Water Is For Fighting

Water Is For Fighting explores the complexities of water in the Western United States. Our first season focuses on the South Platte River in Colorado, a critical water source for over 4.5 million people. Over the course of the series we follow the water on its journey from city pipes in Denver, up to treatment plants in the foothills, through reservoirs and dams, and to its headwaters deep in the Rockies. The story of the South Platte River is told at the intersection of natural and human history, socio-economics, law, science, and folklore. Americans’ complicated love affair with wilderness and the Myth of the Frontier lies at the center of this story. Ultimately, we demonstrate how this mythos turned water into such a contentious resource and why, in the West, “whiskey is for drinking, and water is for fighting.”