End of a River, by Jonathan Waterman, discusses how the Colorado River is drying up and
what is causing the problem. Waterman takes a journey along the Colorado River
investigating the issues and finds horrible water conditions, to there being no
water at all. After reading Waterman’s article I found the following YouTube
Video:
The video by TroutUnlimitedNatl goes further into the
discussion about the Colorado River. One of the largest issues that the video
brings up is the fact that many of the tributaries to the Colorado River are
being diverted to large cities, such as Denver, to sustain the population
growth. By diverting these tributaries the Colorado River losses water that it
normally would have received, thus lowering the water level. Diverting
tributaries has occurred so many times that where white waters once were, now
the water slowly crawls by trickling over rocks. When the water levels reach such a point, fish
can no longer survive and die out. Waterman said, “The Colorado River has been
engineered to death,” and this can been seen through the diverting of
tributaries and building of dams all along the river.
I think it's wrong to treat a river this way.The Colorado River, which was once very powerful, seems to have been reduced to almost nothing because of these diversions. "The Colorado River has been engineered to death" is an understatement, by diverting its waters to cities like Denver, the once mighty river is now barely more than a stream. I understand the need for water for cities to survive, but isn't there a different way to go about obtaining it, other than destroying a river. Along with destroying a river, the damming and diverting of tributaries also negatively affects the wildlife in the region.
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