Background: Last week we learned that the Colorado River sometimes dries up before it makes it to Mexico, and even when it does, there is rarely very much water (see: https://participatoryscience.org/feature/what-happened-colorado-river). So where does all that water go? After all, it was the Colorado River that created the Grand Canyon. We use the water for a lot of different things including agriculture, cities, and industry. Whenever you eat fresh vegetables from California, there is a good chance you’re eating some of the Colorado River!

The graph is a stacked bar graph showing predicted uses of the river water over the next 45 years. Each column represents the projected total water volume that will be used in the United States, and the different sections of the bars represents the proportion of that water that will go to different places. The water volume is measured in acre-feet which you can imagine as the volume of water required to flood a football field in one foot of water.

Data Source: