What the Colorado River Crisis Means for the American West
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The Colorado River is running out of water, and the fight over who gets what could reshape the American West. This video explores why the crisis is far more complicated than shorter showers, dry lawns, or growing desert cities. Agriculture consumes the largest share of Colorado River water, with enormous amounts going toward crops like alfalfa and hay. Some of that feed is then exported overseas, effectively shipping scarce Western water out of the country. But the deeper problem goes back more than a century. The 1922 Colorado River Compact divided up more water than the river reliably produces. Today, shrinking snowpack, rising temperatures, and decades of overuse have pushed Lake Mead and Lake Powell toward dangerously low levels. Now the legal battle is intensifying. Arizona faces much deeper cuts than California because of decades-old water agreements and the doctrine of prior appropriation. Meanwhile, the Upper and Lower Basin states are clashing over who should sacrifice the m
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