Where does the Colorado river dry up?

Answer 1

The Colorado is pretty much used and sucked dry by the United States. The once enormous wetlands of the river estuary were considered a national treasure until the various dams in the US and water extraction programs removed over 97% of water from the river. The Colorado now no longer reaches the sea although it did so briefly in the 1980s. During that brief interval a lot of wildlife returned to the estuary.

There are anecdotal accounts of the Colorado estuary. "the river is nowhere because it is everywhere" and it would be difficult to estimate the species lost.

Before the Colorado runs completely dry it is stagnant and shallow with dangerous levels of pollution. The river runs completely dry just before the point it would have entered the enormous river delta. Now only the river Hardy, flowing from Mexico enters the estuary but is too insignificant to have much environmental impact.

Falling snowfall in the rocky mountains due to global warming has led to speculation that the Colorado will itself run dry. The river flow has already reduced in recent years and lake mead (created by the hoover dam) has dropped over 100 feet in depth over the last 5 years. This is the second major drought recorded. Lower levels were recorded in 1965.

There is now growing consensus that damns are environmentally disastrous due to enormous evaporation in the catchment lakes. Hydro electricity being the only positive as well as recreative purposes of the lakes for united states citizens. Salinity and heavy metals naturally occurring in the Colorado valleys are no longer being flushed into the delta where purification would have occurred before reaching the sea. Heavy metals are now being concentrated in the dam system - were enormous quantities are extracted for drinking water.

The greatest sadness and irony is that Americans living in the desert sustained by the Colorado are amongst the most wasteful consumers of water. However it looks like circumstances are about to change that due to the crisis in water management being caused by the Colorado River effectively drying up.