Precis

The once mighty Colorado River is in trouble. Stretching from the snowy peaks of the Rocky Mountains all the way down to the Sea of Cortez in Mexico, its waters are a lifeline to tens of millions of people.

But the pressures of the decades-long megadrought in America's Southwest and a warming planet mean the water levels in the river and its dams are dropping.

"I'm not going to say it's too late, but we are in true crisis," says renowned river scientist, Professor Jack Schmidt.

The pressures on the river are largely man-made.

The building of the Hoover Dam in the 1930s tamed the waters of this once wild river, harnessing its flows to produce hydropower and feed a massive agricultural industry across the Southwest.

But the water was over allocated from the start. Now as dam levels drop to their lowest ever, the survival of farms and industries is in question.

"I feel every day of my life that my son will not be able to share in this magnificence ... and the beauty of this profession," says Jace Miller, an Arizona farmer of five generations.

He grows feed for livestock, but next year, his water allocation will be cut to zero.

US correspondent Barbara Miller travels along this spectacular river to meet the communities whose livelihoods depend on it.

Miller rafts down the Colorado rapids with the Native American tribe for whom the Colorado provides a vital source of tourist revenue.

She visits the thriving desert city of Las Vegas, which has become a US leader in urban water conservation, offering lessons for Australian cities.

And there's a silver lining. As waters in the dam reservoirs recede, natural wonders which were flooded decades ago are emerging.

"We're seeing this flowing waterfall and this trickling creek. We're seeing the vegetation start to come back," says environmentalist Eric Balken.

The state of this vanishing river is a wake-up call for all those who depend on it.

"We pretended the Colorado River is just a check account," says Prof Schmidt. "There are going to be limits ... and we're going to have to deal with them."

Miller in plane over Colorado River

Music

00:10

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: The mighty Colorado; 2300 kilometres of river stretching from the snowy peaks of America's Rocky Mountains all the way to the Sea of Cortez in Mexico.

00:16

Tourists white water rafting on river

A place to play, and one of deep spiritual significance.

00:30

Miller in river gorge by waterfall

"It's worth coming up for."

00:35

Music

00:37

Miller in boat with Jordan

JORDAN: To me, it's life, man. It's being happy down here.

00:42

Aerials over desert towns

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: The Colorado is a lifeline for the United States' arid southwest; 40 million people and counting rely on it. But the river is under threat.

00:46

Miller overlooking Lake Powell. Super:
Barbara Miller
Reporter

At the northern end of Lake Powell the stark reality of the water crisis facing America's southwest is beyond denial. The reservoir's waters once filled the valley below, supporting a thriving tourist industry centred around a bustling marina. 20 years into the megadrought – this is all that's left.

01:00

Sign showing Lake Mead water line

All along the Colorado, livelihoods are hanging in the balance.

01:23

Agriculture

JACE: I have dreams about it.

01:27

Jace interview

I wake up, it's the first thing on my mind.

01:30

Reservoir wall

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: A once unimaginable worst-case scenario is now a real possibility. If the levels of the Colorado continue to plummet, millions of people could find themselves without power or water. Something has to give.

JACK: It is

01:33

Jack Schmidt interview

extremely hard to look anybody in the eye and say your way of life is threatened and your way of life may not be able to proceed.

01:55

Aerial over river. Title:
The Vanishing River

Music

02:08

Into Grand Canyon for rafting. Super: Arizona, USA

02:20

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: We're hitching a ride deep into the Grand Canyon. We're guests of the Hualapai – the native American tribe whose land this is.

02:24

BUS DRIVER: "See you later on, watch the bottom step."

02:37

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: Ahead, a day of adventure on the river whose rapids helped carve this natural wonder.

02:41

JORDAN: "Okay group three, let me get group three together, you got your dry bag everybody?"

02:47

Into boats for rapids journey

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: Our guide is Jordan Marshall; he's a 34 year-old father of eight. The Colorado runs along the edge of the Hualapai reservation, providing the tribe with a vital source of tourist revenue.

02:53

Jordan leads rafting expedition

JORDAN: What we're going to do is when we go through the rapid is that we're going to have you lean forward, so what we want you to do is hold on like this. Trust me people do fall out.

03:09

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: So am I going to scream?

JORDAN: Let's hope so.  I think you are more or less going to be drinking a lot of water.

03:16

Miller in boat

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: "Here we go."

The rapids have their own names and legends: Honeymoon, Killer Fang, Separation.

03:27

This is a class seven rapid and you can see why they call it the mighty Colorado. It's pretty impressive.

03:39

Aerial over rapids

The Hualapai call the Colorado River ha'yiđađa, the backbone. 

03:59

River GVs

JORDAN: They say there's things inside the water, you know, like a spiritual waking, like some people feel, you know, blessed by it.

04:08

Jordan guides boat

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: But the story on everyone's mind is the one about the vanishing river. 

04:17

JORDAN: It's dropping drastically. You can see, 20, 18 years ago that's how high the water was. I remember last year we had water so low that we were actually walking our boats for about a mile. It does get a little scary when you notice that the water is going away.

04:22

River GVs

Music

04:39

Miller and Jordan on river beach

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: And what about the tourism industry if the water levels keep dropping?

04:45

JORDAN: I try not to think that too far ahead, you know, because you know, for me I'm always, I try to live in the moments now. So I mean, it's thinking about it right now is giving me that little scare about it, you know? Yeah.

04:49

Donkeys/ River GVs

Music

05:03

Hoover Dam

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter:  Downstream from the Hualapai's land the Colorado River flows into America's largest reservoir – Mead – a man-made lake created by the construction of Hoover Dam.

05:10

Visitors to Hoover Dam

It's here at Hoover that it really hits home just how much the water is falling.

05:29

WOMAN TOURIST: "See it? See the colours?"

WOMAN TOURIST 2: "Yeah! the water was up there by the white. See where it turns brown."

05:38

'Bathtub ring' at reservoir

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: As far as the eye can see an eerie 'bathtub ring' encircles the reservoir, a bleak barometer of the escalating crisis. 

05:46

Patti walks along spillway wall

PATTI:  When I moved here in 1999, we came out to see Hoover Dam for the first time, and I was so impressed by the majesty of it. And I still am, every single day, when I come out to work here. It's very sobering to see the decline in the reservoir levels.

05:57

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: Patti Aaron moved to Nevada in 1999 to work for the federal agency that manages Hoover Dam. The Southwest's megadrought hadn't yet begun. 

06:16

Photo of reservoir, 1990s

PATTI: When I first moved here, the water level was almost up to the bottom of walkways out to our intake towers; the reservoir was 97% full and today were at 29% full.

06:28

GFX footage showing map of Colorado Basin

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: A century ago, the seven US states the Colorado courses through decided to divvy up its waters, half for the upper basin, half for the lower. Then they began damming

06:46

 Newsreel footage. Construction of dam

the mighty river to control the flows.

NEWSREEL: "Thus the first thunder of man's determination to conquer the Colorado River reverberated between the sheer cliffs of the canyon which heretofore had known only the hot silence of the desert."

07:04

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: But the 1922 agreement – the Colorado River Compact – was flawed from the get-go. The water was over-allocated, the calculations based on an unusually wet period.

07:18

Dam showing 'bathtub ring'

Then came climate change and a 20 year drought. Today, the shortcomings of the century old agreement are laid bare.

07:38

Miller and Patti don hard hats

PATTI: So we are going to go into a hard hat area, so I'll give you a hard hat. I have my own.

07:49

Miller and Patti at dam wall

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: Days before her retirement, Patti takes me deep into the bowels of the dam, delighting in showing off one last time the engineering masterpiece.

07:56

PATTI:  726 feet high, 1,221 feet wide.

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: Wow.

PATTI:  That's Hoover Dam.

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: That is Hoover Fam.

08:08

PATTI:  It's been called the eighth wonder of the world by certain people.

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: As well as supplying water to the lower basin states the hydropower created here delivers electricity to around 350,000 homes.

08:21

Miller and Patti at hydro generators

"And how many of these are there?"

PATTI: There are nine generators on the Arizona side and eight on the Nevada side. Right now, production is down about 13 percent.

08:37

Dam water level

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: If water levels continue to plummet, a catastrophic scenario looms. They call it 'deadpool. 

PATTI: Deadpool means that we can no longer

08:50

Miller and Patti at hydro generators

deliver water or produce power. And at Lake Mead that's elevation 895 feet.

09:00

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: You'd be talking about a drop then of about 150 feet. How soon could that happen?

PATTI: We're working very hard at making sure that doesn't happen. Having that happen is not an option.

09:07

Aerials over river snaking through Nevada

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: To ensure the water keeps flowing and the lights stay on, this year the federal government, for the first time, triggered water cuts for the lower basin states of Nevada and Arizona. 

09:19

For decades this 500 kilometre long canal system has delivered Colorado River water to the people of Arizona, allowing them to live and work in the desert. It's here that the water cuts are hitting the hardest, and farmers are bearing the brunt.

09:34

Farming GVs

JACE: We do work long, long hours, you know, through the day, through the night, year around, but you know, the freedom of it – being outside, being kind of one with the land.

09:56

Jace in tractor

The job that I do on a daily basis positively impacts not only the people around me, but people across the world.

10:06

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: It's harvest time in Pinal County, and Jace Miller has been working through the night. Another hot day lies ahead.

10:15

In this part of America's south west temperatures frequently soar into the forties.

JACE: Right now we're harvesting an alfalfa crop; this crop's been on the ground about three days.

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: Alfalfa hay has long been a staple here, much of it bought up as feed by the region's mammoth dairy industry.

10:26

Jace and Miller at alfalfa field

JACE: It's a multi annual crop, so we'll get three to five years out of this alfalfa stand.

10:45

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: But it's also a thirsty crop, and that's a problem, because Jace has seen his water allocation slashed by around 40 percent this year. 

10:50

JACE: They say, well, just grow a crop that doesn't require as much water. Well, name the crop, and we'll do it. We'll gladly do it. We've got to evaluate this from two points of view, a, how can we best use our water, but also what is profitable?  We love this way of life but at the same time we got to make a dollar. 

11:01

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: Around 70% of Colorado River water goes to agriculture, and as cuts bite some farmers are selling up, others downsizing.

11:24

Jace and Miller at fallowed field

JACE: So right here, these fields to the east and west of us are actually fallowed fields for this current crop season for 2022.

11:39

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: But farmers have always fallowed some fields, right?

JACE: To an extent, yes, but nothing on this grand of a scale.

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: How much is water, or lack of, on your mind?

JACE: I go to bed at night thinking about it.

11:52

Jace interview

I have dreams about it. I wake up, it's the first thing on my mind.

12:09

Jace in tractor

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: Jace and his family have been farming in Arizona for five generations.

12:13

Father and grandfather

He runs the business with his dad and grandfather, but hopes that his son will continue the family tradition are fading fast.

JACE: I sure hope to see

12:21

Jace's father with baby son, Jace interview

a sixth generation in the state. He's the only boy in the family, so he's got to carry it on, so it's up to him.

12:33

Jace with male family members

It is a troubling, gloomy sense that I feel every day of my life, that my son will not be able to share in the magnificence and the enjoyment and the beauty of this profession.  The thought that it

12:45

Jace interview

may die under my watch is blood curdling. It's just sickening to say the least.

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: Does it make sense, looking back, that agriculture was allowed to develop to the extent that it has in the south west?

13:00

JACE: We tend to be a scapegoat. So if there's ever a shortage or an issue, oh, take it from the farmers and ranchers. Farmers and ranchers are feeding and clothing the world.

13:13

Aerial. Las Vegas suburbs

Music

13:28

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: If there is one place that has tried to defy reality it's Las Vegas.

ELVIS IMPERSONATOR: "Viva, viva,

13:33

Elvis impersonator on Las Vegas strip

las Vegas... Thank you very much."

13:41

Las Vegas GVs

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: An audacious extravagant mecca smack bang in the middle of Nevada's Mojave desert. Love it or hate it, Las Vegas pulls in the crowds, welcoming more than 40 million visitors a year.

13:44

Woman on roller skates

WOMAN: "Vegas baby!"

13:58

Tourist GVs

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: Not the first place you'd think of as adopting a conservative approach to anything, really. But Sin City gets 90 percent of its water from the Colorado River, and that's focussed minds.

14:01

Miller and Pat walk in atrium

PAT: Those are flowers on those animals. This is how las Vegas exists – it imagines the impossible, right. It creates fantasy and brings it to reality.

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: A little bit excessive?

PAT: A little bit excessive.

14:16

Pat interview in hotel

I've been called various things over the course of the years. I've been called the water witch. I guess I would call myself the unfortunate person who ended up in the chair to inherit the worst drought in the desert southwest in the town with the driest city in America.

14:35

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: For years, Pat Mulroy was at the helm of southern Nevada's water agency. Under her leadership Vegas has transformed itself into an unlikely trailblazer in water conservation.

14:53

Pat interview

PAT: We recycle 93% of all the waste water. If it hits the sewer system, it gets recycled. We have what we call a return flow credit. We return the water to Lake Mead, and for every gallon we put in, we can take an extra gallon out. So it's like a closed loop. Where we lose the water is outside. 

15:08

Water police in Las Vegas suburb

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: To crack down on outdoor water waste a strict conservation program is now underway.

15:27

CAMERON: So what I'm doing right now is I'm looking for any kind of water waste violation that's occurring in this neighbourhood. So that can include anything, such as water leaving the property, water running off into the gutter and going down the street.

15:35

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: Water cops like Cameron Donnarumma patrol day and night, ready to pounce on rulebreakers.

15:48

Cameron reports water incident

Music

15:57

CAMERON: "Water police investigator 8776 today is Monday June 13^th 2022 at 6.58am. Spray and flows occurring at this property, the water is running of the property and heading down the street.

16:04

Cannabis delivery sign/Front yards of houses

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: Grass is legal, but not in your front garden. Lawns on new properties are banned, and there's an incentive program – where you get paid to rip up existing turf,

16:17

Aerial. Golf course

even on Vegas's beloved golf courses.

COREY: Our biggest incentive programs

16:29

Corey and Miller on golf course

is our water smart landscapes program where we pay residents, and businesses, $3 a square foot to remove grass and put in water efficient landscapes, and golf courses have been one of the biggest benefactors of that program.

16:36

Corey tees off

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: Corey Enus from the southern Nevada water authority says it's a win-win for clubs like the Arroyo. The club's removed grass from areas of the course where people don't tend to hit the ball.

16:50

COREY: There used to be wall to wall grass from over here where we are to back in front of the houses. But the golf of course has found that there areas where people don't play the balls necessarily. And so they were able to remove grass, save themselves money and save the community water at the same time.

17:08

Miller and Corey in golf buggy

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: Is this sustainable? Can golf courses continue to exist?

COREY: They can. Golf courses provide an economic benefit and a benefit for our community members, as well as those who come from other areas of the country to visit. And so they're doing it in a very efficient manner. As long as we continue to utilise the resource in the most efficient manner possible, I do believe it is sustainable.

17:22

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: From this year new golf courses are prohibited from using Colorado water, effectively banning any future ones.

COREY: So if it's not in existence now it's not going to exist.

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: And while the city might be okay for the short term,

17:45

Pat interview in restaurant

Pat Mulroy says other long term solutions like desalination must be considered.

18:02

PAT: You cannot conserve your way out of this.  We have to augment the system. and the only way to augment the system is by tapping into the ocean.

18:08

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: To engineer our way out of this?

PAT: Well, it's – look, think about this whole west – it's all engineered, right? I mean, unless you want to go live at Walden Pond, I mean, you somehow live in an engineered environment, right?

18:15

Aerial. St. George

Music

18:29

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: Despite the shrinking supply, the upper basin state of Utah is arguing it hasn't yet used all of its Colorado River water. 

18:34

St. George signage, suburban development

Welcome to St George in Washington county, where taxes are low and the sun shines most days. In America's fastest growing metro area, houses are going up overnight.

18:44

ZACH: We have about 200,000 people that live in our county right now,

19:03

Zach walks and looks out over town

and we're expecting that population to double in about 20 to 30 years.

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: The county's top water official Zach Renstrom is charged with making sure the region has water security into the future.

ZACH: Utah has been slow in developing water.

19:07

Zach interview

It has been cautious. And so because Utah has been smart about how it's developing its water, we don't think we should be punished for that now.

19:22

Drone shot. Virgin River

Music

19:30

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: The county currently gets all of its water from this small river – the Virgin – but it can't sustain future growth.

19:34

Water sprinklers, housing development

Utah is now backing a bold plan – some would say crazy – to build a 225 kilometre long pipeline to bring Colorado River water all the way to St George.

ZACH: Utah does not plan to use any water

19:42

Zach interview

over the amount it's entitled to. And we won't, and we don't think any other state should do that. Here in Utah we just want to have the same right that the other states have had.

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: As the states bicker over the dwindling supply, yet another hand is being raised.

19:59

Aerial. Navajo land

Native American tribes were excluded from the 1922 Colorado River Compact.

20:16

The Navajo – America's largest tribe – is still fighting for its full share of the precious resource,

20:28

Woman takes photograph with President Nez

a battle being spearheaded by Navajo president Jonathan Nez.

PRESIDENT NEZ: Indigenous peoples have been

20:41

President Nez interview

ignored for way too long. The reason why I say that is there's 30 to 40 percent of our Navajo people that don't have running water in the most powerful country in the world and that is unacceptable.

20:52

Drone shot, Black Rock

Music

21:04

ACE:  Black Rock. In our native language it’s called Tsézhįįh.

21:10

Mary and Ace with water barrels, carrying water

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: Mary Anderson and her husband Ace built their house in Fort Defiance, Arizona, in the 1980s, but they never imagined they’d still be hauling ground water in 2022.

21:18

MARY: It all depends on what we have scheduled for the day. Like if we need to wash the dishes and we did a lot of cooking, then we probably will use about two

21:35

Miller and Mary in kitchen. Mary heats water

of that bucket right there. The hot water goes in here nice and hot and wash it and then put it in there to rinse it.

21:46

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: With a chronic lack of infrastructure also hindering access to running water, the couple know a settlement won't change things overnight.

22:05

Ace and Mary in lounge room with Miller

ACE: Even if they pass it tomorrow and say, 'Hey, the Navajo people and all the native people in the state of Arizona gets water rights to the Colorado River project', it's not like we are going to get that water the following day.

22:14

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter:  Mary, what would it mean for you to have running water here in your home?

22:37

MARY: I'd say I'd be the happiest woman around.

22:41

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: In 2026 the federal government and the states will re-negotiate the Colorado River Compact. Native American tribes are demanding that this time they have a seat at the table.

22:47

President Nez interview

PRESIDENT NEZ: In the southwest, water may be more valuable than gold in the future. And so we want a foundation. We want our fair share of our water.

23:01

Sunrise

Music

23:15

JACK SCHMIDT:  I'm not going to say it's too late,

23:22

Jack interview

but we are in true crisis.

23:24

Dam

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: Professor Jack Schmidt is a renowned river scientist. He's spent decades chronicling the Colorado's troubles.

JACK:  The undeniable fact there's just less water in the Colorado River.

23:30

Jack interview

The undeniable fact is there's no more water in the upper basin that's just being used, unused and oh, we're going to tap water that no one else is using – that concept is dead.

23:42

Jack, Miller, Eric in boat on Lake Powell

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: Today Jack is taking a ride on Lake Powell, another man made reservoir on the Colorado.

23:54

ERIC: I'm so excited to get you down here to see all the sediment in these canyons. It's so interesting.

24:04

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: In the driving seat Eric Balken, an old friend who heads up an environmental group, which wants to restore this part of the river to its natural state.

24:12

ERIC: So we are approaching Gregory natural bridge. This is one of the largest natural bridges in the country, and it was drowned in 1969 and it came out of water for the first time last summer. So to be able to boat underneath it is really a unique experience.

24:25

Boat passes under bridge

Music

24:46

ERIC: When the reservoir was full you could boat over the top of that thing.

24:52

Jack, Miller and Eric at rock formation

JACK: This is – ah, it's amazing.  I don't know that I ever thought I'd ever see the things that were lost by water development.

25:13

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: Now, as water recedes, natural wonders, including the signature formation, 'cathedral in the desert' are re-emerging, a mesmerising silver lining to the unfolding water crisis.

25:26

Jack and Eric look at photos of rock formation

ERIC: I think right now the floor is right about there. I think it's about ten feet above.

JACK: I see what you're saying.

ERIC: You can see we are getting close to what it used to look like.

25:41

This is a national treasure. There is nowhere else like this in the world. We're now being given a chance to get it back. JACK: In a place, at least from a water supply decision making standpoint,

25:55

Jack at rock formation

it's probably more convenient not to know a place like this is here. And there's a whole lot of people who would rather we just pretended the Colorado River is just a chequing account and doesn't include this.

26:08

Jack interview

So when we cut these new deals about how much water should be used in the upper basin, how much water should be used in the lower basin, there is an environmental impact of that.

26:29

Aerial. Colorado River

Music

26:44

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: With no sign of the drought breaking, last month, the federal government announced even deeper cuts.

26:48

Jace and Jerry in bar

Jace and his farming mate Jerry Turner say from next year they'll have zero access to Colorado River water.

27:01

JERRY: I mean, if we don't farm around here, these towns are going to close down. I mean, our kids aren't going to have schools to go to. Like, we're going to have to find something else to do. I mean I've got two young boys that are all about farming and all into it but I don't know if around here there'll be anything for them to do, you know.

BARBARA MILLER, Reporter: When the cuts first started to kick in this year, did you feel that to some extent you'd been in denial about that or hoping that it would change?

27:10

JACE: Not – I mean I think I can speak for Jerry, we weren't in denial.

JERRY: I wouldn't say we were in denial, but partially it's something that in our lifetime we've been hearing about for ever.

27:35

JACE: It's kind of surreal.

JERRY: The time's coming, you know, like it's, it's actually happening.

27:49

Low water level signage

Music

27:53

Jack interview

JACK: It is extremely hard to look anybody in the eye and say your way of life is threatened and your way of life may not be able to proceed.

28:03

Pat interview

PAT: If there's no agreement in 2026, it's not just the future of las Vegas, but the future of Denver and all the front range cities – of Salt Lake and all the Utah cities, of Albuquerque, of all of southern California, of all urban Arizona and all of northern New Mexico, you can take this entire region and you can shut it down.

28:21

Low water level in dam

JACK: There are going to be limits, and that's not the American way to recognise limits, but there are strong limits here, and we're going to have to deal with them. 

28:44

Credits [see below]

28:59

Out point

29:30