It was just in the last couple of years we had a chat with a California snowpack observer, who reminded us that it's not just the Siskiyous and the Sierra and the San Gabriels that provide water to California... it's also the Rockies.
Many states lay claim to the waters of the Colorado River.
And that is just one of many issues facing the stream. When it IS a stream. Most of the time, it just dies in the desert.
New Yorker staff writer David Owen follows the stream and the people who depend upon it, in his book Where the Water Goes. He joins us to discuss issues that face water use generally and the Colorado specifically.