POST
PRODUCTION
SCRIPT
Foreign
Correspondent
2022
title
29
mins 30 secs
©2021
ABC
Ultimo Centre
700
Harris Street Ultimo
NSW
2007 Australia
GPO
Box 9994
Sydney
NSW
2001 Australia
Phone:
61 419 231 533
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: |
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: |
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 13th 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 |
|
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 |
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 |
CREDITS
REPORTER
Barbara Miller
PRODUCER
Anne Worthington
US
PRODUCER
Jill Colgan
CAMERA
Greg Nelson ACS
EDITOR
Leah Donovan
ASSISTANT
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Tom Carr
ARCHIVAL
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Andrés Gómez Isaza
SENIOR
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Michelle Roberts
PRODUCTION
CO-ORDINATOR
Victoria Allen
DIGITAL
PRODUCER
Matt Henry
SUPERVISING
PRODUCER
Lisa McGregor
EXECUTIVE
PRODUCER
Morag Ramsay
foreign correspondent
abc.net.au/foreign
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2022 Australian Broadcasting Corporation