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In the West, pressure to count water lost to evaporation

Water flows down a wash into Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Friday, Jan. 27, 2023, near Boulder City, Nev. More than 10% of the water carried by the Colorado River evaporates, leaks or spills as the 1,450-mile powerhouse river of the West flows through the region’s dams, reservoirs and open-air canals. (AP Photo/John Locher) People walk by a formerly sunken boat standing upright into the air with its stern buried in the mud along the shoreline of Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Friday, Jan. 27, 2023, near Boulder City, Nev. More than 10% of the water carried by the Colorado River evaporates, leaks or spills as the 1,450-mile powerhouse river of the West flows through the region’s dams, reservoirs and open-air canals. (AP Photo/John Locher) A car drives along a dirt road near Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Friday, Jan. 27, 2023, near Boulder City, Nev. More than 10% of the water carried by the Colorado River evaporates, leaks or spills as the 1,450-mile powerhouse river of the West flows through the region’s dams, reservoirs and open-air canals. (AP Photo/John Locher) FILE - Water from the Colorado River flows in a canal along a border wall separating San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico with San Luis, Arizona on Aug. 14, 2022, in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico. Exposed to the beating sun and hot dry air, more than 10% of the water carried by the Colorado River evaporates, leaks or spills as the 1,450-mile (2,334-kilometer) powerhouse of the West flows through the region’s dams, reservoirs and open-air canals. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File) People walk by cracked earth in an area once under the water of Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Friday, Jan. 27, 2023, near Boulder City, Nev. More than 10% of the water carried by the Colorado River evaporates, leaks or spills as the 1,450-mile powerhouse river of the West flows through the region’s dams, reservoirs and open-air canals. (AP Photo/John Locher) FILE - Water flows down the Colorado River downriver from Hoover Dam in northwest Arizona, on Aug. 14, 2022, near the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. More than 10% of the water carried by the Colorado River evaporates, leaks or spills as the 1,450-mile powerhouse river of the West flows through the region’s dams, reservoirs and open-air canals. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
In the West, pressure to count water lost to evaporation