Tipping Point: The Colorado in Peril
The 100-year-old water truce among seven states of the Southwest may be moving toward open hostilities again as the life-giving but drought-decimated Colorado River is at a tipping point, federal officials say. The Colorado is the most endangered river in America, according to the conservation nonprofit American Rivers. But what happens when the law of the river and the river no longer work together?
This special series from The Gazette explores the megadrought currently plaguing the Colorado River, which serves as the primary source of water for roughly 40 million people. In seven episodes, we examine how the drought and aftermath of recent wildfires are affecting farmers and ranchers, tourism, dams, tribal reservations, politics, conservation and average citizens.
role: producer, cinematographer, editor
Episode 1: Fire on the watershed
Drought and a warming climate are a double-edged sword along the Colorado River Basin. Not only is the river basin environment robbed of moisture, it primes the land for fires that burn bigger and faster. For fires that affect the broader riverscape in more insidious, devastating ways.
In October of 2020, the East Troublesome fire ignited in Grand County, Colo., devastating the drought-stricken terrain and threatening the most important river in the Southwest at its vital beginning in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Episode 2: Urban Demands on the Colorado River
Urban hubs of the West are experiencing the deep shock of drought as historically dry conditions on the Colorado River persist. Some cities are taking steps to save water by ripping out turf grass, xeriscaping and investing in water reuse programs.
Similar initiatives could soon be coming to Colorado and the other Upper Basin states. The commissioner for the Bureau of Reclamation announced in June that the seven states in the Colorado River Basin must cut back between 2 million to 4 million acre-feet of water use next year to preserve the river system and prevent irreversible damage. Roughly stated, the called for conservation equals the Upper Basin's entire use.
Episode 3: Colorado River basin farms stunted by megadrought
Colorado River basin water has transformed Nancy Caywood’s fields in the desert southwest of Phoenix into carpets of green cotton and alfalfa for generations. But in June, the alfalfa was expected to dry up, and a vast majority of the cotton wasn't even planted.
The same uncertainty facing Caywood’s family farm in Pinal County is widespread across the Colorado River basin following a Bureau of Reclamation announcement the seven states reliant on the river, including Colorado, need to conserve an additional 2-million to 4 million acre-feet of water next year to preserve the integrity of the stricken system, including power production in Lake Powell and Lake Mead.
Episode 4: Lake Powell reaches record lows amid drought
Drought conditions of the past 22 years have lowered water levels substantially, threatening the ability of major dams, including Glen Canyon Dam at Page, Ariz., to produce hydropower, which comprises 54% of renewable energy production in the Southwest.
The shrinking supply of water that nourishes tens of millions of people in the Southwest is effecting animals, crop production, recreation, tourism and hydropower generation from dams including Glen Canyon, which created Lake Powell.
The situation is happening as federal, state and local governments push for reduced reliance on fossil fuels and an increase of green-energy sources, in an effort to curb the nation’s changing climate.
Episode 5: Colorado River tribes fight for their water rights
Some 10,000 households on the vast Navajo Nation, which covers 27,000 square miles in three states, are still without running water. Native American tribes hold some of the most senior water rights in the Colorado River Basin, but history has shown that having senior water rights and having water are two different realities. The tribes, including the Ute Mountain Utes in southwest Colorado, are fighting to gain their rights, in some places successfully, as the basin struggles with an epic megadrought and new federal calls to conserve massive amounts of water next year.
Episode 6: Colorado River strain casts shadow over recreation
Blue Mesa Reservoir, Colorado's largest body of water, is at its lowest level ever. Plagued by drought and meager snowpack, the reservoir is not even 50% full. In an attempt to shore up Lake Powell and keep power-generating turbines turning, regulators pulled about 36,000 acre-feet from Blue Mesa last year, causing the closure of the marinas that the Loken family has made a living from since the 1980s.
Episode 7: A Call for Change on the Colorado
One hundred years of the Colorado River Compact — the agreement that divides 15 million acre feet of water each year among the seven states of the Colorado River basin and Mexico — has wrecked on the shoals of a drier climate and 22 years of drought.
The compact as is doesn't work anymore, various water and legal experts say.
The river is over-appropriated — there’s much more demand for the water than there is supply — and that gap is growing.
The struggle to save the Colorado River stalls, but potential solutions emerge.
View the full documentary, containing all seven episodes and more, above.