Colorado River reservoirs hit record lows as government threatens major cuts
It's a moment of reckoning in the drought-stricken West as seven states can't agree on how to share the rapidly shrinking water supply.
A deepening water crisis in the Western United States has reached an impasse as disagreement among affected states is grinding progress to a halt, and the well of potential solutions is close to running dry.
The Colorado River is a lifeline for the region, and it's the line dividing the upper basin states, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico, and the lower basin states, California, Arizona and Nevada.
Kelly Shannon McNeill, the managing director of LA Waterkeeper, an organization that serves as a water watchdog, told CBS News that California and other lower basin states have cut use of the Colorado River by nearly 20% since 2015. But the upper basin states "have gone in the opposite direction," McNeill said.
"In the last year alone, they've increased their use over the same period and say they can't afford cuts. And so this is really, you know, it's about political will," she said.
After years of failed negotiations between the states, the Trump administration is now poised to impose sweeping cuts.