There is less water in Lake Mead and Lake Powell right now than at any point since 1957, back when Glen Canyon Dam was still being built and Lake Powell did not exist yet. The two lakes are basically one giant reservoir split by the Grand Canyon, and they hold just under 60 percent of everything stored in the Colorado River basin. Mead is 27 percent full and sitting less than a foot above the lowest it has ever been. Powell is 23 percent full and could break its own record next month. Researchers expect a new combined low every single day until snowmelt comes next spring. The river runs 1,400 miles, supplies 40 million people, irrigates more than 5 million acres of farmland and powers around 700,000 homes. About 95 percent of the basin is in drought after one of the driest, warmest winters the West has recorded. Sarah Porter runs the Kyl Center for Water Policy at ASU, and her read on it is blunt. She says the levels are a signal the system is at risk of crashing, meaning the reserv...