The Federal Government and, increasingly, the states have spent billions trying to move water from where it is to where it is wanted. But many factors - faster-than-expected growth, changing patterns of water use or a summer without rain - can still confound those plans. What follows are reports on how different regions are coping with the problems of providing enough water to their industries, households and farms.
Much of the West is experiencing a hot, dry summer after an equally dry winter.
Seattle, which some detractors call ''the rain capital of America'' but which prefers to think of itself as the ''Emerald City,'' has had so little rain recently that many of its hills are brown instead of green; the city Water Department is imploring people to use less water.
In some California communities this summer, officials are urging residents to take shorter showers.
In Utah, where not long ago people were struggling with a record overflow of the Great Salt Lake, officials say some farmers could soon face crisis conditions because of inadequate rainfall.
For the most part, experts say that enough water is stored in reservoirs to stave off severe problems, unless the snowfall that feeds those reservoirs is light again next winter. Nevertheless, water officials are already urging Westerners to cut back consumption, remembering that, just a decade ago, back-to-back droughts caused widespread hardship and water rationing.Continue reading the main story