In drought-stricken West, officials weigh emergency actions

FILE - An aerial view of Lake Powell on the Colorado River along the Arizona-Utah border on Sept. 11, 2019. A dam holds back Lake Powell, one of the largest man-made reservoirs in the country. Federal officials sent seven western states a letter this week warning them that they're considering cutting the amount of water that flows through the Colorado River to the Southwest to maintain Lake Powell and prevent it from shrinking to a point at which Glen Canyon Dam could no longer produce hydropower. Consideration of what would be an unprecedented move comes sooner than water officials expected as they reckon with the effects drought and climate change have on their urban and agricultural customers. (AP Photo/John Antczak, FIle )