Who’s Taking America’s Water?

And wait there’s actually something we can do about this maybe? Our friends at Climate Changemakers have put together a playbook to help you advocate for water conservation and sustainable farming incentives in the next US Farm Bill: https://www.climatechangemakers.org/f...

And what the hell here are some great other water-related pieces to check out:

• Reveal: The Great Arizona Water Grab (https://revealnews.org/podcast/the-gr...)

• High Country News: Hay – yes, hay – is sucking the Colorado River dry (https://www.hcn.org/articles/south-co...)

• Los Angeles Times: Hay grown for cattle consumes nearly half the water drawn from Colorado River, study finds (https://www.latimes.com/environment/s...)

• Grist: The very bad math behind the Colorado River crisis (https://grist.org/drought/colorado-ri...)

• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Water (   • Water: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver ...  )

Special thanks to Teal Lehto for her help on this episode, and also for all of her fantastic videos about water in the Western US. You simply have to check her out: / westernwatergirl

And another special thanks to Professor Robert Glennon for his help on this episode, and also all his research and articles and books over the years about the water shortage in the Western US: https://robertglennon.net/

And also special thanks to Charlotte Grubb for her help on this episode. You can check out more of her work here: https://x.com/CharlotteGrubb

And one more special thanks for Youngs Farm for letting us film on their very nice land. If you’re on Long Island and you’re looking for a beautiful farm that sells fresh produce and pies right on site? Well then friend, you’re looking for: https://youngs.farm/

Sources & Citations

Citations reference first appearance, without repeating for subsequent usage:

• The Guardian: Forever chemicals at former Nasa lab are leaking into LA River, say watchdogs (2023)

• CNN: 250,000 gallons of sewage spill into Los Angeles River, prompting beach closures (2023)

• Los Angeles Daily News: California says weed-killer used in LA River is carcinogenic, Rep. Adam Schiff calls for ban (2018)

• PBS SoCal: Supreme Court Agrees to Hear L.A. River Polluted Runoff Case (2012)

• The Guardian: Megadrought in the American south-west: a climate disaster unseen in 1,200 years (2022)

• Smithsonian Magazine: The Western U.S. Is Experiencing the Worst Drought in More Than 1,200 Years (2022)

• The Colorado Sun: 40 million people share the shrinking Colorado River. Here’s how that water gets divvied up. (2023)

• ProPublica: 40 Million People Rely on the Colorado River. It’s Drying Up Fast. (2021)

• The New York Times: The Colorado River Is Shrinking. See What’s Using All the Water. (2023)

• Nature Sustainability: Water scarcity and fish imperilment driven by beef production (2020)

• USDA: United States cattle inventory down 2% (2024)

• Urban Dictionary: dibs (accessed 2024)

• ProPublica: The 20 Farming Families Who Use More Water From the Colorado River Than Some Western States (2023)

• NPR: Meet the California farmers awash in Colorado River water, even in a drought (2022)

• NOAA/NIDIS: Research Spotlight: Climate-Driven Megadrought (accessed 2024)

• Smithsonian Magazine: The Visionary John Wesley Powell Had a Plan for Developing the West, But Nobody Listened (2018)

• How Stuff Works: Free Land: How the Homestead Act Helped America Expand Westward (accessed 2024)

• Common Lit: The Homestead Act: A Chance for Free Land (2023)

• World Atlas: Imperial Valley (2021)

• Grist: The very bad math behind the Colorado River crisis (2023)

• US Bureau of Reclamation: Colorado River Compact (1922)

• Urban Dictionary: yeet (accessed 2024)

• UC Davis: Profitable Alfalfa Production Sustains the Environment (2022)

• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Water (2022)

• US Bureau of Reclamation: Lower Colorado Basin Region Forecast (2024)

• Los Angeles Times: Colorado River losing vast amounts of water due to warming climate, study finds (2023)

• PNAS: Climate change and the aridification of North America (2020)

• UNESCO: Imminent risk of a global water crisis, warns the UN World Water Development Report (2023)

• Politico: Europe’s next crisis: Water (2023)

• State-Level Policies Concerning Private Wells in the United States (2019)

• The Atlantic: The Fight Over California’s Ancient Water (2023)

• Missouri Department of Natural Resources: Major Water Users (accessed on Wayback Machine, 2024)

• The New York Times: America Is Using Up Its Groundwater Like There’s No Tomorrow (2023)

• CNN: Wells are running dry in drought-weary Southwest as foreign-owned farms guzzle water to feed cattle overseas (2022)

• The New York Times: Water-Stressed Arizona Says State Will End Leases to Saudi-Owned Farm (2023)

• National Geographic: Saudi Arabia's Great Thirst (accessed 2024)

• NPR: Saudi Hay Farm In Arizona Tests State's Supply Of Groundwater (2015)

• Reveal: The Great Arizona Water Grab (2023)

• The New York Times: The Sinking Arizona Town Where Water and Politics Collide (2024)

• KJZZ Phoenix: Arizona's groundwater supplies are essentially unregulated. That means rural wells are drying up (2023)

• Arizona State Land Department (via The Washington Post): Recommendation to meter Fondomonte Butler Valley wells (2015)

• Alfalfa & Forage News: Long-Term Hay Exports have Increased Dramatically, but are Dampened by Recent Trade Disputes (2019)

• Los Angeles Times: U.S. farmers making hay with alfalfa exports to China (2014)

• Nikkei Asia: Japan is hungry for meat but domestic producers aren't feasting (2019)

• BBC: Why China developed a fresh taste for milk (2020)

• High Country News: How we export our water to Asia (2014)

• BBC: California drought: Why farmers are 'exporting water' to China (2014)

• ABC 15 Arizona: Governor Hobbs terminates water lease with Fondomonte Arizona (2023)

• Reveal: State Pension Fund is Helping a Middle Eastern Firm Export Arizona’s Precious Groundwater (2023)

• Eastern Arizona Courier: Pension fund to divest interest in Middle Eastern alfalfa exporter (2023)

• Vox: Let’s talk about the biggest cause of the West’s water crisis (2023)

• Department of the Interior: Inflation Reduction Act (accessed 2024)

• Grist: Lawns are the No. 1 irrigated ‘crop’ in America. They need to die. (2019)

• Los Angeles Times: Hay grown for cattle consumes nearly half the water drawn from Colorado River, study finds (2024)

• The New York Times: How America’s Diet Is Feeding the Groundwater Crisis (2023)

• Los Angeles Times: To make a burger, first you need 660 gallons of water (2014)

• The Washington Post: A vegan cheese beat dairy in a big competition. Then the plot curdled. (2024)

• Wired: Inside the Beef Industry’s Campaign to Influence Kids (2024)

• Green Queen: Meat Misinformation: How Big Beef is Funding Education Schemes to Influence Kids (2024)

• Vox: How public universities hooked America on meat (2024)

• Got Milk (via YouTube): Who Shot Alexander Hamilton? (1993)

Episode Credits

Host, Head Writer, Editor: Rollie Williams

Executive Producers: Rollie Williams, Ben Boult, Matt Nelsen, Daniella Philipson

Producer: Daniella Philipson

Writer: Matt Nelsen

Director: Matt Nelsen

Cinematography: Ben Boult

Additional Cinematography: Matt Nelsen

Assistant Editors: Laura Conte, Byron Leon

LA Producer: Brad Einstein

Production Assistant: Alex Call

Additional Research: Nicole Conlan, Ben Boult, Sophia Vanderheym

Intro Animator: Ian MK Cessna (https://ianhasawebsite.com/) 

Theme music by: Gratis (https://www.youtube.com/@gratis3241)

Special thanks to the Civil Liberties Defense Center (https://cldc.org/) for their continued support.