Despite two decades of persistent drought in the Colorado River Basin — and efforts to reduce water consumption among cities and farmers — the seven states that rely on the waterway have consistently overdrawn the supply, a new analysis shows.
The study, led by Brian Richter, president of Sustainable Waters, expands on a 2020 review of the Colorado River that examined consumptive water use by the municipal, commercial, industrial and agricultural sectors.
The new report, published Thursday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, also evaluates water lost to evaporation from reservoirs and evapotranspiration — or the evaporation of water into the atmosphere from the soil or from soil to the air via plants — as well as water exported from the Colorado River Basin to areas outside its boundaries, including major cities like San Diego and Denver.
“This new accounting provides a more comprehensive and complete understanding of how the Colorado River Basin’s water is consumed,” the report states.
