The late-afternoon sun on Lake Powell, April 2018.
The U.S. Department of the Interior is considering emergency cutbacks to water supplies for Arizona, California, and Nevada.
The measure is designed to keep water levels in Lake Powell from dropping.
Further drops at the nation’s second-largest reservoir would mean a stop to hydropower generation at the Glen Canyon dam.
"I think that it will push us further in the direction of finding the real solutions on the river," said Kathryn Sorensen is a water policy researcher at Arizona State University. "I mean, this is going to cause real hardship and real difficulties for different stakeholders and water users in the basin, and that will force us to come together."
The cuts would reduce water supplies by about 7%, or enough to supply about half a million homes annually.
Reductions would be felt most sharply in Central Arizona.
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