{"id":1197,"date":"2026-06-25T10:30:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T10:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=1197"},"modified":"2026-06-25T10:30:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T10:30:53","slug":"this-is-terrifying-the-colorado-river-a-lifeline-for-seven-states-is-drying-up-at-its-source","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=1197","title":{"rendered":"\u2018This is terrifying\u2019: The Colorado River, a lifeline for seven states, is drying up at its source"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

GRANBY, Colo.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/span>High in the Rocky Mountains, spring-fed streams and ponds have vanished, leaving patches of cracked mud in what were once spongy meadows. <\/p>\n

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This year has been so extremely warm and arid that the mountains have remained largely snowless. The water-generating source of the Colorado River, its headwaters, is drying up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up here and have never seen the creeks and the springs dried up like they have this year,\u201d said Merrit Linke, a fourth-generation rancher and county commissioner. \u201cThere\u2019s just not any water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linke drove his pickup through pastures searching for the few remaining water holes where he could lead cattle to drink.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one has ever seen it like this,\u201d he said, \u201cnot this dry, not this warm, not this low a snowpack.\u201d<\/p>\n

The desiccation of the river\u2019s headwaters is shrinking a critical water lifeline for about 35 million people<\/u> and 5 million acres of farmland across the Southwest, from the Rockies to Southern California and northern Mexico.<\/p>\n

With less snowmelt feeding the Colorado River, its giant reservoirs are dropping to dangerously low levels<\/u>. Lake Mead, the country\u2019s largest reservoir near Las Vegas, is now 28% full.<\/p>\n

Lake Powell, the second-largest reservoir, is at just 24%, approaching a point where there won\u2019t be enough water behind Glen Canyon Dam to continue generating electricity<\/u>. To keep hydropower going as long as possible, the Trump administration is taking emergency measures<\/u>, releasing extra water from another reservoir upstream to raise the lake level.<\/p>\n

Experts and state water managers say it\u2019s clear the seven states that rely on the river need to drastically cut water use<\/u> to avert disaster before the supply in reservoirs is exhausted. <\/p>\n

A substantial portion of the cutbacks will likely fall to California, which uses more from the river than any other state \u2014 nearly one-fourth of the water that flows from taps in Southern California cities, and all of the water that irrigates farms in the Imperial Valley.<\/p>\n

About three-fourths of the water that\u2019s taken out of the Colorado River is used for agriculture<\/u>, producing alfalfa, corn, lettuce, broccoli and other crops.<\/p>\n

In Colorado, farmers and ranchers are struggling with the immediate consequences. They\u2019re leaving many fields and pastures dry, selling off cows, and bracing for tough economic times.<\/p>\n

Some who raise cattle here say they doubt global warming is fueling the crisis, but scientific research shows rising temperatures have intensified the severe dryness<\/u> over the last quarter-century. And this year, the river flow is collapsing to one of its lowest points on record. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely feel like we\u2019re on the front lines of climate change,\u201d said Becky Mitchell, the state of Colorado\u2019s river commissioner. \u201cThis year is a perfect example.\u201d <\/p>\n

Scientists say the extreme heat and dryness of the last few years add to evidence that human-caused climate change is driving the aridification<\/u> of the Southwest, a long-term shift to drier conditions.<\/p>\n

Since 2000, as temperatures have climbed, the flow of the Colorado has averaged 21% less than during the last century. But recent years are even worse: Since 2020, the river has shrunk about 32%, according to federal data. <\/p>\n

Recent research suggests the river flow will diminish further as the use of fossil fuels releases more planet-heating gases. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s frightening,\u201d said Brad Udall, a water and climate scientist at Colorado State University. \u201cIt should shake people to their core about what climate change can do and is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winters don\u2019t get as cold anymore. A record heat wave<\/u> in March rapidly melted what little snow had fallen, some of it evaporating straight into the air<\/u>. <\/p>\n

In multiple studies, researchers have found climate change may be altering weather patterns in ways that push storms away<\/u> from the Southwest, starving the region of snow and rain.<\/p>\n

In an alpine valley near Carbondale, Colo., more than 6,000 feet above sea level, water is still flowing in ditches to green meadows where cows graze.<\/p>\n

But Bill Fales, a lifelong rancher, said he expects the water from the Crystal River, a tributary of the Colorado, will run short this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause there\u2019s no snowpack, the rivers are going to be extremely low, if not dry,\u201d Fales said as he walked through knee-deep grass carrying a shovel. \u201cThere\u2019s just not going to be much water to get.\u201d<\/p>\n

He motioned to Mt. Sopris, a nearly 13,000-foot peak that towers above the pastures and should be snowcapped in June. Now, it\u2019s bare, gray rock.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s pretty scary,\u201d Fales said. \u201cIt\u2019s becoming more and more common, is what\u2019s terrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has noticed drastic changes over the last three decades.<\/p>\n

Pastures that were usually blanketed in two feet of snow all winter now get very little. Less water runs off into streams, he said, because \u201cit\u2019s grabbed by the ground and by the atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it\u2019s all because of climate change,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just have to somehow adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fales said he and other ranchers in Colorado\u2019s high country have no choice but to live with the snow nature provides. Downstream, he said, California and other states take way too much water from reservoirs year after year, \u201clike giving a checkbook to a teenager.\u201d<\/p>\n

Negotiators for the seven states have repeatedly deadlocked<\/u> on how much less each should take from the river. The four upstream states \u2014 Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico \u2014 are at odds with the downstream states \u2014 California, Arizona and Nevada.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration is responding by preparing its own plan<\/u> to impose water cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that we have to drastically alter how we live,\u201d Fales said. \u201cWe all need to start living within our means, and as a society we\u2019ve been living like there\u2019s no tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lately, Fales has been hearing Coloradans say they\u2019re hoping the strong El Ni\u00f1o<\/u> pattern in the Pacific might bring wetter weather. \u201cI keep telling people that hoping for a rainy summer isn\u2019t a really good business strategy. But it\u2019s what everyone\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

When water is scarce in Colorado, state regulators order some landowners to stop taking from streams, starting with those who have the newest, lowest-priority water rights.<\/p>\n

A state enforcer comes around and posts notices on irrigation gates, the big valves that let water into ditches, telling people they have to use less. Sometimes they shut off the water.<\/p>\n

This year, the shortages are so severe that many landowners are being told they will get less. Even some who have rights dating to the 1880s that grant them high priority are seeing cuts. <\/p>\n

Cities and towns have imposed limits<\/u> on outdoor watering. Some residents are letting their lawns turn brown and die.<\/p>\n

In the last three years, farmers in California and Arizona have agreed to leave fields dry part of the year<\/u> in exchange for federal payments<\/u>.<\/p>\n

As reservoirs decline to record low levels<\/u>, more growers in other states could face economic hardships similar to what Colorado farmers are grappling with.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be a very difficult year for a lot of farmers,\u201d said rancher Carlyle Currier, president of the Colorado Farm Bureau. \u201cI\u2019m sure there will be some that probably go out of business.\u201d <\/p>\n

On his ranch, Currier and his son, Joel, are still watering pastures but have shut off irrigation in some areas, turning the grass brown.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll have to buy a lot of hay,\u201d he said. \u201cThat takes all the profit out of raising your cattle for the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

In western Colorado\u2019s Uncompahgre Valley, water is flowing through canals to fields of corn, pinto beans and onions. But growers are only receiving half of their allotted water and have left many fields dry, creating a patchwork of green crops beside bare dirt that resembles a checkerboard.<\/p>\n

Standing on a barren field, Doug Wilson dug the toe of his boot into the sunbaked soil crust, which crumbled.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no moisture there,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s very depressing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson has planted only half his fields and is leaving the other half fallow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see how we have the water to survive as farmers the way we\u2019ve done it in the past,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The ultradry conditions and low river flows also bring other worries. Fish could struggle as streams shrink and get warmer. Parched forests could become fuel for wildfires. And in many areas, the water shortages are predicted to worsen.<\/p>\n

Near Grand Junction, some farmers expect they will run out of water from their canal this summer \u2014 the Government High Line Canal<\/u>, built in 1917.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never run short of water to complete a growing cycle,\u201d said Joe Bernal, who runs a family farm founded in 1925 and is president of the Grand Valley Water Users Assn<\/u>. <\/p>\n

Seeing the canal without enough water to flow, he said, \u201cit\u2019ll be surreal.\u201d <\/p>\n

He decided not to plant corn, leaving some fields dry, while continuing to grow wheat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe outlook is grim, but resilient people make adjustments,\u201d Bernal said. \u201cFarmers are eternal optimists, and we feel that we\u2019ll adapt and next year will be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lack of snowmelt also shows in the Williams Fork River, an upper tributary of the Colorado that flows into a reservoir. Usually in June, it\u2019s a raging river that almost touches the bottom of a two-lane bridge. This year, it has been reduced to a gently flowing creek, the water about 10 feet below.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is terrifying,\u201d rancher Doug Bruchez said as he stood on the bridge looking down. \u201cWe are in unprecedented times.\u201d<\/p>\n

His family\u2019s canal has gone dry. He said they won\u2019t be able to irrigate nearly 80% of their ranch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the scary part for me, is I don\u2019t know how I\u2019m going to make an income this year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The dire state of these streams, he said, shows why all seven states must quickly find ways to use less. \u201cWe all need to work together to figure out this problem, because it\u2019s coming for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

That will mean switching to more efficient irrigation and crops that consume less water<\/u>, he said, as well as larger efforts to conserve in cities, recycle more wastewater<\/u>, and invest in desalination<\/u> along the Pacific coast, something several ranchers and farmers emphasized.<\/p>\n

State leaders have urged the federal government<\/u> to provide billions of dollars to help the region adapt. A coalition of water agencies, agriculture organizations and environmental groups have to approve at least $2 billion for a \u201cdrought mitigation program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aridification is similarly afflicting other parts of the world. Using satellite data, scientists have found that large swaths of the Earth are drying out<\/u> \u2014 including one stretching from the western U.S. through Mexico to Central America, and another from Morocco to France, across the entire Middle East to northern China. They found that these \u201cmega-drying\u201d regions are expanding.<\/p>\n

Facing this long-term change, Udall said paying more farmers to temporarily stop irrigating would be a waste of money. He suggests a controversial idea: permanently buying out some farmland, primarily in California and Arizona.<\/p>\n

Landowners could volunteer to sell and take lands out of farming, he said, and such a program could also compensate others affected by the loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a permanent crisis that needs to be dealt with in ways that are unprecedented,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to mean less agriculture in the American Southwest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reporting for this <\/i>article <\/i>was supported by a grant from <\/i>the<\/u><\/i> Water Desk at the University of Colorado Boulder\u2019s Center for Environmental Journalism<\/u><\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n

Read more Andres Chait selected to lead LAUSD three days after Carvalho\u2019s resignation<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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June 03, 2026: Rancher Bill Fales checks irrigation lines on one of his family's pastures near Carbondale, Colorado on Wednesday, June 3, 2026 . 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June 03, 2026: Rancher Bill Fales checks irrigation lines on one of his family's pastures near Carbondale, Colorado on Wednesday, June 3, 2026 . Fales says he has been working to change his irrigation techniques to sustain the pastures when there is little water. (Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=1197#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"\u2018This is terrifying\u2019: The Colorado River, a lifeline for seven states, is drying up at its source"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/","name":"California Relocation Journal","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/#organization","name":"California Relocation Journal","url":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/cj.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/cj.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"California Relocation Journal"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85b48ca4c2015dd056e0e9c18912121","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com"],"url":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}