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CNN Saturday Morning News
Rio Grande Sucked Dry for Irrigation, Industry
Aired June 09, 2001 - 08:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All this week we've been taking a close look at the new frontier, an important border, the U.S.-Mexican border. CNN, in conjunction with "TIME" magazine, takes you to la nueva frontera.
Today, CNN's Gary Strieker travels the Rio Grande.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY STRIEKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After flowing hundreds of miles south from its headwaters in the Colorado Rockies, most of the Rio Grande is swallowed by Texas for farm irrigation and the city of El Paso.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And right here what you're observing is water coming from the river into the American canal, which are, which would be all U.S. waters at this point.
STRIEKER: Below this diversion dam, what remains of the river becomes the border between the United States and Mexico.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The boundary does go right through the center of the low flow channel. So half the river is in Mexico, half is in the United States.
STRIEKER: Along the border, the river actually has two names. On the southern bank, Mexicans know the Rio Grande as the Rio Bravo del Norte. And for the next 1,200 miles, this river with two names will face perilous demands and abuses from both nations, starting immediately in Ciudad Juarez, where raw sewage still contaminates the river despite the city's new wastewater treatment plant and where most of its water is diverted for irrigation on Mexican farms, sucking it virtually dry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every drop of water in this river has somebody's name on it and the river, the river's name does not appear on any of those drops. As a result, the river often does not have enough water, sometimes it doesn't have any water.
STRIEKER: This parched riverbed continues for more than 200 miles downstream.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From here on down it's called the forgotten river. STRIEKER: But then the river gets recharged by water from a Mexican tributary, the Rio Conchos, and flows almost like in the past, wild and free, through the canyons of Big Ben National Park.
RAYMOND SKILES, U.S. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: The Big Ben region has affected and changed. As it is, it is still the best of the Rio Grande. The contaminants and changed flows of the river have made it a river that really is not like it historically was, but it is still the best of what we've got.
STRIEKER: Even here, in this last few decades in this best part of the river, at least seven species of fish have gone extinct. The river takes another hit when it passes through urban areas like Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, with industrial pollution from the American side and tons of raw sewage every day from the other.
SALVADOR CONTRERAS, WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST: What we see here is the former level of the water in the reservoir.
STRIEKER: Because of drought and decreasing inflows from Mexican rivers, the Amistad and Falcon dams are now at less than 30 percent of capacity, so the dams are releasing less water and downstream farmers like Charlie Loop have no choice but to conserve what little they can get.
CHARLES LOOP, FARMER: Oh, gosh, yes, because this water is going to, especially in this area, the scarcity is going to run the price up and that's simple economics. There's no question about that.
STRIEKER: On the final stretch of the river, users on both sides of the border pump out everything it has. This year, the river runs dry against sand dunes on the beach between Brownsville and Matamoras without even reaching the Gulf of Mexico. It's no wonder environmentalists on both sides of the border say this river is dying.
CONTRERAS: I think definitely we are killing the river and we are doing that both together.
KEVIN BIXBY, SOUTHWEST ENVIRONMENTAL CENTER: It's given so much to the people of this area, it's made possible their survival. And I think it's time that we gave something back to the river instead of just take, take, take.
STRIEKER: The border boom triggered by NAFTA is causing even greater impact on the river. But some say a closer economic partnership between the United States and Mexico creates a new opportunity to save the river by working together to reserve its own share of clean water and restore its natural habitats.
CONTRERAS: It is a joint task, see? The river is a single unit, ecologically speaking, and it cannot be solved by only one side.
STRIEKER (on camera): This is certainly a geographic boundary, but the Rio Grande is also a strong connection that unites the two nations, a troubled symbol of the new frontier facing all the challenges and possibilities of the new century. (voice-over): Many would agree losing the river would be a high price to pay for all the new trade and investment on the border.
Gary Strieker, CNN, on the Rio Grande, Rio Bravo in Texas and Mexico.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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