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What Next TBD: Can This River Be Saved?

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Slate Podcasts

News, Business, Society & Culture

41.1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2021

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Colorado River Basin is experiencing its 22nd year of drought. Its reservoirs are at their lowest-ever levels. The water stored in the system is at just 40 percent of its capacity. How did the situation on the Colorado become so dire? And what does the shortage mean for the 40 million people who rely on its waters? Guest: Abrahm Lustgarten, senior investigative reporter at ProPublica Host: Lizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

This event is being recorded, so please take that into consideration if you choose to participate.

0:09.2

On August 16, the Bureau of Reclamation, the part of the Interior Department that manages

0:14.2

water in the Western U.S., held a press conference online.

0:18.8

I'm honored to introduce the Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, Ms. Tony Trujillo,

0:24.0

to discuss 2022 operations.

0:26.8

The virtual press conference had all the stilted aesthetics of pandemic life.

0:30.8

Government officials on video chat, long pauses, an awkward script reading.

0:36.5

Good afternoon. I'm Tonya Trujillo, the Assistant Secretary for Water and Science at the Department

0:42.5

of the Interior.

0:43.7

Trujillo's monotone introduction didn't capture the gravity of what she was there to say.

0:48.8

For the first time in the 99 years that the government has been keeping records,

0:53.9

they were declaring a water shortage on the Colorado River, a river that 40 million Americans

1:00.3

rely on. We are seeing the effects of climate change in the Colorado River basin through extended

1:06.4

drought, extreme temperatures, expansive wildfires, and in some places flooding and landslides,

1:13.8

and now is the time to take action to respond to them.

1:17.2

Starting in January, farmers, ranchers, and irrigation districts will be forced to use less water.

1:26.8

Arizona will be hit particularly hard.

1:30.9

For people who've been watching the Colorado for years, like

1:33.8

ProPublica Reporter Abram Lesgarden, this shortage was entirely predictable.

1:39.3

Do you ever feel like Cassandra?

1:41.8

I don't know how to answer that. I mean, I'd like to try to look around corners a little bit

1:48.8

with what I'm hearing from the climate community and the environment community.

...

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