The transition that has taken place in the Colorado River Basin is astounding.

The Colorado River Basin is in its 23rd year of a historic drought.

Let's be clear up front, the prolonged drought is one of the most significant challenges

facing our communities in our country.

Both Lake Powell and Lake Mead are at historically low levels.

We're going to have to make some hard choices.

We really have to think big because we're going to have to create a new regulatory framework.

This is the unprecedented challenge that we face.

And without action, we cannot protect the system

and the millions of Americans who rely on this critical resource.

This is a full-on five-alarm fire going on right now.

And the worst is yet to come.

After decades of repeated warnings,

the Colorado River has reached a tipping point.

Now, the seven Western states that make up the Colorado River has reached the tipping point. Now the seven western states that make up the Colorado River basin need to cut about a quarter of the water that they use from it and quickly.

The water supply for millions of people in the West, where a big part of the country's food stock comes from is at stake.

It's a doomsday scenario talked and written about for decades, and it's now here.

I'm Gustav Ariano. You're listening to the Times, essential news from the LA Times.

It's Friday, January 6, 2023.

Today, in the first of a six-part series on the Colorado River,

how our greed has pushed this vital resource to a breaking point and how life as we know it in the American West

is about to drastically change.

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