The very bad math drying up the Colorado River

California and Arizona are currently fighting each other over water. But this isn’t new - it’s actually been going on for over 100 years. At one point, the states literally went to war about it. The problem comes down to some really bad math from 1922.
To some extent, the crisis can be blamed on climate change. The West is in the middle of a once-in-a-millennium drought. As temperatures rise, the snow pack that feeds the river has gotten much thinner and the river’s main reservoirs have all but dried up. But that’s only part of the story.
The United States has also been overusing the Colorado for more than a century thanks to a byzantine set of flawed laws and lawsuits known as “the law of the river.” This legal tangle not only has been over-allocating the river, it also has been driving conflict in the region, especially between the two biggest users: California and Arizona, both trying to secure as much water as they can. And now, as a massive drought grips the region, the law of the river has reached a breaking point.
Video:
Jake Bittle
Daniel Penner
Data and map animations:
Jesse Nichols
Videographer:
Nikki Dodd
Deputy Editor:
Teresa Chin
Executive Editor:
Kat Bagley
Additional reading:
Feds’ Colorado River choice: California’s rights or Arizona’s future?
grist.org/drought/colorado-ri...
Tribes in the Colorado River Basin are fighting for their water. States wish they wouldn’t.
grist.org/indigenous/colorado...
The Colorado River is drying up. Here’s how that affects Indigenous water rights
grist.org/equity/colorado-riv...
Sources:
History of Parker Dam war between Arizona and California (among other sources)
azcapitoltimes.com/news/2015/...
Flow of Colorado River, 1930 - 2016 (Wheeler, 2019)
www.researchgate.net/publicat...
Flow of Colorado River, 2000-2018 (Stern, Sheikh, 2020)
crsreports.congress.gov/produ...
Estimated flow of Colorado River (Kuhn, Fleck, 2021)
bookshop.org/p/books/science-...
1963 Court Case
books.google.com/books?id=BAF...
California Congress keeping water for own state:
www.g-a-l.info/capreport.pdf
Visual sources:
Getty Images
National Archives
Library of Congress
UCLA | Charles E. Young Research Library: creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Storyblocks
Music:
Audiosocket

[@PacoOtis]

COME ON! Mark Twain explained this over a hundred years ago! He said " Whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over!" LOL

[@maxcervantes]

Never thought I'd hear the words: "Arizona's Navy" :D

[@mario-ck3es]

Trying to solve this issue now after the river has already been drying up for a few decades. The problem is all these states are dry and full of deserts. California has used the most water due to growth and power. They should be responsible for fixing this issue.

[@idavidgraficks123]

and Arizona is growing cotton in the middle of the desert? A THIRSTY crop to begin with and the IDJUTS are growing cotton in the middle of a desert?

[@anthonymartinez4307]

Now Las Vegas has overgrown and they keep building. Another flaw is Las Vegas doesn’t regulate casinos which are the biggest wasters. Another is they used water for grass and golf courses which is the biggest idiocy by Nevada. How much water does one casino use? They claim recycling but Air conditioning doesn’t is not recyclable. They keep growing why don’t you pin point the actual problem?

[@angelmendez2211]

California has been doing water rerouting and using less water in the cities for decades now, but no Arizona, and Nevada does it late, and California is the one that is viewed not doing anything. Really it the imperial valley that really using the Colorado but every year less and less is getting use due to more water project we have.

[@humanecities]

We really aren’t putting enough consideration into the carrying capacity of our lakes and rivers…

[@jimfrazier8611]

Once the San Andreas cuts loose and rids us of the California coast, everything will be fine.

[@shasmi93]

I was born in Colorado and currently live here. With the pace of building and massive influx of humans to this state I can already see local mountain streams and rivers dwindling that once were full. And that’s happening at the head of this massive river… scary indeed. Which is why I’m moving to Alaska. No people and ASS tons of water. Wouldn’t run out of water up there if you tried. Have fun west USA and all the tech bros and wealthy people moving in and building giant pools and golf courses and more people being born requiring more food and water out here. A rude awakening is indeed coming.

[@basedoz5745]

As long as people replace farms they are saving water. All the golf courses in Arizona use a total of 120k acre-feet. That’s less than 2% of their water. The people who should be scared who use these states as the agricultural hub to provide them crops that can’t grow in cold weather states during winter.

[@anthonymartinez4307]

The biggest water waster is Las Vegas Nevada. Those golf courses and Casinos drink up all the water. Alaska is beautiful great fishing and water everywhere. Las Vegas will be a ghost town.

[@susanbrown2578]

Im here in Berthoud, wondering why a land locked state with water issues has built more "califoroia-esque" sprawling housing. WHY? OH YEA, GREED!

[@markfowler2066]

As a retired farmer I have a simple solution for those who are anti-farming. Eat dirt, it's full of essential minerals...

[@pumba3368]

@@anthonymartinez4307 Actually, Las Vegas recycles most of their water into Lake Mead.

[@joeycad]

At 1:45 he says "California and Arizona used so much water they literally dried it up further upstream". Lol, no they only dried it up downstream.

[@paulmendoza9736]

I was wondering about that. It sounds wrong, but maybe I dont understand.

[@joootooobboosheet2486]

Mistakes happen when an over confident, pretentious d-bag acts like they know everything and then presents 1/2 truths as an educational video.

[@The_Cali_Dude_88]

Great ideas without the understanding that billions of people would overwhelm what they envisioned. NEVER could they or the water engineers of California's central valley dams and projects see the current number of people living here now. Our only source that can keep up with population is reverse sea water filtration, massive infrastructures regarding sewage, and runoffs.

[@jul1440]

It is actually two rivers hot glued together. A main river stem is defined from the mouth *to the most distant source,* which in the case of the Colorado would be the Green River.

[@stevemiller1517]

Very true, the green river starts way up in high mountains.

[@graciasthanks4771]

Thank you for the video. It brings attention to real causes that can be addressed. Politicians, global elite and MSM have taken the convenient easy route of blaming climate change for these types of issues (forest fires is another). Regardless of climate’s effects, we need to understand the issues, identify what we can actually do to mitigate, and act responsibly. Unfortunately, it’s easier to blame everything on climate change and then use resources to promote pet projects instead of fixing the problems.

[@zodiacfml]

I don't know but I think California should flex its wealth and tech to conserve/manage/generate its water like middle east countries to reduce consumption of the river.

[@basedoz5745]

The irony of this comment is hilarious. The Middle East countries drained their own natural water sources using the irrigation practices they learned from Arizona farmers. Then they were forced to build desalination plants that drastucally increased water for their residents, banned the growth of the crops they learned to irrigate from Arizona in their own countries, and they began leasing land in Colorado, Utah, Arizona and California to grow the crop that drained their own water. Now those same Middle East countries are offering to build desal plants for guaranteed deals, no matter the cost of water. Fun fact desal supporters don’t like to acknowledge… water rates for the Carlsbad California desal plant are $2750 per acre-foot of water. Most residents in AZ are charged $150 per acre-foot for Colorado River water. So the residents will be on the hook for paying these drastically increased water rates, while the rest of the country and the world allows corporate agriculture to use the majority of our cheap water we subsidized so that they can keep eating burgers, almonds, and other crops that can’t grow in cold weather states.

[@SilverWatcher.]

California's fires won't go out California has a national floods California where's all the water gone It's definitely not our fault 😅😂

[@matthewchase2512]

Lies on the water will never stop ! Up here in Sacramento Ca we don’t get water for Colorado River

[@steven4315]

The thing being ignored is aquifers are being drained. When they are gone, what replaces them?

[@WesternExpanses]

Great video guys. Great visualizations. Great explanations. What else do you have planned?

[@Grist]

Thanks for the support @USwesternEnviro! We're working on a few videos, but our next one is looking at all the weird ways to remove carbon from the air / how to evaluate the tech thoughtfully.

[@beerenmusli8220]

Wow, the Americans really hate Math.

[@Xenon-4300]

70% of water use in Arizona is agricultural. I think they can figure out a way to go without 10-20% of the farmland and import those goods to survive. Although we do need our winter grown lettuce. And thankfully we're not growing alfalfa on behalf of Saudi Arabia anymore.

[@WalterBurton]

Baked. Me too, coincidentally. Love it! 🌿🌿🌿

[@bengray6031]

Another reason to cut California off the US map. Mexico please enjoy your new land.

[@alexcrowder1673]

Some of it used to be part of mexico till we took it

[@JusticeAlways]

​@@alexcrowder1673 So was Texas....US took that too.

[@JusticeAlways]

California has the 6th largest economy in the world.

[@me5768]

California needs to catch the rainwater and snow that falls in the state better and use that and cut back on the use of Colorado river water. But they will not do it.

[@element1935]

Nice vid

[@Grist]

thanks for watching @element1935

[@element1935]

@@Grist quality videos in no times ull become one of the bigger channel like wandover prod, polytech or whatever they’re called ive seen them grow from 10k to where they are today its pretty fast, post clips of ur vid in shorts to promote it as well

[@makrgo26]

An informative video to be sure! However, I wonder if the narrator was high.

[@Fr1ti4e88]

CliMaTE cHaNge

[@atvtony5543]

California should get cut first there land provided the least amount of water that goes into the river

[@Sivah_Akash]

What's the situation with Mexico here?

[@anitagorse9204]

Scre€ed😁. They take everything that remains of the Colorado River. It doesn't reach the delta or the sea.

[@Grist]

Mexico has also agreed to make cuts -- in 2022, from their 1.5 maf they agreed to cut 5% and this year the cut will be 7%. We recommend a couple pieces that get into this: www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-01-31/colorado-river-in-crisis-the-rivers-end apnews.com/article/mexico-colorado-river-droughts-climate-and-environment-83acfc3eb7ec41dfc54273660f335000

[@Sivah_Akash]

@@anitagorse9204, I guess that makes sense since they only get so little (at least compared to the others)?

[@water2chick]

Nevada and Utah also get their water from the colorado River

[@pumba3368]

yeah but not much of it goes to them - compared to ca and az

[@thisispritish]

Consequences

[@ronwest7930]

The desert isn't a good place to grow crops and support so many people living there. I used to ride my dirt bike in that empty CAP canal while it was being built and ride wheelies up and down the sides.

[@basedoz5745]

CAP could easily support all the people in the state, both indoor and outdoor use on its own. That’s not including groundwater or other in state rivers. Of the 7 million acre-feet the state uses each year the people use 1.4 million acre-feet of water. The growth of alfalfa alone in the state uses more water than all those people combined.

[@ronwest7930]

@@basedoz5745 As I said, growing crops in the desert isn't a bright idea.

[@ernestcook4285]

He said this in large part was due to climate change. Did he really mean chem trails and weather modification?

[@water2chick]

We need massive permaculture efforts.

[@annspires8380]

Who knew that building cities in a desert might lead to water problems in the future! Sarcasm!!

[@basedoz5745]

Not cities. Who knew that the rest of the country relying on Arizona and California to provide them cattle feed, fruits, nuts, and cotton would be a bad idea? Alfalfa alone uses more water than every non agricultural use in the region combined.

[@dethray1000]

80 percent of the colorado river water goes to ag use in Az,Calif--some in colorado--dry up the farms,ranches,problem solved and you can eat rats...

[@kingfx7890]

It was a money grab for the government then ran into a water problem. Cali wants to build 5 to 10 million homes in the next 5 years imagine how much much they'll make from taxes

[@davidmead6337]

Yes the river does provide water for over 40 million people. However it is only a few out of the 40 million who are reaping the riches of water by flooding for agricultural gain for themselves. This is a People made problem related to the individualistic greed to make as much private money possible. This is an economic problem. Follow the money and the lobbying for more and more water that they should be paying a lot more for. And yes, the price of meat will go up due to the fattening of beef cattle on the Alfalfa feed produced by the cheap water. Americas addiction to fatty hamburgers is also a participation of the overuse of agricultural water. 70% of all Colorado water goes to the agricultural Oligarchs who fly in and out in their helicopters. "It's the Economy Stupid"

[@finn3408]

It is time for America to annex all reservations and make them one with America.

[@user-cw8rg3ef2t]

Hey U. S. A....... EASY ON THE WATER HERMANOS.. BAJA MEXICO NEEDS A DRINK😢

[@user-cw8rg3ef2t]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤🙏🏻

[@mrbaab5932]

The law of the river works if you use imaginary numbers in the math.

[@jakeski3142]

Those Democrats out there specialize in imaginary math!

[@backcountyrpilot]

Whod’a thunk that farming in the desert is insane?

[@thegiggler2]

Most of the water is used for agriculture especially low value crops like alfalfa and hay, plus the water that flows into Mexico just dries up in the desert. So much for planning.

[@anthonymartinez4307]

People eat meat and vegetables. The wasters are those people in Nevada ( golf courses and lawns for decades) how much water do those casinos waste with over 50, million visitors per year? Go ahead and blame everyone it doesn’t change the fact that the river is drying.

[@finn3408]

Dam the entire Colorado River.

[@johnstandish7055]

Great explanation of the current water crisis. One significant logical error, though: The narrator said that Arizona's and California's overuse of the water are causing shortages UPSTREAM, which in turn is causing low levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell. This, of course, can't be true unless they were pulling water from the Colorado River ABOVE Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which they're not. Only the UPPER basin states water use can cause the Lakes' levels to be low, right? So, even if the upper basin states aren't using all of their theoretically allocated water, the mega-drought is the problem which has led to the low lake levels and danger of the dead pool and loss of power at the Glen Canyon and Hoover dams.

[@JakeBittle-bc2pc]

It's both! In the beginning of the video, when I said that AZ and CA were draining the river upstream, I was talking about something that was happening BEFORE the construction of Glen Canyon and Hoover Dams. Now, in the 21st century, the Lower Basin states pull ~9maf from Powell and Mead per year, but the runoff reaching those dams from the Upper Basin is too low to replenish the lakes. So yes, less runoff is arriving, but also the Lower Basin entitlements are probably much too high.

[@johnstandish7055]

@@JakeBittle-bc2pc Thank you for the clarification, Jake. I live in Colorado Springs, so I’m well aware of and deeply concerned about the Colorado River issues. One thing that blows my mind is that though Colorado Springs is on the east side of the Continental Divide, we get something like 70% of our water from the Colorado River, the natural flow of which would normally ALL flow into the Pacific Ocean, NOT the Atlantic as its significant diversion to the Front Range now means. The bottom line is your fundamental premise is sound: you can’t allocate “x” million acre feet of water to any given region when that amount of water simply doesn’t exist.

[@blaskoxx4954]

Phoenix should not exsist - I live North of Tucson, I hate that city. Tucson is ok.

[@frankblangeard8865]

At twenty seven seconds he puts the blame (to some extent) on Climate Change. He has to pay tribute to the Climate Change worshipers or his video can't be taken seriously. It's like biologists giving tribute to evolution just to show that they are believers and not infidels.

[@TheDane_BurnAllCopies]

Are you not U.S.A.? .......dropp all the States, you are one country, one land. ... I’ll never get USA, never...or the states...😅

[@user-xh8ii2hj6r]

ARIZONA SHOULD SUE UTAH FOR GROSS NEGLIGENCE BUILDING PRACTICE NEW GOLF COURSES AND SOCCER FIELDS....

[@mrbaab5932]

It is severe racism and Islamophobia to call anything the 'Mecca' of anything. Take some diversity classes. Muslims never say something is the Mecca of anything and consider it offensive.

[@itshimhim2837]

Grist? Grifters… yup, me again… this whole channel is a lie Congrats 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@MiturBinEsderty]

Move to the Great Lakes region now homes are 200k and less moderate climate and farming