The Colorado River is running low. The picture looks even worse underground, study says

Washington Post

27-05-2025

The dwindling flow of the Colorado River has alarmed the American West for years but the water losses happening underground are even worse, according to a new study that uses satellite data to measure groundwater supplies across the Colorado River basin.
The research found that the region lost 27.8 million acre feet of groundwater since 2003, roughly the same volume as the total capacity of Lake Mead — the nation's largest reservoir — and that the decline accelerated rapidly over the past decade. These groundwater losses accounted for more than twice the amount taken out of reservoirs in the region during that time.