A new report from Colorado River researchers found water levels at the nation’s two largest reservoirs are dropping fast and on track for dire consequences.
The authors are calling on policymakers to move with urgency and protect Lake Powell and Lake Mead.
Negotiators are locked in talks about the future of those reservoirs after 2026, when the current rules for managing water there expire.
But the authors of this report say a dry year could bring levels so low, the reservoirs stop working before any new rules go into effect.
Katherine Tara, with the University of New Mexico, is one of them.
"The consequence of drawing down these reservoirs, and, you know, not conserving as a basin, is that people won't get water in a way that I don't think we've seen before," Tara says.
Tara says the seven states that use the Colorado River have to quickly agree on cutbacks to fix this.
That work will be hard, but Tara says it is possible with collaboration.
