Foreign Correspondent: Sept 8

ABC’s US correspondent Barbara Miller reports on the state of America’s Colorado River this week on Foreign Correspondent.

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 gonna be limits… and we’re gonna have to deal with them.”