Images)Colorado is going to become hotter, dryer, and a lot less skiable in just a few decades, according to new research.The study, published in Earth and Space Science, used climate models to forecast the future of snow in Colorado, finding that the state is set to lose 50% to 60% of its snow by 2080, thanks to climate change-related drought conditions. Nearby states Wyoming and Utah are also likely tobecome less snowy and more arid,…