For the 1st time, federal government declares Colorado River water shortage

Lake Mead.
(Image credit: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

In a first for the federal government, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on Monday declared a shortage of water on the Colorado River, triggering cutbacks for Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico starting in 2022.

The Colorado River's largest reservoir, Lake Mead, is now at 1,068 feet above sea level — the lowest level since its creation in the 1930s — and the Bureau of Reclamation estimates that it will drop even more by January. Mandatory water cutbacks were previously set to go into effect when the water at Lake Mead hit below 1,075 feet above sea level, The Wall Street Journal reports.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.