The Colorado River basin has lost a Lake Mead’s worth of water in the last 20 years — and scientists say we’re passing a "critical point" where pumping groundwater will become too expensive.

Zebra mussels are similar to another invasive mollusk, the quagga mussel, which has not been detected in Colorado’s lakes and ...

It’s a staggering fact, especially after our region has experienced a multi-year drought. Nearly every major river basin in South Central Texas has experienced flooding since July 4, 2025.

Listen Now 11min 13sec Ross D. Franklin/AP The Colorado River in the upper River Basin is pictured in Lees Ferry, Ariz., on May 29, 2021.

For context, U.S. Colorado River basin states are entitled to 15 million acre-feet, and the average American household consumes about 1 acre-foot of water annually.

The rate of water losses in the seven-state Colorado River Basin has tripled in the past decade, mainly due to intensifying groundwater over-pumping in southeast and northwest Arizona, a new study ...

The river basin, which includes seven Western states, has lost 27.8 million acre-feet of groundwater since 2003. That’s roughly the volume of Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir.

If Arizona’s Colorado River water allocation was cut to zero, “we could burn through the available groundwater in 50 years,” Famiglietti said. “We’re talking about decades. That’s scary.

As the seven Colorado River Basin states haggle over the future of water allocations, authors of a new report on groundwater argue that equal attention should be paid to the water beneath our feet ...