The lakes, aquifers and rivers are running dry on the western front and could eventually imperil the U.S. national food supply.
Wired magazine recently pointed out that Lake Mead, a reservoir that provides water for 25 million people in the American west, has shrunk to 36 percent of its capacity. One rural California community has run out of water completely after its well broke in early June. Fields are sitting fallow, and some farmers are selling their water allotments instead of growing crops, according to the report.
Some relief for the extreme drought withering western states might be on its way in the form of a bill from the U.S. House of Representatives that aims to direct the Secretary of the Interior to create a $750 million program funding water recycling projects in the 17 western states through the year 2027.
Susie Lee (D-Nevada), the representative who introduced the bill, summed up the situation this way: “This is beginning to be our new