Feds Unveil Interactive Tool Showing Colorado River Drought
Federal agencies have unveiled an interactive Web display showing high-water to low-water data and images resulting from a historic 16-year drought in the Colorado River basin.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation titles the presentation "Drought in the Colorado River Basin - Insights Using Open Data."
Bureau spokesman Peter Soeth said Wednesday that project folks just call it the "drought visualization tool."
It's a self-guided tour using graphs, charts, photos and maps.
It shows reservoirs drying like puddles on a river that serves seven Western states and supplies drinking water to one in 10 Americans.
The Colorado also irrigates farms in a land area comparable to New Jersey, the Garden State.
The release comes amid projections that water deliveries to Nevada, Arizona and Southern California may be curtailed as early as 2017.
(© Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)