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Feds Unveil Interactive Tool Showing Colorado River Drought

Federal agencies have unveiled an interactive Web display showing high-water to low-water data and images resulting from a historic 16-year drought in the Colorado River basin.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation titles the presentation "Drought in the Colorado River Basin - Insights Using Open Data."

Bureau spokesman Peter Soeth said Wednesday that project folks just call it the "drought visualization tool."

It's a self-guided tour using graphs, charts, photos and maps.

It shows reservoirs drying like puddles on a river that serves seven Western states and supplies drinking water to one in 10 Americans.

The Colorado also irrigates farms in a land area comparable to New Jersey, the Garden State.

The release comes amid projections that water deliveries to Nevada, Arizona and Southern California may be curtailed as early as 2017.

(© Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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