A monthly members-only column by Alan Dulaney
In our obsession over the Colorado River and its travails, we often forget that there are other streams in North America undergoing stress. One of these has long been considered a major river, and indeed forms the boundary between Mexico and Texas. If you live on the Mexican side of that boundary, it is the Rio Bravo. If you live on the Texas side, it is the Rio Grande. Neither name is a good fit anymore.
The river arises in the upper elevations of the San Juan mountains of Colorado, where the snowpack melts and runoff seeks established channels. Note that this is the same runoff in Colorado that feeds the Colorado River, albeit that snowpack has been less than the volume previously observed since 2000, and last year was almost totally non-existent. It flows south some 1900 miles to empty into the Gulf of Mexico. Multiple dams have been constructed to store what was once seen as its generous supply.
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