From this morning’s Albuquerque Journal, my distillation of the Colorado River Basin Study’s key message:

Towing icebergs from Alaska or building a giant pipeline from the Missouri River won’t bail out the western United States from its growing water supply crisis, federal officials said Wednesday.

Instead, conservation by the region’s farms and cities offers the quickest and most cost-effective way for New Mexico and the other states of the Colorado River Basin to close the growing gap between water demand and supply, according to a new study done jointly by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the seven Colorado River Basin states.