This article is part of a series called Backstory where I reveal how feature and in-depth stories were crafted. You can find more with the Backstory tag by searching “Backstory” in the search bar.
The original story was published here:
The assignment was to write about the debate on whether Canada should export its water to the American southwest. It was supposed to be 2,000 words long with eight interviews. I ended up writing 4,000 words with 12 interviews and needed to thin down the article. The published version is an opinion piece crafted based on that longer in-depth article.
When I started, I thought it would be difficult to find interviews for this niche topic. Experts aren’t always available, politicians don’t like going on the record, and farmers on the other side of the continent are difficult to connect with. I had to send over 60 interview requests to get those 12 interviews. Nothing pays off like hard work.
I ended up speaking to an MP, a former congressman, two farmers, three professors, and four experts on water infrastructure in North America. I spent about $80 on long-distance calls over two months calling experts across the border. After all those interviews, I learned that there really wasn’t a debate on the issue – farmers, politicians, and academics were all overwhelmingly against the idea.
Instead of portraying it as a classic “one side versus another” in-depth article, I went into all the reasons why it wouldn’t work, which worked well for an opinion piece. People with different backgrounds naturally came up with solutions unique to their area of expertise, I saw it as my job to collect all of these ideas to present in one coherent piece. But there was so much that I didn’t have space to include.
For example, I learned about how dam design made California unable to release water even though the dams were 40% full. When snow and ice thaw in March from high altitudes such as Yosemite, it flows downstream into reservoirs that collect freshwater. Even though spring is planting season, water authorities are reluctant to release the water because they don’t know how much they’ll get until the snow has completely melted.
After that, they have to wait several weeks for the water to stratify. When large volumes of water flow into huge reservoirs, it mixes the cold snowmelt with warmer water already sitting in the basin. It takes several weeks for the water to stratify into different temperature bands according to depth. The water at the bottom will be cooler than the water at the top.
Dams, I was told, have release gates at different heights so that water of different temperatures can be released into the downstream ecosystem. Generally, water authorities like to release cooler water because Pacific Ocean fish like salmon and trout rely on scent to navigate their way back to their spawning grounds. Warmer water affects their ability to navigate.
But when there’s a drought, even the lowest release gates on dams will be releasing warm water from the top level, so the water cannot be released even if there is enough of it. They could, of course, use side gates to let cooler water through, but that would not generate any electricity from hydropower.
Too bad I had no room to include it in either the in-depth or the opinion piece. Some readers may find this level of technical detail intriguing, but most would not.
