Water restrictions tighten across West as drought concerns grow
Communities across the West are facing a dangerously dry summer as record heat melts snow, threatens drinking water and increases the risk of wildfires.
FRISCO, Colo. – As temperatures neared 70 degrees, Seth and Renee McLaughlin stretched out in beach chairs as they watched their three children play in the sand on what was supposed to be a family ski trip.
A spring break vacation to the mountains of Colorado that I had booked last November had to make some major changes to my plans after a historically warm and dry winter. Instead of running down the slopes, the couple watched their children sift sand into colorful toy buckets on the shores of Lake Dillon.
“It’s obviously frustrating,” said Seth McLaughlin, 44, a nonprofit consultant. “We want to go skiing, but normally we ski until May and instead we’re at the beach.” “I feel sorry for the people who have spent tens of thousands of dollars vacationing here.”
The McLaughlin family’s ruined vacation portends what climate scientists say is a dangerously dry summer across the West. In many regions, the most important snowfall is half of normal, and hotter and drier temperatures are expected in the coming months.
Much of the United States is already in the grip of drought, but the headwaters of the Colorado River are among the driest places, along with southern Texas and all of Florida. Alarmed local officials across the West have already begun issuing orders restricting the watering of lawns, cleaning of cars and even whether restaurant customers can be served glasses of water.
“We’re already assuming the garden is going to die this year,” said Renee McLaughlin, 44, a physician assistant. “And I talk to my kids about taking a five-minute shower.”
The McLaughlins live in a Colorado city that has not yet ordered water restrictions, but many nearby communities have already begun enforcing them. Some ski resorts close early due to the heat and lack of snow.
Brad Udall, a longtime Western water expert, said it’s hard to put into words how bad the situation is. He said the skies were likely to darken with wildfire smoke as ranchers sold off their cattle following the early closure of ski areas and dry vegetation burned.
For more than 20 years, Udall has studied how climate change is altering water resources in Western countries. He said 2026 could be the worst year for Colorado River flows in recorded history.
“It’s a really dire situation. It’s scary,” said Udall, a senior climate scientist at Colorado State University’s Colorado Water Center. “The impact will be felt everywhere, throughout the economy and to individuals. When that happens, you will feel this personally.”
Based on the past few years, water shortages across the West could cause crops to die, cattle to go thirsty, and have a dramatic impact on food prices. It would also jeopardize tens of thousands of businesses that depend on industrial water use and increase the risk of catastrophic wildfires.
Much of the West is drained by the Colorado River, which begins high in the Rocky Mountains and flows downstream through Lake Powell, Lake Mead outside of Las Vegas, and finally into California.
Climate experts have long warned that climate change will make the West hotter and drier, and worry that what’s happening now represents long-term changes that could upend the way people live and work in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming. Some water experts say Lake Powell could reach record low levels later this summer.
And what about the beach where the McLaughlin children played? Lake Dillon, an important source of drinking water for millions of Colorado residents, is currently less than 60% full. Under normal circumstances, the snow would melt and the reservoir would refill. Instead, the water remains hundreds of feet from the shoreline, with docks stuck in mud. Even though it was 70 degrees, water was trickling in.
Water restrictions and concerns in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming
∎ At Lake Powell, which straddles the Arizona-Utah border, workers are preparing to move the entire floating Bullfrog Marina across the shrinking lake to the Hole Crossing area. Water stays deeper and longer there. Water managers warn that this year’s water levels in Lake Powell could fall to the lowest recorded levels since the lake began being filled in the 1960s.
Lake Powell is fed by the Colorado River and uses its water to generate hydroelectric power for approximately 500,000 homes in the Southwest. But if this year’s Colorado River flow is as low as expected, by this fall the lake’s water level could fall below the so-called “power pool,” the minimum level needed to turn turbines.
When it first opened, Lake Powell was large enough to accommodate a 30-minute car ferry that shuttled vehicles between Halls Crossing on the south and Bullfrog on the north, saving drivers two hours of travel time. The ferry is no longer in service as the loading ramp is far from the water’s edge. Many of the lake’s boat launch ramps are suspended hundreds of feet above the water, and workers are extending them again to reach the new shoreline. Approximately 3.7 million tourists visited Lake Powell last year.
∎ In preparation for the drought, Salt Lake City officials temporarily banned the opening of large non-residential developments that consume large amounts of water.
One of the goals of the measure is to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from opening a detention facility for 7,500 people, but city leaders said it would be completely irresponsible to allow large-scale water use at this time of year. “Salt Lake City’s worsening drought conditions and water conservation needs make new large-scale water users especially problematic, and we are already taking steps to address them,” Mayor Erin Mendenhall said in a statement. City and state officials are also considering ways to protect the Great Salt Lake, which has long been shrinking.
Mendenhall’s order ordered city facilities to reduce water use by at least 10% and asked residents and businesses to voluntarily save 10 million gallons.
∎ In Denver, residents are being told to refrain from watering their lawns until late May, despite temperatures repeatedly reaching the 80s across the city. On March 25, the Denver Water Department also limited watering of residential lawns to two days a week per home, down from three days in previous years. Restaurants can only provide water to customers who specifically request it. Additionally, hotels may not change sheets more than four times a week unless requested by a guest or a room is handed over to a new guest.
While Denver typically only receives about 15 inches of rain a year and Miami receives four times that amount, the city relies heavily on snowmelt to fill reservoirs like Lake Dillon. Water board officials said they are now taking strict measures to avoid further problems for their 1.5 million customers across the metropolitan area next summer.
“The situation we are experiencing is unprecedented and we require our customers to conserve water to protect our current supply,” Nathan Elder, Denver Water’s water division manager, said in a statement.
∎ In the northern Colorado city of Erie, officials warned residents and businesses to shut off irrigation until early April and that access to water could be cut off if they were found wasting water on their lawns. Most of Erie’s water comes from snowmelt transported across the Continental Divide, and the region has had unusually little snow this winter.
“This is an unusual measure in response to an extremely volatile situation,” city officials said in a statement on March 20. “Currently, demand is nearly 30% higher than normal for this time of year.”
∎ In Wyoming, state officials have already told some water users to reduce their water usage to ensure supplies for next summer. And federal officials are expected to demolish Flaming Gorge, one of the state’s largest reservoirs, to fill Lake Powell during the hot summer months. State Engineer Brandon Gebhardt warned some communities to prepare for not having adequate drinking water supplies in the coming months.
