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Amid a prolonged megadrought, the Bureau of Reclamation is predicting that Lake Powell may drop close to a “dead pool." But, water managers won’t let that happen. They’ll first tap into reservoirs further upstream – including in New Mexico.

This week, the federal government officially started a process to overhaul the rules governing a crucial river in the Southwest that provides 40 million people with drinking water. The Colorado River’s current rules are set to expire in 2026 and conservationists want a drastic change.

A massive new infrastructure bill is slowly moving its way through Congress this summer. But a coalition of elected officials, farmers, conservationists and tribal leaders want to make sure it doesn’t include new big pipelines or dams along the parched Colorado River.