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The Colorado River is responsible for providing water to seven different states in the U.S. but is also rich in wildlife and environment diverse. The river is also a large recreational opportunity for tourists and locals alike and has been for many decades. The River is in danger of overconsumption of water and with the increasing population the problem seems to be getting bigger and bigger by year.

McBride, Pete. “Colorado River - I Am Red.” YouTube, YouTube, 16 Apr. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqYcC7jEe44.

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The Colorado River is a source of water for over 40 million people in the Western United States. In this map, the dark black line represents the Colorado River watershed. The areas adjacent to the Colorada River watershed that use the water are shown in red stripe. As you can see, the large cities that use this watershed are not in the parameters.

Roaring Fork Conservancy. "Colorado River Watershed." 2014, http://www.roaringfork.org/your-watershed/colorado-river-watershed/. Accessed 7 December 2020.
U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation. "Colorado River Watershed." 2014. JPEG file.

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The Colorado River compact was signed on November 24th, 1922 and was the first document defining the river's management. The doument has stood for almost a century governing laws and regulations, treaties, court decisions, etc. As one of the West's largest rivers, it provides many resources to populations around the area and the document only began to address the threats. Law makers in 1922 could not fathom the world we are in today and the magnitude of the problems the Colorado River now faces. The compact was mainly to assign states their share of the river and the portions they would maintain and source from. The water was eventually divided equally among the upper and lower basin of the river, and all states were granted equal water.

Below is a figure from the article showing the projected use of the Colorado River in each state. As you can see, California was projected to deplete the largest amount of the basin, and still is today.

Gelt, Joe. "Sharing Colorado River Water: History, Public Policy and the Colorado River Compact." Water Resources Research Center, vol. 10, no. 1, August 1997, https://wrrc.arizona.edu/publications/arroyo-newsletter/sharing-colorado-river-water-history-public-policy-and-colorado-river. Accessed 6 December 2020.

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Warming global temperatures will speed up the desimation of an already vunerable asset. The Colorado River is incredibly important for everyone living in the Southwestern United States and parts of Mexico. Rain and snow shortages only account for a small portion of why the river has been losing water. Reduced streamflow due to higher temperatures has also had a large impact, which can be seen when looking at the Lake Mead or Lake Powell resevoirs. The resevoirs are expected to continue to decrease and with them, the access to drinking water for populations relying on them (Thiel 3). The drought of the river is worse than ever and if it continues like it is projected to, not only will drinking water be affected but also agriculture, energy, storm management, and many other important processes the river provides for. The overuse of the river is one problem that can be addressed, the more complex problem is climate change. Getting control over global warming will require global change and while that most likely will not happen very soon, the easier issue to tackle is conservation. The Colorado River can still be saved with the management of how much water is used.

Thiel, Aaron, "Climate Change Impacts on Hydropower in the Colorado River Basin." Center for Water Policy, https://uwm.edu/centerforwaterpolicy/wp-content/uploads/sites/170/2013/10/Colorado_Energy_Final.pdf. Accessed 6 December 2020.

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Colorado River Is Shrinking Due To Climate Change

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The below image illustrates the amount of surface river water used to provide for seven U.S. states. It also shows the amount of groundwater that is used in comparison. When the Colorado River compact was created in 1922, it was one of the wettest years on record and the levels of surface water in the river were very high. Surface water, from then on was overallocated and groundwater was not used nearly as much. This has exasberated the problem of drought that the Colorado River has faced and continues to battle.

O'Connor, Rachel. "Colorado River Basin story map highlights importance of managing water below the ground." Environmental Defense Fund. 24 October 2019, http://blogs.edf.org/growingreturns/2019/10/24/colorado-river-basin-story-map-highlights-importance-of-managing-water-below-the-ground/. Accessed 6 December 2020.

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The below graph illustrates the historical amount of water in the Colorado River by volume versus the usage. The graph adjacent projects the supply and demand for water in the coming years. As can be seen, the water supply available in 1922 was at an all time high, and has since been on a downward trend.

O'Connor, Rachel. "Colorado River Basin story map highlights importance of managing water below the ground." Environmental Defense Fund. 24 October 2019, http://blogs.edf.org/growingreturns/2019/10/24/colorado-river-basin-story-map-highlights-importance-of-managing-water-below-the-ground/. Accessed 6 December 2020.

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The Colorado River has drainage basin spanning over 238,600 sq miles of the U.S. Of these miles, hundreds of dams are built to harness the rivers water and hydroelectricity. The main portion of the river has over 15 dams, and hundreds more are built in its tributaries (Migiro). Some of the most well known dams are the Hoover Dam, the Parker Dam, and the Glen Canyon Dam. Environmentalist groups have pushed to removed several dams from the Colorado River because of water scarcity, but have not had much success.

Migiro, Geoffrey. "How Many Dams Are There On The Colorado River?" World Facts. 30 August 2018, https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/how-many-dams-are-there-on-the-colorado-river.html. Accessed 7 December 2020.

U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation. "Environmentalists Push For Removing Dam Along Colorado River." 3 Oct 2019. JPEG file.

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The Colorado River and the many dams it supports are a large contributor to energy in the Southwestern U.S. and Mexico. The dams produce energy equivalent to the energy required for 780,000 households per year (CFWO). The below map illustrates the amount and location of dams along the Colorado River basin and its tributaries.

Colorado River Commission of Nevada (CRCN). 2007. Maps, http://crc.nv.gov/index.asp?m=maps. Accessed 6 December 2020.

Thiel, Aaron, "Climate Change Impacts on Hydropower in the Colorado River Basin." Center for Water Policy, https://uwm.edu/centerforwaterpolicy/wp-content/uploads/sites/170/2013/10/Colorado_Energy_Final.pdf. Accessed 6 December 2020.

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The amount of energy created by the dams is dependent on the level of water in the stored river water in resevoirs. Several resevoirs exist such as Lake Powell, Lake Mead, Lake Havasu, and Lake Mohave. These reservoirs have been getting lower year by year and the bathtub ring showing previous water levels in Lake Powell helps illustrate the problem.

"Fun Fact: Lake Powell Bathtub Ring" Trips tips and tees. JPEG file. https://tripstipsandtees.com/2017/12/01/lake-powell-bathtub-ring/

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The water from the Colorado River is incredibly important for sustaining agriculture in the Western United States. The Article below discussing the specific uses for the water and if it will continue to deplete.

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Eric Kuhn is not the person you'd expect to deliver ominous revelations about Colorado's future.

Kuhn runs the Colorado River Water Conservation District, which represents 15 counties on the state's Western Slope. Compared to some of Colorado's other water agencies, the River District leads a relatively low-profile existence on one floor of a small office building in the mountain town of Glenwood Springs. The district has 23 employees, a dog-friendly office policy and a vehicle fleet composed mainly of Subarus, all of which gives the enterprise the folksy charm of an REI catalog.

At the age of 59, Kuhn is resistant to many of the most rudimentary conventions of the water business -- things like bolo ties and golf -- and he is not particularly partial to the back-slapping bonhomie in which even the staunchest water adversaries often engage. He favors jeans and Nikes, and sometimes leaves the office to walk a footpath along the river and turn over problems in his mind.

Kuhn has a warm personality and a fierce, focused intelligence. He devotes a great deal of energy to understanding things like the relative performance characteristics of various types of weather radar, and he has been known to wander off in the middle of a conversation when an important breakthrough materializes in his head. "He's one of these scary-brilliant people," says his wife, Sue. "It's just kind of how he's wired."

He also has something of the manner of a well-read naval officer -- which, it turns out, he once was. He spent six years aboard submarines, spying on the Soviets' nuclear weapons program. It's tempting to think that Kuhn's way of thinking about the Colorado River was shaped by those long deployments in the murky depths, when his submarine's survival depended on the intelligent interpretation of what little data could be gathered.

Kuhn has lately become obsessed with one of the bigger riddles hanging over Colorado's future, and his quest for answers has challenged some of the fundamental tenets of the state's water orthodoxy.

"I've always been concerned that our reliable water supply is a lot less than what we've been suggesting," he says. "I think there's a lot less available than we thought there was."

More than 3 million people in Colorado -- roughly two-thirds of the state's population -- rely on water from the Colorado River. The river sustains alfalfa, apples and pears, Olathe sweet corn, and ski and ranch towns across the Western Slope. Yet its water may be even more important to the Front Range -- Denver and its cluster of urban and suburban satellites that lie hard against the eastern foothills of the Rockies.

More than a dozen tunnels channel water underneath the Continental Divide to roughly 2.5 million people on the Front Range. Moreover, the state is expected to grow by 2.9 million people over the next 25 years, and the Colorado River has long been seen as the only real source of water for the future.

So it's not surprising that water managers have, for years, privately asked: How much more of the Colorado River can the state use?

Publicly, the state's water managers tend to stick to a time-worn mantra: Under the terms of the interstate treaties that govern the river, Colorado still has as much as 1.5 million acre-feet left to develop. That's enough water for about 12 million new residents, more than four times the state's official population projection for the next quarter of a century.

But there has always been an unspoken acknowledgment of a much grimmer possibility. Six other states also rely on the Colorado River. And between the peculiarities of the so-called Law of the River and mistaken assumptions about the river's long-term performance, Colorado may have to content itself with little more than "the right to leftovers," as two observers once put it. In a severe drought, in fact, cities and farms within the state could be pitted against each other in a fight for water.

That always seemed like an abstract possibility, until just such a drought wrapped its hands around the river in 1999, and kept them there right up to the present day. And so Kuhn decided it was time he figured out just how much water was left for Colorado -- and, by extension, how long the state could continue to grow.

Until recently, "the thought in Colorado was that it would take another hundred years," Kuhn says. "But the water supply we thought we had isn't there."

Read more

More from Water

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Eric Kuhn is not the person you'd expect to deliver ominous revelations about Colorado's future. Kuhn runs the Colorado River Water Conservation District, which represents 15 counties on the state's Western Slope. Compared to some of Colorado's other water agencies, the River District leads a relatively low-profile existence on one floor of a small office building in the mountain town of Glenwood Springs.

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Over half of the water from the Colorado River basin is used for agriculture production. Several of the states that use the water for agriciulture are extremely arid. Arizona, California, and New Mexico for example, need large amounts of water to hydrate the soil and increase crop yield. Sustainable farming techniques have not been implemented in these places and the population continues to grow, and the stored water continues to drain.

Can I Farm? Water Resources Research Center, JPEG Image. https://wrrc.arizona.edu/gila/can-i-farm. Accessed 7 December 2020.

Triedman, Natalie. "Environment and Ecology of the Colorado River Basin." Colorado College. https://www.coloradocollege.edu/dotAsset/cbb78858-d078-4a7c-ba80-2040569abbdd.pdf

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The Colorado River has been a resource and home to Native Americans before the area was discovered by Europeans. "For over 12,000 years, the river has been an important source of water and life for indigenous groups living in and around this vast canyon. Indigenous groups used the river’s water for agriculture and to fortify their lives in the canyon and along the rim" (). The Havasupai, Hopi, Hualapai, Paiute, Navajo, Yavapai-Apache, and Zuni Tribes are all ingrained in the history of the colorado river and present for the discussions regarding it's future. The rivers important cultural uses are why it is so important to maintain for the people who rely on it. Not only is the river a resource but it is also holds a lot of history.

Youngs, Yolonda. "Colorado River." History at the Grand Canyon, https://grcahistory.org/history/colorado-river/#:~:text=For%20over%2012%2C000%20years%2C%20the,canyon%20and%20along%20the%20rim. Accessed 7 December 2020.

Grand Canyon Visitor Center. JPEG file. https://explorethecanyon.com/historical-information-from-the-visitor-center/. Accessed 7 December 2020.

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The riparian ecosystem throughout the Colorado River basin is a tool for regulating levels of sediment. Some portions of the river have too much sediment, and others too little. When sediment rich water comes to a dam, the sediment sinks to the bottom of the reservoir. This decreases the water capacity of the resevoir and inhibits proper efficiency of the dam (Triedman). The image below shows a local fisherman on the upper Colorado River. The water levels have lowered, which endangers the fish species and puts stress on the riparian ecosystem.

"Restoring the Colorado: Bringing New Life to a Stressed River." JPEG File. 14 Feb. 2019, https://e360.yale.edu/features/restoring-the-colorado-bringing-new-life-to-a-stressed-river. Accessed 7 December 2020.

Triedman, Natalie. "Environment and Ecology of the Colorado River Basin." Colorado College. https://www.coloradocollege.edu/dotAsset/cbb78858-d078-4a7c-ba80-2040569abbdd.pdf

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The Colorado River basin is home to many native animal and plant species and "the banks lining the Colorado foster impressive ecological diversity, supporting 65% of the species in the West, even though it comprises a mere 5% of actual land area. The concern is that the riparian zone is deteriorating, which is negatively impacting the plants and animals that rely on this unique habitat.

Triedman, Natalie. "Environment and Ecology of the Colorado River Basin." Colorado College. https://www.coloradocollege.edu/dotAsset/cbb78858-d078-4a7c-ba80-2040569abbdd.pdf

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There are four types of endangered fish in the Colorado River Basin: the bonytail minnow, the colorado pikeminnow, the humpback chub, and the razorback sucker.

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Solution #1 - Agricultural Reform & Human Migration

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Solution #1 - Agricultural Reform & Human Migration

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Agriculture uses the most water than any other thing in the world. "Irrigated agriculture extends across some 3.2 million acres of land within the Colorado basin" (Western Resources Advocates 28). The amount of land that is irrigated to sustain crops and live stock is shocking but also when you consider the number of people that rely on the river, it makes complete sense. Without the river, the communities within the area would not have access to food or water, causing people to need to move and find new places to settle. One of the most harrowing aspects of not having enough water is starvation and drought leading to mass health diasters. The states surrounding the seven states reliant on the river do not have the resources to suddenly accomadate for 40 million people, especially without warning and preparation. Human migration is deeply traumatic for people leaving their homes, and issues within the systematic draining of the Colorado River must be addressed before tragedy strikes. The below image illustrates what can happen if the soil dries out; the crop yield declines dramatically.

"Effect of Drought on Agriculture: California's Dilemma." JPEG File, https://www.bentoli.com/effect-of-drought-on-agriculture/. Accessed 7 December 2020.

"The Hardest Working River in the West: Common-Sense Solutions for a Reliable Water Future for the Colorado River Basin." Western Resources Advocates, 17 July 2014, pages 26-36, www.westernresourceadvocates.org/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2015/07/CO_River_Solutions_Whitepaper.pdf. Accessed 7 December 2020.

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The concept of water resuage involves processes such as treating and reusing water for landscape irrigation, industrial uses, groundwater recharge, and agriculture. "According to the USEPA’s Clean Watersheds Needs Survey, an investment
of approximately $4.4 billion is needed to build, rehabilitate, or replace
infrastructure for reclaimed water distribution. In 2004, USEPA estimated total
wastewater reuse in the United States at 1.7 billion gallons per day, growing
at a rate of 15 percent per year. The same report estimated 32 billion gallons
of wastewater are produced each day, of which 12 billion gallons per day are
discharged directly to an ocean. These ocean discharges could be recycled and
made available for local water users" (WRA 26). Not only could water be resused for essential and important purposes, it could also take stress off our ocean as it absorbs a lot of our waste. We already utilize 1.7 billion gallons of recycled water and using more could be a great solution to the overusuage of the Colorado River. Agriculture accounts for over half of the usuage of the river and if wastewater, that has been treated, could be used for some - or all - of the water source, that could be monumental for the sustainability of the river.

"Wastewater Treatment Plants Could Become Sustainable Biorefineries." JPEG file. 10 Jan. 2019, https://www.tpomag.com/online_exclusives/2019/01/wastewater-treatment-plants-could-become-sustainable-biorefineries. Accessed 7 December 2020.

"The Hardest Working River in the West: Common-Sense Solutions for a Reliable Water Future for the Colorado River Basin." Western Resources Advocates, 17 July 2014, page 26-36, www.westernresourceadvocates.org/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2015/07/CO_River_Solutions_Whitepaper.pdf. Accessed 7 December 2020.

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The Colorado River creates a lot of hydroelectricity but there are many other routes to harnessing energy for the Southwestern U.S. These alternatives include wind and solar energy, as seen below, and geothermal. In the river basin, power plants use for than 167,000 acre-feet of water per year (WRA 35). If that amount of water was able to be kept in the river, it could reduce risk to the river's ecosystem and save water in the resevoirs. Clean energy reforms could help control the amount of manipulation the Colorado River goes through; new management systems could be put into place to maintain the rivers riparian area and how sediment is regulated. Removing the already existing, large dams may never happen, but smaller unneccessary uses of the waters power could be eliminated to help the river recover.

"Companies Continue To Drive Demand For Clean Energy." Forbes. JPEG File. 9 Sept. 2019, https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikescott/2019/09/09/companies-continue-to-drive-demand-for-clean-energy/?sh=7c9d667fa41e. Accessed 7 December 2020.

"The Hardest Working River in the West: Common-Sense Solutions for a Reliable Water Future for the Colorado River Basin." Western Resources Advocates, 17 July 2014, pages 26-36 www.westernresourceadvocates.org/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2015/07/CO_River_Solutions_Whitepaper.pdf. Accessed 7 December 2020.

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The problem of the Colorado River watershed basin is complex and the sollutions must be innovative and met with acceptance from the states utilizing the rivers resources. The Colorado river has a systemic water deficet that is not going to be solved by simple sollutions. The people that rely on this river are in danger of losing it completely; without the river, living in these locations becomes difficult. The problem has to be addressed for mass human migration becomes a reality in the future.

Collectively. "Watershed: The Race To Save The Colorado River." Youtube, 17 March 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9b5j4JnNlw. Accessed 6 December 2020.

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Watershed: The Race To Save The Colorado River

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Can I Farm? Water Resources Research Center, JPEG Image. https://wrrc.arizona.edu/gila/can-i-farm. Accessed 7 December 2020.

Collectively. "Watershed: The Race To Save The Colorado River." Youtube, 17 March 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9b5j4JnNlw. Accessed 6 December 2020.

Colorado River Commission of Nevada (CRCN). 2007. Maps, http://crc.nv.gov/index.asp?m=maps. Accessed 6 December 2020.

"Companies Continue To Drive Demand For Clean Energy." Forbes. JPEG File. 9 Sept. 2019, https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikescott/2019/09/09/companies-continue-to-drive-demand-for-clean-energy/?sh=7c9d667fa41e. Accessed 7 December 2020.

"Effect of Drought on Agriculture: California's Dilemma." JPEG File, https://www.bentoli.com/effect-of-drought-on-agriculture/. Accessed 7 December 2020.

Gelt, Joe. "Sharing Colorado River Water: History, Public Policy and the Colorado River Compact." Water Resources Research Center, vol. 10, no. 1, August 1997, https://wrrc.arizona.edu/publications/arroyo-newsletter/sharing-colorado-river-water-history-public-policy-and-colorado-river. Accessed 6 December 2020.

Grand Canyon Visitor Center. JPEG file. https://explorethecanyon.com/historical-information-from-the-visitor-center/. Accessed 7 December 2020.

Migiro, Geoffrey. "How Many Dams Are There On The Colorado River?" World Facts. 30 August 2018, https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/how-many-dams-are-there-on-the-colorado-river.html. Accessed 7 December 2020.

McBride, Pete. “Colorado River - I Am Red.” YouTube, YouTube, 16 Apr.    2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqYcC7jEe44.

O'Connor, Rachel. "Colorado River Basin story map highlights importance of managing water below the ground." Environmental Defense Fund. 24 October 2019, http://blogs.edf.org/growingreturns/2019/10/24/colorado-river-basin-story-map-highlights-importance-of-managing-water-below-the-ground/. Accessed 6 December 2020.

"Restoring the Colorado: Bringing New Life to a Stressed River." JPEG File. 14 Feb. 2019, https://e360.yale.edu/features/restoring-the-colorado-bringing-new-life-to-a-stressed-river. Accessed 7 December 2020.

Roaring Fork Conservancy. "Colorado River Watershed." 2014, http://www.roaringfork.org/your-watershed/colorado-river-watershed/. Accessed 7 December 2020.

"The Hardest Working River in the West: Common-Sense Solutions for a Reliable Water Future for the Colorado River Basin." Western Resources Advocates, 17 July 2014, pages 26-36, www.westernresourceadvocates.org/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2015/07/CO_River_Solutions_Whitepaper.pdf. Accessed 7 December 2020.

Thiel, Aaron, "Climate Change Impacts on Hydropower in the Colorado River Basin." Center for Water Policy, https://uwm.edu/centerforwaterpolicy/wp-content/uploads/sites/170/2013/10/Colorado_Energy_Final.pdf. Accessed 6 December 2020.

"Fun Fact: Lake Powell Bathtub Ring" Trips tips and tees. JPEG file. https://tripstipsandtees.com/2017/12/01/lake-powell-bathtub-ring/

U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation. "Colorado River Watershed." 2014. JPEG file.

U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation. "Environmentalists Push For Removing Dam Along Colorado River." 3 Oct 2019. JPEG file.

"Wastewater Treatment Plants Could Become Sustainable Biorefineries." JPEG file. 10 Jan. 2019, https://www.tpomag.com/online_exclusives/2019/01/wastewater-treatment-plants-could-become-sustainable-biorefineries. Accessed 7 December 2020.

Youngs, Yolonda. "Colorado River." History at the Grand Canyon, https://grcahistory.org/history/colorado-river/#:~:text=For%20over%2012%2C000%20years%2C%20the,canyon%20and%20along%20the%20rim. Accessed 7 December 2020.