For nearly a century the delta has been dying, and with it the Cucapa culture. No longer can the Cucapa tribesmen hunt muletail deer, plant squash with the floods, harvest salt wheat or eat fish 3 times a day. In fact several species of fish and plant life have disappeared. The Cucapa village has shrunk to 85 families from a flourishing population of 1,200 a century ago. The once rich estuary is filled with weeds and piles of rubbish, smouldering

In the intense heat of the Lower Colorado basin water evaporates at a tremendous rate. Many smaller rivers in the area and even further north dry up altogether before reaching the sea. Because of this evaporation has always made a dent in the volume carried by the Colorado but since the construction of the Dams this problem has become even worse. The massive reservoirs created behind the dams expose an enormous surface area of water to the sun and so thousands of gallons of water are lost every day along the Colorado to evaporation. Another problem the reservoirs create is an increased seepage. The reservoirs cover massive areas of land, not all of it impervious, and so the amount of water lost to seepage into the ground is greatly increased. Also, many diversion channels are left unlined and uncovered. This leaves the water being transported exposed to seepage and evaporation and so even more water is wasted.

The Upper Colorado runs mainly through Colorado and Utah, the area of the Rocky Mountains. It begins to the North West of Denver as runoff from Longs Peak and the surrounding mountains. Colorado is a warm state with an average rainfall between 500 -1000mm. Much more precipitation falls on the Rockies as snow however. This takes the annual precipitation up to a very high 2500mm and the snowmelt coming from this in the spring contributes heavily to the Colorado's volume.

Some topics in this essay:
Lower Colorado, Baja California, South West, America Mexico, Introduction Cucapa, Grand Canyon, Flooding Colorado, Colorado Arizona, Gulf California, Colorado Mexico, waters colorado, affects colorado, colorado river, rocky mountains, water lost, colorado runs, intense heat, water evaporates, water management, south west,