Local rain doesn’t fill our pipes. Of the three main sources that do, Lake Mead, the Colorado River storage reservoir serving Southern California, shrank in July to its lowest level since 1956. Last month, the State Water Resources Control Board concluded that the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is overdrawn by 50%.

Water levels in Lake Mead, the Colorado River reservoir, fell sharply again this summer and are nearing an elevation that would set off the first-ever official water shortage on the river. The reservoir, which supplies roughly 30 million users in the West, dropped to 1,087 feet above sea level, or about 40 percent of capacity.

A powerful Easter Sunday earthquake along the Mexico border has had ripple effects in Nevada, spurring international talks about future use of the Colorado River and the water level in Lake Mead.

Of all the current and future impacts of climate change, threats to water resources may be the most painful in the American West, according to a new report published Monday.

A coalition of seven sustainably driven corporations and foundations has united to raise funding and awareness for the environmentally threatened Colorado River. Initiated by New Belgium Brewing and the Clean Water Fund, the campaign, will donate money to environmental nonprofits in the Colorado River basin working to promote water conservation and protect the river.

Floyd Dominy, who made it his mission to improve nature by, among other things, damming the Colorado River at Glen Canyon and creating the more user-friendly Lake Powell, died at the age of 100, on April 20. Some had hoped that Glen Canyon Dam would go first, draining Lake Powell and restoring the river’s ecosystem.

It is time for a new era in water management. The first step requires dispensing with the absurd notion that infinite growth can take place in a region with severely constrained resources.

For more information and/or to register, contact the Water Education Founation at (916) 444-6240 or visit their website.