Transcript:
The Inside Story: Colorado: River at Risk
Episode 133 – February 29, 1024
Show Open:
Unidentified Narrator:
This week on The Inside Story:
It carved the Grand Canyon and supports over 40 million people in the southwestern United States, but now the mighty Colorado River is shrinking from decades of drought and overuse. Join us as we learn how cities, farmers, and others along the river are adapting to a future with less water.
The Inside Story:
Chris Nycz, Lake Mead Cultural Resource Manager:
There's been a dramatic loss. We've lost over 70% of the lake. Some areas are just unrecognizable to me.
MATT DIBBLE, VOA Correspondent:
Lake Mead, a reservoir in Arizona and Nevada, is fed by the Colorado River and provides water for some of the largest U.S. cities and farms. It has become the most visible symbol of a looming environmental disaster faced by Western states.
Here at Hoover Dam, it is easy to see just how low the water levels have reached after 23 years of drought.
The top of the white ring is where water once reached during plentiful water years.
Now the water level has dropped almost to “deadpool” level, the point at which it’s too low to pass through the dam to the tens of millions of people who depend on it.
How did the situation get so bad? The worst drought in over a thousand years is just part of the story.
The Colorado River begins as snow melt in the Rocky Mountains and flows over 2,000 kilometers through seven U.S. states and two Mexican states to the Gulf of California.
In the 19th century, as the US expanded westward, the river was seen as the means to make arid land livable and abundant with crops.
But first it would have to be tamed. The mighty river that carved the Grand Canyon was erratic. Some years there was too much water and other years too little.
In 1931 work began on Hoover Dam, the largest dam built at the time. Workers from around the US arrived to work in around-the-clock shifts pouring nearly 2.5 million cubic meters of concrete. Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the US was the result.
Other dams followed, including a second massive dam and reservoir at Glen Canyon.
A system of aqueducts and pipes delivers water throughout the Southwest, allowing cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas to grow, and agriculture to flourish in the desert.
Use of the river’s water is governed by an agreement between states signed in 1922 called the Colorado Compact.
States along the river are grouped into an Upper and Lower Basin, with each allocated the same amount of water per year: 7.5 million acre-feet.
An “acre-foot” is the amount of water it takes to fill a one-acre area to a depth of one foot.
A later treaty promised 1.5 million acre-feet to Mexico.
But the Compact had a fatal flaw. It overestimated the amount of water that would be available each year.
Edith Zagona, University of Colorado Research Professor:
They allocated more water even than they had at that time. During the 20th century, all that water wasn't being used because the people, all of the states, the seven states, did not have the ability to take that water and use it.
MATT DIBBLE:
But as populations have grown, the states need all the water they are allocated, and with climate change, far less snow is falling in the Rockies, meaning less water in the river.
Jennifer Gimbel, Colorado Water Center Policy Scholar:
Now they're calling it aridification, which means it's not gonna go away. You know, we have to deal with this hotter and drier and more arid climate now.
MATT DIBBLE:
Over the past century, the basin states have successfully negotiated river allocations among themselves. But in 2022, with the water level at Hoover Dam nearing “deadpool”, negotiations broke down.
The federal government signaled that it was preparing to intercede and manage the crisis.
Camille Touton, US Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner:
In the Colorado River basin, more conservation and demand management are needed in addition to the actions already underway. Between 2 and 4 million-acre feet of additional conservation is needed just to protect critical levels in 2023.
Jennifer Gimbel, Colorado Water Center Policy Scholar:
That was a huge wake up call. We all knew there were issues. But the United States was essentially threatening that they were going to have to take action just basically for the safety of people and the economy.
MATT DIBBLE:
In May of 2023, the basin states ultimately agreed to the government’s demand: to begin conserving nearly one-third of the average annual flow.
Determining how to reduce water use at that scale is a work in progress. Will the cuts be taken mostly by cities that continue to grow despite the worsening crisis? Or by farmers, who currently use 80% of the water?
The issue was on the minds of many people I met along the Colorado.
Caroline Kuban, Boulder, Colorado:
The population explosion in Arizona and California is not helping any.
Mateo Mariscal, Las Vegas, Nevada:
California only touches the Colorado River in a little tiny portion of it and they take most of the water.
Conrad Bookout, Boulder, Colorado:
But if it’s growing food for the rest of the country maybe they should have the priority, versus the fountains in Las Vegas!
MATT DIBBLE:
What about Las Vegas? The sprawling city with a reputation for excess is just 25 kilometers from Lake Mead and built in one of the most arid regions of the U.S. You might expect that water cuts would have a big impact.
In fact, Las Vegas does a good job of conserving water. By recycling water and by cracking down on water waste, the city has actually lowered its water use over the past twenty years while the population has grown.
Bronson Mack, Southern Nevada Water Authority:
Over the past two decades we've implemented some of the most progressive and comprehensive water conservation programs and policies anywhere in the nation and as a result of that our community’s consumption of Colorado River water has declined by approximately 30% while our community’s population has also increased by more than 750,000 people during that same time. We are providing less water to more people today than we did two decades ago and that's because of water conservation.
MATT DIBBLE:
The biggest savings come from recycling wastewater and sending it back into nearby Lake Mead, to be used again.
Daniel Fischer, Clark County Water Reclamation District:
We have the Colorado River system, we take water out of the Boulder Basin of the Lake Mead, we bring it into the Las Vegas valley as our drinking water source. When the water goes back in the sanitary sewer system, we bring that to a treatment plant that's close to the Las Vegas Wash, we treat the water to very, very high standards, the water goes back into the Las Vegas Wash and goes back into Lake Mead, and then we reuse it again.
MATT DIBBLE:
Which means that some of the wastewater being treated here could end up flowing from a tap on the Las Vegas strip again in just a few days.
Daniel Fischer, Clark County Water Reclamation District:
And the only way that can happen is if we treat this water very, very effectively.
MATT DIBBLE:
This state-of-the-art facility lets microorganisms do most of the work.
Daniel Fischer, Clark County Water Reclamation District:
We have to treat to a level that’s above 98% of the other treatment plants around the country.
Daniel Fischer, Clark County Water Reclamation District:
So, after this water leaves here it's going to travel to Las Vegas Wash, which is just to our east. Then it goes into the Las Vegas Bay of Lake Mead and, at that point, it's reentered the Colorado River system.
MATT DIBBLE:
For every liter of water returned to the system, Las Vegas can remove a liter without counting against its overall allocation.
For the 60% of water that never becomes wastewater, the city has taken other steps, like limiting swimming pool size and evaporative cooling systems. Grass lawns, which are notorious water consumers, are banned in new housing developments, and the city pays homeowners to replace existing grass with desert landscaping.And to make sure the rules are enforced, there is a team of “water cops.
Unidentified water inspection agent:
Run-off due to misaligned sprinklers along the sidewalk. Water is running down into the gutter.
MATT DIBBLE:
Jhony Ceron is one of 14 water waste investigators who patrol the city looking for infractions like watering on the wrong day or faulty sprinklers.
Jhony Ceron, Las Vegas Valley Water District:
We are actually out here to, most of everything, is to educate people. Most of the people, they’re grateful when we let them know that something is wrong and they're like, ‘Oh! That's why my water bill is so high.
What I like is that now that I've been driving for three years I can see the changes that actually people are changing and getting the grass out, making sure that nothing is broken, they’re not overwatering.
MATT DIBBLE:
As successful as these efforts have been, the region will still need to conserve more. To meet new requirements, Nevada has agreed to cut around one-quarter of its current yearly allocation for the next three years.
And the population continues to grow.
This canal sends water to California’s Imperial Valley. It’s where the largest share of Colorado River water gets used, for growing crops in an area that otherwise would be a desert.
Lured by the prospect of year-round growing and unlimited water, farmers flocked to the area in the early 1900’s and dug the 132-kilometer canal connecting the river to the valley.
Gravity transports water throughout the valley, which lies below sea level and is enriched with ancient lake-bed soil.
Around 200,000 people now live in the valley. 4th generation farmer Stephen Hawk is one of them.
Stephen Hawk, farmer:
My great grandfather moved here back in the early 1900s, started farming and then my grandfather started the farm that I'm still farming today. The climate for growing crops here is almost unparalleled than any other place in the world. We can grow over 400 different kinds of crops.
MATT DIBBLE:
That is, as long as the water keeps flowing.
Water rights for the valley are held by the Imperial Irrigation District, which is allocated about 3 million acre-feet of water per year, more than the states of Arizona and Nevada combined.
It has senior water rights, according to the 100-year-old Colorado Compact agreement, making it the last user required to take cuts in the event of a shortage.
Tina Shields is a water manager for the Imperial Irrigation District.
Tina Shields, Imperial Irrigation District Water Manager:
97% of our water is delivered to farmers who grow crops that feed not only the nation but international markets. We're big in the winter vegetables. If you're eating lettuce in December, it's probably coming from here or the Yuma Valley.
MATT DIBBLE:
The irrigation district supplies water to over 200,000 hectares, which in 2022 produced $2.6 billion worth of crops and livestock. It’s a system that has worked for decades when reservoirs were full.
Tina Shields, Imperial Irrigation District Water Manager:
Now we're at some of these critical elevations, which we would love to ignore and just say we have senior water rights, but it turns out it's our only water supply.
MATT DIBBLE:
With the Colorado River system threatened, the district agreed in May 2023 to reduce the water it provides farmers by about 25% for the next three years in return for federal funds.
Stephen Hawk, Farmer:
There are going to have to be cuts and it will affect how we farm here. I try to be as judicious as I can with the water that I'm given. I know it's a very important resource. I don't want to waste a drop.
MATT DIBBLE:
For over a decade, the agency has been helping farmers fund the expense of transitioning to more water-efficient irrigation systems like sprinklers and drip. The program is paid for with water sales to cities.
Sprinklers are helping conserve water, but critics say water is being wasted on crops that humans don’t eat. More than half of the fields here grow alfalfa and other grasses used to feed livestock. They are lucrative crops grown year-round in the valley, but they also consume the most water.
Stephen Hawk, Farmer:
While it could be a little bit controversial, it also has given us sustainability, our margins on a lot of the crops that we grow are so razor thin, it's very easy, I know a lot of people that have gone under.
MATT DIBBLE:
Hawk now grows more vegetables and less alfalfa than he used to. But he doubts that he could find buyers if he replaced all his alfalfa fields with produce.
Stephen Hawk, Farmer:
We'll only grow what the demand is for. So, if people want to eat hamburgers and have milkshakes, then we've got to produce enough alfalfa and forage to feed the cows.
MATT DIBBLE:
So far, the irrigation district has avoided taking fields out of production completely.
Instead, Shields says they are considering cutting off water to crops such as alfalfa for a few months of the year.
As this farming community waits to see how it will be affected by falling water levels, Hawk hopes his farm will survive to pass on to the next generation.
For the regions original inhabitants, the Colorado River is both sacred and critical for survival.
Jerry Williams, Former LeChee Navajo Chapter President:
Every time a traditional Navajo crosses a river, we pinch a little bit of our corn pollen, and we sprinkle it out and we say a little prayer.
MATT DIBBLE:
The Navajo Nation is the largest reservation in the U.S. and the Colorado River runs right along its western border. But for decades the tribe has been unable to access water from the river.
The 1922 agreement dividing the rivers water between seven states, also acknowledged the water rights of thirty Native American tribes. But the agreement failed to determine the amount of water each tribe should receive.
A century later, lengthy legal battles and a lack of water infrastructure have kept Colorado water from reaching twelve of the tribes who have rights.
With other water sources drying up in the megadrought affecting the southwest, many Navajos, like Ronald Attakai, now travel long distances to purchase water.
How often do you guys have to come and do this?
Ronald Attakai, farmer:
Twice.
MATT DIBBLE:
Twice a day?
Ronald Attakai, farmer:
Yeah. We don’t have running water; we have to haul water.
MATT DIBBLE:
The long drive to the water station in northern Arizona cost $30 worth of gasoline each day, but this family and many others in the western Navajo reservation have no other option to get water.
The tribe estimates that over one-third of the homes on its 71,000 square kilometer reservation lack running water.
Jerry Williams has made many trips back and forth to a water station to supply his family’s farm.
Jerry Williams, Former LeChee Navajo Chapter President:
When you have people hauling water every day, that's not right. You know, that's not right to have a whole body of water sitting here. Everybody wants their fair share.
MATT DIBBLE:
Determining legally what that share should be is known as “quantification” and must be settled with the state where the tribe resides. The Navajo Nation has successfully negotiated Colorado River rights with Utah and New Mexico but has yet to reach a settlement with the state of Arizona.
There may not be much incentive for the state to settle, says law professor Heather Tanana, who is also a Navajo Nation member.
Heather Tanana, University of California, Irvine Law School:
Tribal water rights count against the state’s portion of Colorado River water. So, each time a tribe is settling out some water rights in Arizona, it's going to count against Arizona and their portion.
MATT DIBBLE:
Total tribal water rights would account for about a quarter of the river’s average flow, which is more than what most states get. But without quantification agreements or infrastructure to move the water, the water due Native Americans benefits other users, namely cities and big agriculture, helping sustain a system that was over-allocated from the very beginning.
With a dwindling water supply and serious cuts on the way, the urgency for tribes to reach water settlements has intensified.
This time around, tribes have a seat at the table says water policy analyst Jennifer Gimbel.
Jennifer Gimbel, Colorado Water Center Scholar:
And that's important, because under Western water law, those tribes pretty much have the senior water rights on the river.
They got it together here about 20 years ago, and started really contributing to the scientific discussion, to the data collection, and to the policy discussions.
MATT DIBBLE:
Some tribes, like Arizona’s Gila River Indian Community have opted to leave some of their share of Colorado River water in Lake Mead, in return for federal funding to secure water from another source.
The Navajo’s water settlement case reached the Supreme Court in 2023. In a close decision, the court ruled that though the tribe has water rights, the government is not obligated to help quantify or deliver that water.
Heather Tanana, U.C. Irvine Law School Visiting Professor:
Had the government been found to have a responsibility to help the nation, we would have closed the water gap in Indian country a lot faster. It'll still happen. We'll still get there. It'll just take a little bit more time and a little more determination.
MATT DIBBLE:
In the meantime, thousands of Navajos will continue to visit stations like this one to get their daily water.
Around 7 million people visit the Grand Canyon region annually, to experience the river and its environment.
Dianne Murphy, tourist.
As we are travelling, we are noticing there are signs to conserve. You know, your showers, your towels, use them more than once.
MATT DIBBLE:
Along with the challenges to humans posed by water shortages, the future of other species dependent on the river is also threatened. Prior to dams, spring snowmelt from the mountains would flood the Colorado basin, delivering nutrients and sand, and keeping vegetation in check. Dams interrupted this yearly cycle that kept the ecosystem healthy.
For three days in the spring of 2023, an experimental flood was unleashed at Glen Canyon Dam. Sinjin Eberle consults with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on the best ways to support the river environment.
Sinjin Eberle, American Rivers:
It's an opportunity to be able to shoot a bunch of water carry that sediment downstream and that is the main mechanism we have right now for rebuilding beaches and sandbars and rebuilding the ecology inside the Grand Canyon.
MATT DIBBLE:
Releasing water at a faster rate to simulate flooding is an example of the innovative strategies that Eberle hopes will become part of the new era of river management.
Sinjin Eberle, American Rivers:
If you don't have an environment that can provide for people, as well as wildlife, and as well as habitat, as well as scenic and recreational values, you don't have stable human health and public safety.
MATT DIBBLE:
Only about 10% of the water that flows in the Colorado River makes it to Mexico, and at the Morelos Dam at the border, that water is diverted for use in agriculture.
The river delta, which once extended another 160 kilometers to the Gulf of California, now ends here.
And the once-dynamic wetland habitat is now mostly sand, rocks and invasive species.
Miguel Vargas is director of river conservation with Pronatura Noroeste, part of a coalition dedicated to restoring delta habitat piece by piece. He shows a section of dry riverbed the group is considering for its next project.
Miguel Vargas, Pronatura Noroeste:
This is the Colorado River in Mexico.
MATT DIBBLE:
When I see a site like this it looks impossible.
Miguel Vargas, Pronatura Noroeste:
It is possible. And you need not really too much water.
MATT DIBBLE:
Vargas then shows a nearby restoration site, where, in less than 10 years, the group has grown a small forest of willow and cottonwood trees.
Miguel Vargas, Pronatura Noroeste:
We try to copy the river flow.
MATT DIBBLE:
The Raise the River coalition receives river water from both the Mexican and U.S. governments with a goal of creating a series of these sites to replace some of what has been lost to the river’s overuse.
Native trees and bushes are grown in nurseries and planted by the coalition and community volunteers.
Gabriela Caloca Michel, a program coordinator for Pronatura Noroeste shows another, older site.
Gabriela Caloca Michel, Pronatura Noroeste:
It's really amazing, when you create this habitat, how the response of the wildlife and birds can be. In the beginning, when we start at these sites, we found five species of birds. And now we find more than 100 species.
MATT DIBBLE:
The delta is also a critical stop along the 11,000 km Pacific Flyway used by an estimated 17 million migrating birds each year.
Gabriela Caloca Michel, Pronatura Noroeste Program Coordinator:
It's not easy to go from Canada to Chile or another country, and they really need to rest. So that's why we are creating this wetland for them.
MATT DIBBLE:
Other creatures are moving in also. And the sites are treasured by people from surrounding communities.
But The nine-year agreement between Mexico and the U.S. that has enabled the restoration of over 800 hectares of riparian habitat will expire and be re-negotiated in 2026.
Though demand for water along the length of the Colorado is increasing as the river continues to shrink, the binational restoration experiment is highly valued on both sides of the border, says Jennifer Pitt, the National Audubon Society’s Colorado River Program director.
Jennifer Pitt, National Audubon Society:
I think there's broad acknowledgement and desire to ensure that as we adjust Colorado River management to reduce water uses because we have to, not because anybody says we should, but because literally the water is not there, that we can also address these issues of equity and environment.
MATT DIBBLE:
The winter of 2022/2023 was a relatively good one for snow in the Rocky Mountains and helped raise reservoir water levels.
But climate scientists expect the overall trend toward a hotter, drier southwest to continue. Over the next two years the laws governing the river will be rewritten to prepare for a future of water scarcity.
Thanks for joining us on this special edition of The Inside Story.
I'm Matt Dibble.
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We'll be back next week with another episode of The Inside Story.
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