Dammed If You Do

Shane Campbell-Staton travels from ancient aqueducts to modern mega-dams, following our age-old quest to tame water. On a journey down the Colorado River, he discovers how humanity’s thirst for control has reshaped rivers — and civilization itself.

Las Vegas thrives in one of the driest places on Earth thanks to engineering feats and strict water laws. Shane meets Colby Pellegrino and Cameron Donnarumma of the Southern Nevada Water Authority and visits the world’s oldest hydraulic dam in Italy with Giulio Boccaletti to explore what it takes — and what it costs — to bend water to human will.

The Salton Sea once rivaled Yosemite in tourist visits. Today, it’s a toxic environmental disaster. Luis Olmedo of Comite Civico del Valle connects the dots between industrial runoff, migrant farmworkers, and the health crisis brewing at this shrinking desert lake. What’s being done to save it — if anything?

The Colorado River Delta was once a lush wetland. After decades of damming and diversion, it dried up — until a rare pulse flow brought water, beavers, and hope back. Aída Navarro leads a movement to reconnect communities and nature, proving that with care and coordination, deserts can bloom again. But as water politics intensify, the future remains uncertain.

Biologist Lindsay Hansen and her USGS team work day and night to study the federally threatened humpback chub in the Grand Canyon. Using PIT tags, they track fish growth and migration to understand how this resilient species adapts to cold dam flows and warming tributaries like the Little Colorado. Their efforts offer a glimpse of hope in an altered ecosystem.

The Glen Canyon Dam once symbolized American engineering might. But the Colorado River it was built to tame is shrinking. Shane meets dam managers, river advocates, and tribal leaders to explore the legacy — and limitations — of the West’s water megaprojects. Can a 20th-century marvel survive the realities of a 21st-century climate?