by Abrahm Lustgarten, Al Shaw, Jeff Larson, Amanda Zamora and Lauren Kirchner, ProPublica and John Grimwade, Special to ProPublica, May 26, 2015
The Colorado River — the most important water source for 40 million people in the West — is draining. For a century, seven states engineered ways to wring ever more water from the river, defying all natural limitations. But now, the very water laws and policies that shaped progress are rendering the West more vulnerable to drought and less fit to adapt to climate change. Discover how the nation helped turn the Colorado into an artificial system by engineering water projects that now exacerbate instead of solve the problem.