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he Navajo Nation Council has unanimously approved a proposed water rights settlement that carries a price tag larger than any such agreement enacted by Congress. The tribe has one of the largest single outstanding claims in the Colorado River basin, and Thursday's vote marks one of many approvals needed to finalize a deal that has been years in the making. Aside from ensuring water deliveries for the Navajo, Hopi and San Juan Southern Paiute tribes, the settlement also provides some certainty over the Colorado River supply in a state that has been forced to cut back on water use.

Since Glen Canyon Dam was commissioned in 1964 and it first began filling, Lake Powell has never been like it is right now, at just 27% of its capacity. It鈥檚 threatening to dip below the minimum elevation needed to produce hydropower within the next year. A string of dry winters could push it to dead pool status.

The federal government declared a water shortage for much of the Southwest last week, resulting in the first ever mandatory cutbacks for some who draw from the Colorado River. As two decades of drought, increased demand and climate change cut deep into the West鈥檚 water supply, the region is looking ahead to a future where supplies might drop further still.

Federal officials declared a first-ever water shortage for the lower Colorado River, triggering mandatory cutbacks for some users. Ongoing drought across the West, increased demand and the wide-reaching effects of climate change have steadily reduced water levels in the nation鈥檚 largest reservoirs. Usage restrictions will begin in January, and are expected to be felt most sharply by farmers in Arizona.

U.S. officials on Monday are expected to declare the first-ever water shortage from a river that serves 40 million people in the West, triggering cuts to some Arizona farmers next year amid a gripping drought.

Water supplies are so tight in the West that most states keep close watch over every creek, river, ditch and reservoir. A complex web of laws and rules is meant to ensure that all the water that falls within a state鈥檚 boundaries is put to use or sent downstream to meet the needs of others.

The Colorado River鈥檚 biggest reservoirs are likely to drop to historically low levels later this year, prompting mandatory conservation by some of the river鈥檚 heaviest users.

Recent studies found there鈥檚 likely less water in Moab鈥檚 aquifer than previously thought. Now, the tightening water supply has led to a reckoning over the consequences of development and the virtues of conservation.

The primary part of the Yampa River is under water usage restrictions for only the second time ever. The move came because less water has been circulating to the lower part of the river, meaning users in that area are not receiving their legally protected share, the Steamboat Pilot & Today reported.

Wildlife and Indigenous communities have long relied on Quitobaquito Spring for freshwater in the middle of the Sonoran Desert.