The Colorado River is so heavily exploited it no longer reaches the sea. Still, people are flocking to the Sunbelt states in search of a desert climate with all the conveniences of limitless tap water and green golf courses. Portions of the sunbelt also makes great farmland provided there is enough water for irrigation. Garret Hardin’s 1968 paper the “Tragedy of the Commons” describes how individuals in a group naturally tend to act according to their own self-interest. Without proper regulation, the members of the group ultimately over-exploit a limited common resource to the detriment of the whole group. Pervasive drought in the Colorado watershed is leading to a serious debate on how water will be rationed in the future.
I actually noticed that when I had too much time on my hands at one point and was addicted to Google Maps street view, and did the street view of bridges over Colorado River. Although Colorado River looked like a normal river in Colorado, Lake Mead, Hoover Dam…once it reaches southern portion of the California/Arizona border it is DRY before it reaches the Gulf of California
Look at the street view of Route 2 in Mexico along the Baja California-Sonora border.