Water in the American West exists at the intersection of complex natural forces and diverse political interests, where legal, economic, cultural, and ecological systems converge around this essential resource. StudyTank, the research arm of the Wright-Ingraham Institute, in collaboration with Boston-based design firm Certain Measures, developed Drought Interfaces—a new visualization project aimed at making the intricate systems of the Colorado River Basin more accessible and understandable.
The inquiry began with the question: What is Drought?—focusing on the Colorado River Basin, a region encompassing seven states and about 40 million people. The project examines key interfaces between drought and water rights, and between drought and climate change, as the basin faces the escalating impacts of climate change, drought, and aridification.
Drought Interfaces is designed as an interactive tool that enables users to explore layers of data related to drought in the region. Users can visualize water rights geographically and analyze them in relation to stream flow and rights allocations. They can also view tribal lands in relation to cities, eco-regions, and aqueducts, and engage in scenario planning for potential future challenges, such as hydro-electric system losses or deadpool circumstances.
By incorporating data on historical stream flow, eco-regions, population distribution, tribal lands, and other legal frameworks, this tool not only explores existing conditions but also imagines a more sustainable relationship between civilization and nature in the American West.
The problems associated with drought are best stated in two questions:
The Colorado River Compact (1922), the first federal legislative allocation of water rights in the American West, still prevails over surface water rights in the Colorado River Basin. Allocations of these rights were based on “seniority of beneficial use” - the earlier users have seniority over later users, and their use must have clear and tangible benefits. The granting of water rights did not take into account environmental changes that might affect water availability. In fact, the water availability was based on a series of wet years, resulting in significant overallocation of rights today. Later amendments to the Compact and subsequent agreements were aggregated into what is now known as the Law of the River. Water rights were determined as hard numbers rather than percentages of available water, and the current challenge is to match the amount of water used with the available stream flow.
The conceptual importance of change over time and systemic disorder in dissipative river systems has, to date, not been applied to legal systems that allocate the rights to use water.
Water rights are legal entitlements that are granted to use water from rivers, lakes or groundwater aquifers.
Some key elements of water rights include:
The 1908 Supreme Court recognized native rights regardless of whether a tribe had used the water or not, with priority established at the time reservations were created. The state in which a reservation is located must fulfill the tribal water right per 1963 Supreme Court decision.
What if the current drought continues?
A significant 20-year drought has depleted reservoirs and reshaped the politics of water in the American West. If it continues, stream flows will continue to diminish, and the reservoirs behind the dams will drop further. The assumptions the water rights are based on will need to be re-negotiated.
What if Lake Mead dead pools, and the Colorado River goes dry?
If water gets low enough in a dam, it can no longer flow through it, a condition called “dead pool.”
What would be the impact of the proposed draining of Lake Powell to maintain water levels behind Hoover Dam in Lake Mead?
The “Fill Mead First” proposal includes building bypass tunnels draining Lake Powell and allowing the river to flow unobstructed downstream. This scenario models Lake Mead as the primary storage facility in the lower basin of the Colorado River. This increases the amount of water that would flow downstream that is currently lost to evaporation, and would delay or potentially prevent a dead pool condition at Lake Mead.
The tool enables users to create other scenarios.
For example, in 2026 the federal government will conduct the re-negotiation of the water allocations for each state. What are the possible outcomes resulting from these negotiations?