I write as a resident of Colorado, where every drop of the river matters to our farms, families, and future. I have no fiduciary interest in water. I don’t own land around it, nor any water rights attached to it. But, simply put, I like to drink water to survive so its supply in the very dry American West has always interested me. Particularly the Colorado River and the millions of us who depend on it.

The Colorado River is the lifeline of the American West, but it is dangerously over‑appropriated. Agriculture consumes the majority of its flow, and nowhere is this more concentrated than in the Imperial Irrigation District (IID) in California and Yuma. These regions supply most of America’s winter vegetables — but they also devote massive acreage to alfalfa hay, much of it exported oversea

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