The Colorado River supplies 40 million people with drinking water, but the water levels of the river and its two major reservoirs are reaching crisis levels. For years, the federal government and the seven states in the Colorado River Basin have failed to advance a plan that tackles the real root of the crisis — corporate water abuses. And most recently, Basin states have missed the latest deadline to get a plan together, putting the fate of the Colorado in even greater peril.

Efforts to save the river will only be successful if they specifically target and rein in corporate water guzzlers. Big Agribusinesses withdraw egregious amounts of water for unsustainable operations. Mega-dairies and the vast alfalfa operations that support them shoulder much of the blame. And now, the Colorado faces a looming new threat: the water-hungry data centers powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. 

The Squandered Opportunity for Action on the Colorado River Crisis

Water withdrawals from the Colorado River are governed by a complex system of treaties and allocations that have consumed more water than the river replenishes for more than a hundred years. 

This has threatened not only water supplies, but also electricity for vast swaths of the West. The two biggest reservoirs in the country, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, depend on the Colorado to generate nearly 10 billion kilowatt hours per year combined.

Climate change-fueled droughts have worsened this problem. Now, this year’s hot, dry winter may plummet the reservoirs to “catastrophic levels” this fall.

At the end of 2026, a suite of core agreements and guidelines for managing the Colorado River will expire. This has presented an important opportunity to institute new rules to better manage the river’s water. But the Basin states have failed to come to an agreement. 

In January 2026, the Bureau of Reclamation released five options for how it would move forward with shortages. The Basin states had until February 14 to come up with an alternative plan they could all agree on, but that deadline has now come and gone. 

If the federal government moves forward with one of its options, it will likely face legal challenges from the states, plunging the Basin even deeper into trouble.

Basin State Leaders Must Stop Big Ag’s Water Abuses

So far, much of the conversation around water management has focused on allocations at the state level (how much water each state can draw from the river). But this fails to address the root of the crisis: Big Ag’s staggering water use. 

Two industries stand out. Our newest analysis finds that alfalfa farms in the seven Basin states consumed an estimated 2.1 trillion gallons of water in 2025. That’s enough to supply all the Basin’s 40 million people — for nearly three and a half years.

This alfalfa is largely used to feed cows on mega-dairies, which themselves are major water hogs. In 2022, these massive dairy facilities consumed at least 82 billion gallons of water across six of the seven Basin states.¹There is no available data for Wyoming. This is enough to supply over 5.3 million people with their annual indoor water needs.

Even though the Colorado River Basin is largely arid and depends on a vital and depleting water source, agriculture here uses an outsized amount of water compared to the rest of the country. Across the Basin states, the amount of water applied to each acre of agricultural land is, on average, 70% higher than the U.S. average.

To add insult to injury, not only is Big Ag drawing outrageous amounts of water — industrial agriculture is also a major contributor to climate change and the region’s increasing droughts. 

Without intervention, this crisis will only get worse. The true problem is that we have an agricultural system that is absolutely unsuited to the arid climate of the American West. Despite this, Big Ag is growing more thirsty crops to feed animals on factory farms, leaving less water for communities. Basin state leaders must take action for the sake of their constituents and finally rein in Big Ag’s abuses.

Colorado River Water Should Serve People, Not Corporations

While Big Ag has long been a threat to the Colorado River, new corporate giants are moving in, too. Big Tech’s AI boom is driving a nationwide buildout of data centers, and the Basin states are no exception. 

These facilities, which can be as large as several football fields, contain thousands of high-powered computers that enable digital technologies, from cryptocurrency to AI to the internet itself. They depend on massive amounts of water to cool those computers — even more so in hot, arid climates. 

Arizona is a particular hot spot for data centers, with over 150 already built. By one count, the direct water use of data centers in the Phoenix metropolitan area alone could reach a whopping 3.7 billion gallons a year if planned facilities come online. 

It’s senseless and dangerous to build these water-guzzling facilities in a region that’s already facing a monumental water crisis. That’s one reason why Food & Water Watch has called for a nationwide halt to new data centers.

The Colorado River’s critical condition threatens the water, sanitation, electricity, and food of huge swaths of the country. Greedy corporations are getting free rein to profit from thirsty crops and technologies, while their neighbors see their wells run dry. Yet, plans so far have failed to guard against the biggest contributors to the crisis. 

To save the Colorado River, states must stop new and expanding alfalfa crop and mega-dairy operations and protect the river from corporate water abuses.