Thirst Gap: Learning to Live with Less on the Colorado River

KUNC•www.kunc.org

Thirst Gap is a six-part podcast series about how the Southwest is adapting to water shortages as climate change causes the region to warm up and dry out. The series zooms in on people and places grappling with limited water supplies in the Colorado River watershed, and examines the tradeoffs that come with learning to live with less water.

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Episodes

Where the River Ends

The Colorado River comes to an end at the U.S.-Mexico border. The entirety of its flow, already heavily tapped upstream in the U.S., is sent into an irrigation canal to grow crops in the Mexicali Valley and to flow through faucets in Tijuana and Mexicali. The river’s final hundred miles have been mostly dry for decades. Environmental groups on both sides of the border are working together to let the Colorado flow again in its historic channel.

May 22, 2023•26 min•Ep. 6

First in Time

Tribes in the southwest hold significant rights to the Colorado River’s water. But they’ve been left out of nearly every major agreement to manage the river. Leaders across the region are debating how to use less water amid the region’s warming climate. Tribes say they never got the chance to use their water in the first place, and that everyone in the river basin should plan for a future where they do. This episode features interviews with Leila Help-Tulley, and her daughter, Crystal Tulley-Cor...

May 15, 2023•26 min•Ep. 5

A Crackdown in Sin City

Las Vegas is known as a city of excess. But not when it comes to water. The desert metropolis relies on the Colorado River to keep its iconic casinos bustling. The short supply has caused city leaders to enforce some of the tightest water conservation measures in the West. Green lawns are enemy number one. This episode features interviews with Kurtis Hyde with Par 3 Landscape & Maintenance, a landscape company in the Las Vegas metro area, and John Entsminger, general manager of the Southern ...

May 08, 2023•26 min•Ep. 4

The Big Empty

Lake Powell is a boater’s dream. The nation’s second largest reservoir on the Colorado River is a maze of sandstone canyons teeming with houseboats. But climate change and unchecked demand for water sent the lake’s levels to a new record low this year. In this episode we explore changes to recreation in this popular vacation hotspot.

May 01, 2023•26 min•Ep. 3

Cash Flows

Farmers and ranchers use the vast majority of the Colorado River’s water. Getting them to voluntarily use less is difficult. The West’s water rights system incentivizes farmers to use all of their water to prevent their rights from losing value. Trying to balance the region’s water supply and demand will require farmers to use less. In this episode we visit western Colorado’s Grand Valley, an irrigated green pocket in the desert famous for its peach orchards. The area was the testing ground for ...

Apr 24, 2023•26 min•Ep. 2

Wishing Up A River

The Colorado River’s current crisis traces its roots back to 1922. That’s when leaders from the rapidly-growing southwestern states that rely on the river traveled to a swanky Santa Fe mountain retreat to divvy up the river’s water. Growing populations in some of the West’s burgeoning cities and sprawling farmlands, and the anxieties tied to that growth, pushed leaders to the negotiating table. The Colorado River Compact was the result of those talks. This attempt to manage the dynamic river sys...

Apr 17, 2023•26 min•Ep. 1

Trailer: Thirst Gap

The Colorado River is in trouble. Its biggest reservoirs are at record lows. Shortages are likely to get worse. Demands from cities and farms are outstripping supply across seven U.S. states, 30 Native American tribes and northern Mexico. The river’s foundational, yet flawed, legal agreement -- the Colorado River Compact -- turned 100 years old in 2022. The anniversary was a somber one. Climate change is putting the compact’s most basic tenets to the ultimate test. The agreement’s fantastical pr...

Apr 07, 2023•3 min

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