美国国家公共电台 NPR--The White House unveils a plan to keep the 2 largest reservoirs from falling too low

The White House unveils a plan to keep the 2 largest reservoirs from falling too low

Transcript¹

The White House is unveiling an emergency plan to keep America's two biggest reservoirs from falling too low to generate electricity or deliver drinking water.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The Biden administration is calling the Colorado River megadrought one of the nation's biggest challenges. So the White House has unveiled an emergency plan to save the country's two largest reservoirs from falling too low to generate electricity and deliver drinking water to cities. NPR's Kirk Siegler brings us the details.

KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE²: This emergency drought plan, now up for public comment, could allow the White House to force large, mandatory³ water cuts across Arizona, California and Nevada, even among water users who hold senior rights to take all they're legally entitled to from the shrinking river. The deputy secretary of interior, Tommy Beaudreau, chose one of the most alarming but fitting backdrops in the region right now to deliver the news.

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TOMMY BEAUDREAU: If you look out the window on this setting, you see the water intakes⁴ for Hoover Dam.

SIEGLER: And the nation's largest reservoir behind the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead⁵, is so low, it's perilously⁶ close to what's called dead pool. That's when hydropower would be cut off to millions of Westerners and no water would flow below those bare, exposed intakes to cities or farms where a lot of the nation's produce has grown.

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BEAUDREAU: We're in the third decade of a historic drought that has caused conditions that the people who built this system would not have imagined.

SIEGLER: Even a hundred years ago, though, when the Colorado was first dammed and diverted on an industrial scale, there were warnings that its water was way overpromised. But climate change and the Southwest now being as dry as it's been in 1,200 years appears to finally be forcing a reckoning. This draft plan's release comes as the seven states that rely on the Colorado have so far failed to come up with their own voluntary agreement to cut water. Bureau of Reclamation⁷ Commissioner⁸ Camille Touton told reporters there has to be sacrifice in this crisis.

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CAMILLE TOUTON: Fundamentally, it is one community comprised of 40 million people and landscapes that need us to get this right.

SIEGLER: There are actual examples lately of compromises being brokered⁹ to save the river, from farmers with senior water rights being paid to not plant crops to cities and tribes volunteering to keep some of their water in Lake Mead.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

STEPHEN ROE¹⁰ LEWIS: Piipaash.

SIEGLER: Just a few days ago in Phoenix¹¹, White House officials joined with Governor Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian community. The tribe has agreed to keep a huge amount of its water in Lake Mead, raising the reservoir by up to two feet in exchange for help modernizing¹² its irrigation water recycling.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LEWIS: We were historically excluded from the table. Now we're being key players.

SIEGLER: Well, the hope here is that more compromises like this will be made in order to avoid the mandatory cuts the government's new plan could allow. Cuts could bring prolonged legal challenges from some of the river's oldest and first users, even as the Colorado itself continues to shrink.

Kirk Siegler, NPR News.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

4 intakes   

吸入( intake的名词复数 )； （液体等）进入口； （一定时期内）进入或纳入的人数； （采煤）进风巷道

参考例句：

• The Tornado jet fighter-bomber has two air intakes. 旋风式喷气轰炸机有两个空气入口。
• The air intakes to the carburetors were filling up with freezing snow. 汽化器的进气道被积雪封住了。 来自英汉非文学 - 百科语料821

5 mead   

n.蜂蜜酒

参考例句：

• He gave me a cup of mead.他给我倒了杯蜂蜜酒。
• He drank some mead at supper.晚饭时他喝了一些蜂蜜酒。

6 perilously   

adv.充满危险地，危机四伏地

参考例句：

• They were perilously close to the edge of the precipice. 他们离悬崖边很近，十分危险。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• It'seemed to me that we had come perilously close to failure already. 对我来说，好像失败和我只有一步之遥，岌岌可危。 来自互联网

7 reclamation   

n.开垦；改造；（废料等的）回收

参考例句：

• We should encourage reclamation and recycling.我们应当鼓励废物的回收和利用。
• The area is needed for a land reclamation project.一个土地开垦项目要在这一地区进行。

8 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

9 brokered   

adj.由权力经纪人安排（或控制）的v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的过去式和过去分词 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排…

参考例句：

• a peace plan brokered by the UN 由联合国出面协商的和平计划
• Your husband brokered the deal to go in, transfrer the assets and get our man out. 你丈夫后来插了一脚，把生意都抢了过去，我们的人也被挤了出来。 来自电影对白

10 roe   

n.鱼卵；獐鹿

参考例句：

• We will serve smoked cod's roe at the dinner.宴会上我们将上一道熏鳕鱼子。
• I'll scramble some eggs with roe?我用鱼籽炒几个鸡蛋好吗？

11 phoenix   

n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生

参考例句：

• The airline rose like a phoenix from the ashes.这家航空公司又起死回生了。
• The phoenix worship of China is fetish worship not totem adoration.中国凤崇拜是灵物崇拜而非图腾崇拜。

12 modernizing   

使现代化，使适应现代需要( modernize的现在分词 )； 现代化，使用现代方法

参考例句：

• Modernizing a business to increase its profitability and competitiveness is a complicated affair. 使企业现代化，从而达到增加利润，增强竞争力的目的，是一件复杂的事情。
• The young engineer had a large share in modernizing the factory. 这位年轻工程师在工厂现代化的过程中尽了很大的“力”。