Who uses most of the Colorado River water?

Within agriculture, livestock feed is the largest water user, at 55 percent. The majority of the water in the Colorado River basin — more than one trillion gallons — is used to grow feed for livestock, connecting the region's water crisis to how much dairy and meat we eat.



People Also Ask

About 85–90 percent of the Colorado River's discharge originates in melting snowpack from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Wyoming. The three major upper tributaries of the Colorado – the snow-fed Gunnison, Green, and San Juan – alone deliver almost 9 million acre-feet (11 km3) per year to the main stem.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

The Colorado River is an important water resource for areas outside of the basin, including Denver, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, and San Diego for public (municipal) supply, and the Imperial Valley in California for agricultural water supplies.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

The three “Lower Basin” states also receive 7.5 million acre-feet. Of that, California has the right to take up to 4.4 million acre-feet from the river each year; because they have the oldest legal rights to the river, Californians are also the last to see cuts during drought.

MORE DETAILS

The Colorado River is drying up due to a combination of chronic overuse of water resources and a historic drought. The dry period has lasted more than two decades, spurred by a warming climate primarily due to humans burning fossil fuels.

MORE DETAILS

Key Points. Lake Mead has dropped by 70% due to droughts in the West and it will take many years to refill again, naturally. The reservoir is vitally important to millions of people as a source of water, electricity, and recreation.

MORE DETAILS

As mentioned, it's possible for the water level in Lake Mead to drop to the point where the dam cannot generate hydroelectric power. However, it's very unlikely that the lake would completely run out of water.

MORE DETAILS

Lake Mead's water level continues to fall to historic lows, bringing the reservoir less than 150 feet away from “dead pool” — so low that water cannot flow downstream from the dam. The loss of water entirely from this source would be catastrophic.

MORE DETAILS

Completely surrendering the Colorado River to the free market, as PERC and others suggest, could make water appropriately expensive to use. But it could also reward investors that have snapped up basin farms recently without solving the water crisis, as has been seen in Australia.

MORE DETAILS

Record snowfall in the West wasn't enough to alleviate drought impacting Lake Mead. The record snowfall in the West wasn't enough to permanently alter the course of the drought impacting Lake Mead. FOX Weather's Robert Ray reports on the ongoing water issues and the Colorado River.

MORE DETAILS