The river was closed to recreation because of it. "They said, 'I don't know what you're planning on doing today, but you're not going to be able to go rafting,' " Lehto recalled.Ī plume of neon orange wastewater released from the Gold King Mine into the Animas was making its way toward Durango. She was working at a local rafting outfitter when the sheriff's office called. The first came on an August morning in 2015. But a couple of events, in particular, changed how she saw her hometown river, the Animas, and its role in the larger Colorado River watershed. Lehto grew up rafting the streams of southwestern Colorado with her family. Like, I understood pieces of this, but you're the first person who explained it in terms I can understand,' " Lehto said. "I get comments that are like, 'Wow, you just connected a lot of dots for me. #fyp #viral #learnontiktok #coloradoriver #watercrisis #water #coloradorivercrisis #climatechange #climate #colorado #newmexico #utah #wyoming #california #nevada #lakepowell #lakemead #grandcanyon #durango ♬ original sound - WesternWaterGirl Or her critique of proposals to supplement the West's water supply with a pipeline from the East (that's at 209,000 Replying to #greenscreen there is plenty enough water in the west to survive if we just use it more sustainably and focus on efficency for ag. Or, if it's warranted, she jumps into the jargon full-speed, like her 90-second explainer of why large volumes of water are measured in "acre-feet" (that one currently has 215,000 views). The concepts can be hard to grasp at first, which is why Lehto said she tries to avoid the jargon that comes with the heavily engineered systems used to plumb the arid West. Tens of millions depend on the river, and it's facing a serious shortfall in supply. The Colorado River has been a focus since she started making videos earlier this year. Most residents of the West aren't getting the same crash course. She learned about water as an environmental studies major at Durango's Fort Lewis College and started a student group that took field trips to water-specific infrastructure nearby. Layer on the legal frameworks and political landscapes, and it's an issue that can feel impenetrable for most people, even if they have a desire to learn more, Lehto said. Water in the arid West is plumbed long distances to irrigate lawns and crop fields that would wither without it. The region's water infrastructure, and the problems that come with managing it, is confusing. So far, she's tackled reservoir management, agricultural irrigation efficiency, cloud seeding and hydropower. Photos of the Southwest's shrinking reservoirs and screengrabs of the latest scientific articles on Colorado River management pop up behind her. In her videos, the 25-year-old Lehto - with her straight brown hair and cat-eye makeup - sits in front of the camera, news anchor style. Who would’ve known? #fyp #learnontiktok #climatechange #climatecrisis #climateaction #climateanxiety #megadrought #coloradoriver #water #waterislife #watercrisis #todayilearnedthis ♬ original sound - WesternWaterGirl Since joining the app in April, she's amassed nearly 48,000 followers who tune in for her fast-paced, snarky and often profanity-laced takes on the West's water Reply to #greenscreen yeah so it turns out that egregiously overallocating the CO River was not a good idea. On the app, Lehto goes by "WesternWaterGirl," and her clips regularly garner hundreds of thousands of views. That same formula works on TikTok, just trade the tips for likes and followers. "I'll tell you, the better stories you tell, the better tips you get," she said. Like, what story can I tell in the meantime?' " Lehto said while sitting along the Animas on a rainy August morning. "You get to the point where you're like, 'OK, I know I'm going to need to call a command in exactly 45 seconds.
She often had lulls of a minute or less in between shouting paddle commands to the tourists in her boat - squeezing in a tidy explanation of how water rights work before yelling "all forward" to her boatmates to keep them from ramming into rocks.Īfter running the same stretch of river a few times a day for months, the timing became second nature.
Teal Lehto honed her short, snappy explanations of the West's complex water problems guiding rafting trips down the Animas River in her hometown of Durango.
0 kommentar(er)
