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A Drop to Drink

by Joseph B. Baity (Charlotte, North Carolina)   Water is growing markedly more precious with the extended and expanding droughts of the American West. Some sub-regions count 2021 as the twenty-first consecutive year of too little rain. Currently, 95 percent of the West—the most extensive area ever on record—is officially in drought, with 65 percent rated “extreme” or “exceptional,” the two direst categories. As a result, hydrologists and other water experts are anxiously preparing for an unpleasant announcement, expected later this month, of the first-ever federally declared water shortage on the Colorado River. This declaration includes Lake Mead, the nation’s largest capacity […]