The Deep

The Colorado River is running out. The old rules say who loses first.

Ray Tolliver's family has farmed the same Arizona ground since 1948. This spring the notice arrives: his water for next year is zero. Nobody took it. A table did the arithmetic, and he came out at the bottom of the column.

Forty million Americans depend on the river. The century-old agreement that divides it promised more water than the river carries. The old rules are expiring, the states can't agree, and the lawsuits will take longer than the lake does.

The new President, Elizabeth Chalmers, has one request for Solutions LLC: fix it without a villain, a lawsuit, or anyone losing their home.

Caleb Quinn, Bud Parker, Sarah Chen and Barry Henn start where every expert before them did. They look at conservation, reuse, new dams and desalination. They even consider towing an iceberg. Everything works a little, and nothing works enough. Then Barry stops asking how to make the answer smaller and asks a different question.

The Deep is the eighth book in the series that began with The Solution?. It can be read on its own. It has an elegant idea, a deadline that is already running, and a quiet question that gives the book its title: who loses?