What is the most important river in the American West is drying up?

The Colorado River, one of the most important river systems in the country, is drying up at an alarming rate. The issues surrounding depleting water levels along the Colorado River basin have become as heated as the arid climate contributing to the moisture-sapping megadrought persisting in the region for decades.



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The Colorado River, one of the most important river systems in the country, is drying up at an alarming rate. The issues surrounding depleting water levels along the Colorado River basin have become as heated as the arid climate contributing to the moisture-sapping megadrought persisting in the region for decades.

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Lake Mead's water levels have reached historic lows due to a drought from the Colorado River.

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What happens if Lake Mead dries up forever? If Lake Mead were to run out of water, the Hoover Dam would no longer be able to generate power or provide water to surrounding cities and farms. The Colorado River would essentially stop flowing, and the Southwest would be in a major water crisis.

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Lake Mead retains just over one-fourth of the water that it was originally filled with, according to reports from July of 2022. The main contributors to Lake Mead's decreased water levels, besides population growth leading to depletion, include drought and climate change.

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The Colorado River Is Shrinking. See What's Using All the Water. Hint: It's less about long showers and more about what's for dinner. California, Arizona and Nevada get their share of water from Lake Mead, which is formed by the Colorado River at the Hoover Dam and is controlled by the federal government.

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Tourism on the Colorado River is a $9 billion-a-year industry, but that will drop off a cliff with fewer options for rafting, fishing, and boating. Many of the canals and branches from the Colorado River that channel drinking water would also run dry. Arizona gets more than one-third of its water from the river.

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Colorado River crisis is so bad, lakes Mead and Powell are unlikely to refill in our lifetimes. Boaters are dwarfed by a white bathtub ring around Lake Mead.

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Electricity would not just be the only thing lost. Without Lake Mead, Las Vegas would lose access to 90 percent of its water sources. If Lake Mead were to reach dead pool, it would technically still be able to supply drinking water to Las Vegas. But there will not be enough water for agricultural activities.

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Cultural health, sacred places, and traditional food sources are threatened along the Colorado River's Grand Canyon, Alaska's Chilkat River, and Washington's Snake River.

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Tulare Lake, which refilled for the first time in 40 years after atmospheric river storms pummeled California , will take at least a year to evaporate entirely, experts said. The once-dormant California lake resurrected in this year's extreme sequence of storms won't disappear anytime soon.

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Several springs with high amounts of snowmelt have resulted in the reappearance of the lake. The high amount of snowmelt in spring 2023 caused Tulare Lake to form again.

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Tulare Lake used to be the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi. A wet winter in California has revived the dried up lake — leaving whole communities under water.

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