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Drought is prompting some extraordinary actions along the Colorado River. Three states led by California are volunteering to draw less from the river this summer. Dry conditions affect people's livelihoods, from farmers to rafting companies that take tourists down the Colorado. Chris Clements with member station KNAU reports.
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CHRIS CLEMENTS, BYLINE: Under sandstone cliffs the color of campfire embers, river guide Lyra Thevenin, among a crowd of clients, loads her black-and-white raft to the gills with neon blue dry bags and coolers.
LYRA THEVENIN: This is the first year that I'm officially guiding.
CLEMENTS: She's at Lees Ferry, the starting point for river trips down the Grand Canyon. There's a tinge of anxiety mixed in with the spray-on sunscreen and passengers milling about on shore.
L THEVENIN: I've been going on trips for a long time.
CLEMENTS: The river level is low - about 10,000 cubic feet per second. It's among the lowest seen here since the average level in 1964. Fred Thevenin, her dad, owns Arizona Raft Adventures.
FRED THEVENIN: The water's lower, and bookings are down.
CLEMENTS: Down by about 25%, he says, but it's unclear exactly what's causing the shift. The future worries Mark Streeter, a boatman for a different company, Grand Canyon Expeditions. He thinks lower water levels in the Colorado could one day really squeeze businesses like his.
MARK STREETER: The question for me - I'm seven years into my career - what happens when it's 1,000 or 2,000 cubic feet per second lower as an average? What happens then?
CLEMENTS: But right now, he's got to put those big questions aside to rig boats.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOAT BEING RIGGED)
CLEMENTS: Commercial guides take about 22,000 people a year down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon, generating about $46 million in revenue. Trips typically take a week or more and are considered a crown jewel of white water and scenic adventure. At his headquarters in Flagstaff, an outfitter who supplies boats for people who go without guides is also worried.
SCOTT DAVIS: My name is Scott Davis, and I'm one of the owners of Ceiba Adventures here in Flagstaff, Arizona.
CLEMENTS: Davis thinks that if the river gets low enough in the years to come, it wouldn't just damage the recreation economy. More people could get hurt on the river, too.
DAVIS: It becomes incredibly dangerous, and it becomes incredibly violent.
CLEMENTS: And getting injured people out of the Grand Canyon is difficult. Lower water also makes it harder for some larger motorboats to navigate.
DAVIS: For the boatmen, it's incredibly difficult and challenging.
CLEMENTS: In spite of everything, Davis is optimistic.
DAVIS: I have a lot of confidence in, you know, the various commercial outfitters, private trip outfitters being able to adapt. But it will change. It will change the dynamics of everything.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOTORBOAT ENGINE WHIRRING)
CLEMENTS: Back on the Colorado River, as blue-green water churns under the thrum of a motorboat, Dennis Smoldt with Arizona Raft Adventures agrees Grand Canyon boaters are going to have to adapt.
DENNIS SMOLDT: Depending what happens with the water situation, if it really does continue to drop and become more of what some people would consider to be dire, I hope that the way we change our operations is a better example for society at large.
CLEMENTS: Far above the river, the states that share it and the federal government are trying to come to a new agreement on how to do that, one that acknowledges the Colorado's new climate-changed reality.
For NPR News, I'm Chris Clements on the Colorado River.
(SOUNDBITE OF DO MAKE SAY THINK'S "SOUL AND ONWARD") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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