New York investors snapping up Colorado River water rights, betting big on an increasingly scarce resource
CBSN
With the federal government poised to force Western states to change how they manage the alarming shortfall in Colorado River water, there is one constituency with a growing interest in the river's fate that's little known to some: Wall Street investors.
Private investment firms are showing a growing interest in an increasingly scarce natural resource in the American West: water in the Colorado River, a joint investigation by CBS News and The Weather Channel has found. For some of the farmers and cities that depend on the river as a lifeline, that interest is concerning.
"Our only source of water is the Colorado," says Joe Bernal, who raises cattle and grows crops on land across Colorado's Grand Valley, relying on water from the drought-depleted Colorado River.
