As the Colorado River shrinks, desert towns grow

Kanab gets a bunch of new development, Imperial Irrigation District scoffs at farmland solar

🥵 Aridification Watch 🐫

A houseboat docks on the mudflats near Wahweap Marina during the summer of 2021, when reservoir levels dropped perilously low. Jonathan P. Thompson photo.

If Lake Powell is like a big thermometer gauging the hydrologic health of the Upper Colorado River Basin, then it’s running a high fever.

In one case, the fever analogy is a bi…