KJZZ

A coalition of environmental groups is launching a fundraising drive for Saturday.  They will be trying to restore part of the overtaxed Colorado River that has become more desert than delta. Conservationists from Mexico and the U.S., including actor Robert Redford, will gather at the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix for a "low-water-use'' gala. Redford will give remarks as well as screen ``Watershed,'' a documentary on the river system produced by Redford and his son Jamie Redford.

The director of the Colorado River Campaign, Gary Wockner, said there is an opportunity to restore the river delta, which lies in Mexico and once had 2 million acres of wetlands. Looming shortages are predicted on the river, which serves some 40 million people in California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming. Mexico also has a stake in the river’s water.