美国国家公共电台 NPR--Colorado River states are ready to work on a longer term deal to share water

Colorado River states are ready to work on a longer term deal to share water

Transcript¹

Now that a historic agreement on sharing the Colorado River has been struck, states are working out the details, and planning for its expiration² in 2026.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

It was big news when the seven states that share the Colorado River announced an agreement to temporarily cut water use. It averted³ a crisis as Lake Mead⁴ was in danger of falling so low that it could no longer generate hydroelectric power. Now, it's only a temporary solution, and the river states are working now on a long-term deal. Here's Luke Runyon, member station KUNC in Colorado.

Luke, temporary solution - were there temporary winners and losers from it?

LUKE RUNYON, BYLINE⁶: Well, there aren't really any losers here, and that's thanks mostly to a lot of federal money. California, Arizona and Nevada agreed to leave a lot of water in the river, so Lake Mead will stop shrinking. And that takes pressure off the other states who won't have to make more cutbacks than they already have. So the agreement was relatively⁷ easy to reach because there's a billion dollars in the Inflation Reduction Act to give water users money in exchange for not taking water, so some users are being compensated⁸. But it is temporary. The money only lasts for three years.

MART?NEZ: All right. So what happens after three years?

RUNYON: Well, they're going to need a new agreement. Yesterday, I met with the top water negotiators for six of the seven Colorado River Basin states, and they told me that formal negotiations⁹ are going to start next week. So they're giving themselves some time to come up with a new deal, one that's supposed to be longer term, like for decades.

MART?NEZ: Decades - that sounds a little harder to negotiate than a three-year temporary deal.

RUNYON: Yeah, definitely. For one, there're going to have to be a lot more people involved. Previous agreements on how to share the Colorado have, for the most part, ignored the 30 Native American tribes in the basin, and there's wide agreement that that can't keep happening. Stephen Roe⁵ Lewis is the governor for the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

STEPHEN ROE LEWIS: All Basin tribes need to be at the table. It's no longer acceptable for the United States to meet with seven Basin states separately.

RUNYON: He's saying that federal leaders can no longer only negotiate with states over water in the river. Tribes have legal rights to water that have to be taken into account, and no one really knows how adding tribal¹⁰ nations is going to affect the shape of this new deal. So it's a big unknown.

MART?NEZ: And that's probably not the only thing that's going to make it tougher to reach this decadeslong agreement.

RUNYON: Yeah, because really what's needed is permanent reductions in water use. They simply can't keep drawing on the Colorado like they have in the past. So reductions are what climate scientists say are necessary, and there's just not as much water in the river as there was 100 years ago when this whole river-sharing system was set up. And a lot of that is because of climate change making the river smaller, and fully¹¹ grappling with a warming climate is emerging as a big focus of this next round of talks. Here's Becky Mitchell. She's the state of Colorado's top water negotiator.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BECKY MITCHELL: For me, it's important that the next set of guidelines really acknowledge that climate change is real, and they've - it's resulted in significant changes to the Colorado River system.

RUNYON: No one really knows how much water is going to be in the Colorado going forward, but they know over the long term it's going to be less than the states are drawing out now. On paper, people already have rights to more water than currently flows down the river. So in the new agreement, someone is going to feel the pain and simply not going to get some of the water that they have access to right now.

MART?NEZ: That's KUNC's Luke Runyon. He's the host of the podcast Thirst Gap about the Colorado River. Luke, thanks.

RUNYON: Thank you so much.

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 expiration   

n.终结，期满，呼气，呼出物

参考例句：

• Can I have your credit card number followed by the expiration date?能告诉我你的信用卡号码和它的到期日吗?
• This contract shall be terminated on the expiration date.劳动合同期满，即行终止。

3 averted   

防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移

参考例句：

• A disaster was narrowly averted. 及时防止了一场灾难。
• Thanks to her skilful handling of the affair, the problem was averted. 多亏她对事情处理得巧妙，才避免了麻烦。

4 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。

5 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？

6 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。

7 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

8 compensated   

补偿，报酬( compensate的过去式和过去分词 )； 给（某人）赔偿（或赔款）

参考例句：

• The marvelous acting compensated for the play's weak script. 本剧的精彩表演弥补了剧本的不足。
• I compensated his loss with money. 我赔偿他经济损失。

9 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

10 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

11 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。