The Colorado River has been become the main source of fresh water to the south west. It is what has turned the desert of the south west into a fertile farming area. It has brought life to Nevada and California when before it was impossible.
The Colorado River is now being over utilized and if there were some unseen disaster this would put millions of people out of fresh water. They use the River as a plumbing system meaning that they channel the water and divert it all over the south west providing fresh water to thousands of farming acres. California how now over exceeded there its share of the allotment of fresh water taking in 800,00 acre-feet . With Utah and Nevada growing there becomes an ever increasing problem