Megadrought fuels debate over whether a flooded canyon should reemerge
Short Wave
NPR
4.7 • 6.5K Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2022
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A half billion dollar tourism industry has grown in the desert around the reservoir but a decades-long megadrought is putting its future in question.
With what some call America's 'lost national park' reemerging, an old debate is also resurfacing: should we restore a beloved canyon or refill a popular and critical reservoir? Environmental and American West correspondent Nathan Rott brings this story to guest host Dan Charles. Read Nate's full story and see pictures by photojournalist Claire Harbage of their recent trip to Lake Powell here.
This episode was produced by Berly McCoy, edited by Stephanie O'Neill and fact checked by Katherine Sypher. The audio engineer for this episode was Josephine Nyounai.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to shortwave from NPR. |
| 0:04.6 | Hello, short waivers. |
| 0:06.6 | This is Dan Charles and I'm here with Nate Rod, who covers some of the wildest places |
| 0:11.6 | in the West for NPR. |
| 0:12.8 | Hey there, Nate. |
| 0:14.1 | Hello, Dan, or maybe I should say howdy or something like that would that be more appropriate? |
| 0:19.2 | What have you got for us? |
| 0:20.8 | Okay, so I had a little bit of a misadventure on a recent reporting trip that was illuminating. |
| 0:28.3 | Okay. |
| 0:29.3 | Sounds interesting. |
| 0:30.3 | Tell me some more. |
| 0:31.3 | Okay, so we are on a boat cruising across Lake Powell. |
| 0:37.2 | It's the second largest reservoir in the country near the Utah, Arizona border. |
| 0:41.0 | It's a bluebird day and all of a sudden. |
| 0:44.2 | Okay. |
| 0:45.2 | Well, wait, Nate, you hit something? |
| 0:48.4 | Yeah, the top of a rock spire that was like lurking right under the surface of the |
| 0:53.2 | water. |
| 0:54.2 | Luckily, we just grazed it, the edge of it, and everything was fine. |
| 0:57.8 | But it was like this total aha moment for me because I had traveled there with NPR photographer |
| 1:03.0 | Claire Harbidge to see and document this surreal landscape level shift that's happening |
| 1:08.9 | on Lake Powell and all up and down the Colorado River as climate change and overuse has caused |
... |
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