Circle the area on this map
B. Under the Colorado River Compact, California was allotted the largest share of the basin’s water, followed by Colorado and Arizona. While California is the most populous state in the nation, the populations of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and Utah have grown much faster in the last decade.
A. Agriculture uses about 80 percent of the Colorado River’s water. It irrigates15 percent of the nation’s farmland and produces 90 percent of our winter vegetables. It has been suggested that some farmers should stop using Colorado River water to grow crops in exchange for subsidies, but it’s not clear where the billions of dollars needed would come from.
B. Federal officials say 2023 usage should be cut by an amount equal to about one-third of the Colorado River’s current annual flow. The upper basin states and lower basin states are each entitled to half the system’s water. The upper basin states say they do not use all the water they are allotted and want the lower basin states to face the biggest cuts.
D. Hoover Dam cost about $49 million to build in the 1930s and Glen Canyon Dam cost $135 million in the 1950s and 1960s. That equals a total of $1.5 billion in 2020 dollars. As a western megadrought since 2020 drastically lowered the reservoirs, it also cut electricity produced by the dams. All hydroelectric production will stop if the reservoirs shrink much more.