Department of the Interior report released Tuesday finds water supplies across Colorado and the West are at an increased risk because of climate change.
Projections by the U.S. government say stream flow could decrease across the Colorado and Rio Grande river basins by as much as 27 percent over the next century.
“We’ve made progress," said Deputy Secretary of the Interior Mike Connor. "But I don’t think we’ve got to the point yet where we’re going to meet those challenges. I think we can. But we’ve got a lot of work to do over the next few decades.”
The report also estimates a decrease in snowpack over the next century—which will impact many western river basins.
