美国国家公共电台 NPR High Demand, Low Supply: Colorado River Water Crisis Hits Across The West

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: 

For decades, the Colorado River has fed growing cities from Denver to Los Angeles, and a lot of the produce in grocery stores across the country right now was grown with Colorado River water. Now with climate change and severe drought, the river is reaching a crisis point, and communities at either end of it are reacting very differently. We start our report with Grace Hood¹ of Colorado Public Radio.

GRACE HOOD: Just outside of Boulder², Colo., surrounded by an evergreen³ forest, is Gross Reservoir. Beverly Kurtz and Tim Guenther live just out of eyesight from the giant man-made dam, and that's on purpose.

BEVERLY KURTZ: But I could've built a house that overlooked the reservoir.

HOOD: Do you think this is ugly?

TIM GUENTHER: When it's empty it's really ugly.

KURTZ: No, it's pretty. But that's not the point. It's choking off a wild river, which in my opinion is never a good thing.

HOOD: Kurtz and Guenther have a newfound job in retirement⁴. It's fighting a proposed expansion to Gross Reservoir's dam. The utility that owns it, Denver Water, wants to raise the concrete dam 131 feet.

KURTZ: It doesn't make any sense to build a multi-million dollar dam and disrupt the environment here when down the line, that's not going to solve the problem.

HOOD: The problem is that the state's population will nearly double by 2050. Future residents will need more water. Denver Water's CEO, Jim Lochhead, says more storage is part of the solution. It's also an insurance policy against future drought.

JIM LOCHHEAD: From Denver Water's perspective, if we can't provide clean, reliable, sustainable water a hundred years from now to our customers, we're not doing our job.

HOOD: Demand for Colorado River water is already stretched thin, so it may sound crazy that places like Colorado and Wyoming want to develop more water projects. Legally, that's something they are entitled to do. Pat Tyrrell oversees⁵ Wyoming's water rights. The state is studying whether to store more water from a Colorado River tributary⁶.

PAT TYRRELL: We feel we have some room to grow. But we understand that growth comes with risk.

HOOD: Risk because in 10 or 20 years, there may not be enough water to fill up expanded reservoirs. A 16-year drought has dramatically decreased water supply even as demand keeps growing, and climate change could make this picture worse. It makes Tyrrell's job feel impossible.

TYRRELL: You understand the reality today of a low water supply. You also know that you're going to have permit applications coming and to develop more water. What do you do?

HOOD: Tyrrell says as long as water is available, Wyoming will likely keep finding new ways to store it. But a future with less water is coming.

LAUREN SOMMER, BYLINE⁷: I'm Lauren Sommer from KQED in California where that future of cutbacks has already arrived. The water that started in Colorado flows more than a thousand miles to greater Los Angeles, which means even in the sixth year of California's drought, some lawns are still green. But...

JEFFREY KIGHTLINGER: Slowly but surely, the entire supply on Colorado River has become less reliable.

SOMMER: Jeffrey Kightlinger manages the Metropolitan⁸ Water District in Southern California. He says the water level in Lake Mead⁹, the biggest reservoir on the river, has been plummeting¹⁰. An official shortage could be declared next winter.

KIGHTLINGER: And that'll be a historic moment.

SOMMER: It's never happened before. Arizona and Nevada would be forced to cut back on how much water they draw from the river. California would be spared that fate because it has senior water rights. So you wouldn't expect to hear what Kightlinger says next.

KIGHTLINGER: We are having voluntary discussions with Arizona and Nevada about what we would do proactively to help.

SOMMER: Help by giving up water before California has to - between five and 8 percent of its supply. Now, Kightlinger isn't offering this out of the goodness of his heart. If Lake Mead drops too low, the federal government could step in and reallocate all the water, including California's.

KIGHTLINGER: And we all kind of realize that if we model the future and we build in climate change, we can be in a world of hurt if we do nothing.

SOMMER: This idea of cooperation is somewhat revolutionary after years of lawsuits¹¹ and bad blood.

STEVE BENSON: We know there's a target on our back in the Imperial Valley for the amount of water we use.

SOMMER: Farmer Steve Benson is checking on one of his alfalfa fields near the Mexican border which is being pollinated by a hive of leafcutter bees.

BENSON: These are very nice. They don't bite.

SOMMER: This valley produces two-thirds of the country's vegetables in the winter with water from the Colorado River. In fact, for decades, California used more than its legal share of the river and had to cut back in 2003. This area, the Imperial Irrigation District, took the painful step of transferring some of its water to cities like San Diego. Bruce Kuhn voted on that water transfer as a board member of the district.

BRUCE KUHN: It was the single hardest decision I have ever made in my life.

SOMMER: He ended up casting the deciding vote to share water, which meant some farmers have had to fallow their land.

KUHN: It cost me some friends. I mean we still talk, but you know, it isn't the same.

SOMMER: Soon Kuhn may have to make another painful decision about whether California should give up water to Arizona and Nevada. With an emergency shortage looming¹², Kuhn may have no choice. For NPR News, I'm Lauren Sommer in Imperial, Calif.

1 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

2 boulder   

n.巨砾；卵石，圆石

参考例句：

• We all heaved together and removed the boulder.大家一齐用劲，把大石头搬开了。
• He stepped clear of the boulder.他从大石头后面走了出来。

3 evergreen   

n.常青树；adj.四季常青的

参考例句：

• Some trees are evergreen;they are called evergreen.有的树是常青的，被叫做常青树。
• There is a small evergreen shrub on the hillside.山腰上有一小块常绿灌木丛。

4 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

5 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

6 tributary   

n.支流；纳贡国；adj.附庸的；辅助的；支流的

参考例句：

• There was a tributary road near the end of the village.村的尽头有条岔道。
• As the largest tributary of Jinsha river,Yalong river is abundant in hydropower resources.雅砻江是金沙江的最大支流，水力资源十分丰富。

7 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。

8 metropolitan   

adj.大城市的，大都会的

参考例句：

• Metropolitan buildings become taller than ever.大城市的建筑变得比以前更高。
• Metropolitan residents are used to fast rhythm.大都市的居民习惯于快节奏。

9 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。

10 plummeting   

v.垂直落下，骤然跌落( plummet的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Prices are rising, falling, going up, going down, shooting up, plummeting, etc. 物价在上涨、下跌、上升、下落、猛然上涨、骤然下跌等。 来自辞典例句
• The enemy plane went plummeting into the sea. 敌机直直掉进海里。 来自辞典例句

11 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

12 looming   

n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• The foothills were looming ahead through the haze. 丘陵地带透过薄雾朦胧地出现在眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Then they looked up. Looming above them was Mount Proteome. 接着他们往上看，在其上隐约看到的是蛋白质组山。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 回顾与展望