The Colorado River Water Crisis
A River Running Dry
For the 40 million people across seven states and two countries who depend on the Colorado River, 2026 is a turning point.
Glen Canyon Dam, completed in 1963, was not designed to be operated at the extremely low water levels that Lake Powell is now approaching. As of late April 2026, Lake Powell was just 25 percent full and projected to drop to a record low in the next 12 months. The river’s two great reservoirs — Lake Powell and Lake Mead — remain perilously depleted after two decades of drought driven by a warming climate.
In April 2026, the Bureau of Reclamation took unprecedented actions to store more water in Lake Powell in order to preserve hydropower generation and protect water-delivery infrastructure at Glen Canyon Dam. Those emergency moves set in motion events that could result in first-ever lawsuits from Arizona, California, or Nevada against their upstream neighbors over water supply from the shrinking river.
At the same time, the political crisis is deepening. The seven states that share the basin have been unable to agree on cuts that would reduce their reliance on the shrinking river, and reservoir operating rules expire at the end of 2026. If no agreement is reached, the federal government could step in — or the states could take their chances in court.
New solutions are emerging, but none are simple. The Bureau of Reclamation signed a memorandum of understanding with six water agencies in Arizona, California, and Nevada to explore interstate water swaps involving desalinated or recycled water — a sign of how creatively basin managers must now think about a river that can no longer meet all the demands placed on it.
Circle of Blue has covered the Colorado River for more than two decades. Our reporters are on the ground in the basin — tracking reservoir levels, negotiating rooms, courthouses, and canyon walls — to document the most consequential water story in North America. Explore our full Colorado River coverage below.
The Colorado River Basin Water Crisis: Decades in the Making
The Colorado River Basin
The Colorado River stretches more than 1,400 miles from its headwaters in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming and Colorado to the Gulf of California in Mexico. Its basin spans seven U.S. states — Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and California — as well as the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California. The river is divided into an Upper Basin and Lower Basin, separated by Lee Ferry in northern Arizona.
The basin’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona border and Lake Mead on the Nevada-Arizona border, serve as the primary storage and delivery infrastructure for the river system. Water from the Colorado also reaches beyond the basin’s natural boundaries — supplying cities along Colorado’s Front Range, the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and agricultural valleys in Southern California through a network of aqueducts and diversion projects.
Map: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation map of the Colorado River Basin accessed on October 15, 2024.
Left image: W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Right image: Photo © Brett Walton/Circle of Blue
The Reporter’s View: Brett Walton
The Colorado River is struggling mightily. Record-smashing heat this year and a lack of snow have exposed longstanding vulnerabilities in how the river is managed. The entire system is under severe stress right now. There simply is not enough water to satisfy all of the river’s many uses – from farm irrigation and municipal drinking water to endangered species, tribes, rafting companies, high-tech industries, and hydropower. The big question, still unanswered, is how to match supply and demand as the basin grows even hotter and drier in the coming years.
Colorado River Basin News Coverage
Forget Western Water War: Local Managers Choose Partnership
The Colorado River, from one viewpoint, is a mess. The iconic waterway, fundamental to the region’s modern existence – its desert metropolises, its high-tech industries, its agriculture, and its recreation economy – is on the verge of crashing. A two-decade drying trend, aided by carbon pollution in the atmosphere and water use that exceeds supply…
Betting on Lake Mead’s Demise
Hoover Dam Approaches a Hydropower Cliff
As a Colorado Aquifer Runs Low, Dangerous Heavy Metals Threaten Rural Communities’ Drinking Water
Glen Canyon Dam Faces Its Existential Moment
U.S. Government Orders Emergency Actions to Protect Glen Canyon Dam
As the West’s Scant Snowpack Melts, Coloradans Brace for a Lean Water Year
In Search of ‘Earned Hope’ on the Colorado River: A Conversation with Photographer Pete McBride
Big Decisions Loom for a Rapidly Shrinking Lake Powell
Western U.S. Cities Open Wallets in Quest for Water
Massive Energy Storage Project Eyed for Four Corners Region
The Story of a River, Mapped
Follow Circle of Blue’s Colorado River reporting across the basin — from the headwaters in the Rocky Mountains to the river’s end near the Gulf of California. Our interactive StoryMap places each story in its geographic context, letting you explore the crisis location by location.
New to StoryMaps? It’s a simple interactive map — just click the “Start Exploring” button below to begin. Use the arrows to move from location to location, or click directly on the map to jump to a specific site.
The Colorado River Basin Water Crisis in Photos
Circle of Blue journalists are also photographers, documenting the Colorado River basin firsthand — from receding shorelines and exposed canyon walls to the communities and infrastructure that depend on the river’s flow. The images below are original Circle of Blue photography. Click on an image to enlarge it.
Interested in using or republishing these photos? Please credit Circle of Blue appropriately and link back to this page. Contact izzy@circleofblue.org with any questions.
