Brett Walton of Circle of Blue via http://www.circleofblue.org reports on a three-year, landmark study completed by the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation that highlights the growing disparity between water supply and water demand in seven western U.S. states.
These states face a “significant gap” between their water demands and the available supply from the Colorado River Basin, said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar during a press conference to mark the release of the department’s study of a critical watershed in which demand already exceeds supply.
“The study— the most comprehensive water study in the department’s history — revealed a ‘troubling trajectory,’ Salazar said. The arid basin, which provides water to an area in which 40 million people live, will become drier, more densely populated and — even with new supply projects — more vulnerable in terms of water reliability, hydroelectric power generation, recreation, and river flows.”
