'Dead pool' approaches: Western water crisis looms as California complicates critical water deal
A water crisis is looming in the West as seven states struggle to agree on how to divide water from the mighty Colorado River.
The news keeps swirling: California plays hardball with its neighbor states, draconian cuts like lawn bans could be coming and massive reservoirs approach the dreaded "dead pool."
The months-long effort got more complex this week when California rejected a plan the other six states had put together, tossing an already contentious process into disarray.
This all matters because the river provides a significant amount of the water that makes life in the West possible. From Denver to Los Angeles, more than 40 million people depend on it to keep their farms flourishing and taps flowing.
With a 23-year drought that's brought river levels to some of the lowest levels ever recorded, how to reapportion that water has reached a crisis level.
Who got how much water was based – after decades of legal wrangling – on who was using the most back when the compact was decided. It's basically a "first dibs" system, states that were using the most water in the 1910s got the biggest share.
