Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced the release of a study – authorized by Congress and jointly funded and prepared by the Bureau of Reclamation and the seven Colorado River Basin states – that projects water supply and demand imbalances throughout the Colorado River Basin and adjacent areas over the next 50 years. The Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study, the first of its kind, also includes a wide array of adaptation and mitigation strategies proposed by stakeholders and the public to address the projected imbalances.

The average imbalance in future supply and demand is projected to be greater than 3.2 million acre-feet by 2060, according to the study. One acre-foot of water is approximately the amount of water used by a single household in a year. The study projects that the largest increase in demand will come from municipal and industrial users, owing to population growth. The Colorado River Basin currently provides water to some 40 million people, and the study estimates that this number could nearly double to approximately 76.5 million people by 2060, under a rapid growth scenario.

http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/secretary-salazar-releases-colorado-river-basin-study-projecting-major-imbalances-in-water-supply-and-demand.cfm

Thanks for the heads-up and the link. IMHO there will be a much larger need to work on sources of water without dependence on the Colorado river.

I read this last month in the SLC Trib:

For Utah, the most direct effect of a new Colorado River agreement between the United States and Mexico may be a rise in the water level at Lake Powell.....

Under the agreement, the environmental community and the U.S. and Mexican governments are each contributing 5,000 acre feet of water per year to send to the delta. That 15,000 acre feet will rewater 60 miles of the Colorado River and allow it to reconnect with the Rio Hardy, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Hawes said.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/55318 ... o.html.csp

Of-course I hope then meant to say the “Gulf of California”, which would be good to see the river reach the sea again, I think nature needs it.