美国国家公共电台 NPR When In Drought: States Take On Urgent Negotiations To Avoid Colorado River Crisis

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

About 10 years ago, there was another record-breaking drought in the western United States. And the seven states that get water from the Colorado River came up with a plan on how they'd deal with water shortages. Many hoped wet weather would return. But it hasn't. The dry conditions have actually gotten worse. And officials are working to avoid a crisis on the Colorado River. From member station KUNC, Luke Runyon reports.

LUKE RUNYON, BYLINE¹: Jennifer Pitt is looking out onto Lake Powell in northern Arizona. We're on an overlook full of tourists peering down on the country's second-largest reservoir and the concrete dam holding it up.

JENNIFER PITT: Yeah. You can tell that there's a river here underneath² this reservoir because it has somewhat of a linear shape.

RUNYON: Pitt works on Colorado River policy for the National Audubon Society. This past year was one of the driest on record. And this spring, the reservoir only received about a third of the amount of water it does in an average year. Demands for the river's water continue to outstrip³ the supply, meaning both Powell and its sister reservoir, Lake Mead⁴, continue to drop. Pitt says without changes to how they're managed, they could plummet⁵ to levels where no water can be released.

PITT: And if that happened, that would be a catastrophe⁶ for this region's economy, for all of the people who depend on the Colorado River and for all of the wildlife that depends on it, as well.

JAMES EKLUND: More is being taken out than comes into it, like your bank account. If you do that over a sustained period, you will run a deficit⁷.

PITT: That's James Eklund. He's the Colorado representative on an interstate commission that oversees⁸ the river.

EKLUND: If you're talking about water for 40 million people and economies that are massive - fifth-largest economy in the world the Colorado River Basin represents - then that's significant.

RUNYON: Eklund's banking⁹ analogy is appropriate because the creation of a water account in Lake Powell is one piece of so-called drought contingency¹⁰ plans in the works now. The plan's basic premise¹¹ is simple. Get states to voluntarily cut their water use now to avoid even more severe cutbacks in the future. Eric Kuhn is the former manager of the Colorado River District.

ERIC KUHN: There's clearly enough evidence that if we were to have another 2000 to 2004 kind of, you know, multi-year drought, the system is in very serious trouble.

RUNYON: Arizona has had the hardest time coming to an agreement, figuring out the details of whether cities or farmers get their water allocations cut by how much and when. But states in the river's upper basin like Colorado have had issues, too. For example, this thing called demand management.

KUHN: It's the difficult one. It's - somebody who's going to have to use less.

RUNYON: And if reductions aren't doled¹² out fairly, Kuhn says, there's a fear they could injure urban and rural economies throughout the Southwest.

COLBY PELLEGRINO: The thing we have to remember is the basin is over 80 percent agriculture.

RUNYON: Colby Pellegrino is with the Las Vegas metro¹³ area's water utility. She says current conservation programs, like her agency's aggressive buyback of residential¹⁴ lawns, won't be enough to avoid a crisis.

PELLEGRINO: So we can take out all the lawns we want and still not solve the problems that climate change is going to throw at us.

RUNYON: Climate change is one factor adding pressure to get these deals done quickly - another, the federal government. The U.S. Department of the Interior wants state water managers to finish the deals before the end of the year. If they don't, there's a fear the federal government could come in and begin dictating¹⁵ how Western states manage their water. For NPR News, I'm Luke Runyon.

1 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。

2 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

3 outstrip   

v.超过，跑过

参考例句：

• He can outstrip his friend both in sports and in studies.他能在体育和学习方面胜过他的朋友。
• It is possible for us to outstrip the advanced countries in the world.我们能超过世界上先进的国家。

4 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。

5 plummet   

vi.(价格、水平等)骤然下跌；n.铅坠；重压物

参考例句：

• Mengniu and Yili have seen their shares plummet since the incident broke.自事件发生以来，蒙牛和伊利的股票大幅下跌。
• Even if rice prices were to plummet,other brakes on poverty alleviation remain.就算大米价格下跌，其它阻止导致贫困的因素仍然存在。

6 catastrophe   

n.大灾难，大祸

参考例句：

• I owe it to you that I survived the catastrophe.亏得你我才大难不死。
• This is a catastrophe beyond human control.这是一场人类无法控制的灾难。

7 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

8 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

9 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。

10 contingency   

n.意外事件，可能性

参考例句：

• We should be prepared for any contingency.我们应该对任何应急情况有所准备。
• A fire in our warehouse was a contingency that we had not expected.库房的一场大火是我们始料未及的。

11 premise   

n.前提；v.提论，预述

参考例句：

• Let me premise my argument with a bit of history.让我引述一些史实作为我立论的前提。
• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。

12 doled   

救济物( dole的过去式和过去分词 )； 失业救济金

参考例句：

• The food was doled out to the poor. 食品分发给了穷人。
• Sisco briskly doled out the United States positions on the key issues. 西斯科轻快地把美国在重大问题上的立场放了出去。

13 metro   

n.地铁；adj.大都市的；(METRO)麦德隆(财富500强公司之一总部所在地德国，主要经营零售)

参考例句：

• Can you reach the park by metro?你可以乘地铁到达那个公园吗？
• The metro flood gate system is a disaster prevention equipment.地铁防淹门系统是一种防灾设备。

14 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

15 dictating   

v.大声讲或读( dictate的现在分词 )；口授；支配；摆布

参考例句：

• The manager was dictating a letter to the secretary. 经理在向秘书口授信稿。 来自辞典例句
• Her face is impassive as she listens to Miller dictating the warrant for her arrest. 她毫无表情地在听米勒口述拘留她的证书。 来自辞典例句