For fifteen years Bud Isaacs has been blowing the whistle on an abused stretch of the West’s most iconic river. In telling the tale of this oilman’s battle to repair the ecological damage caused by more than a century of water development, author Stephen Grace is forced to confront the complicated currents that connect us all to water and energy.

As Grace encounters a cast of memorable characters committed to exposing the misguided management of the Colorado River headwaters, the importance of healthy watersheds to our environment and to our patrimony becomes clear. The struggle to save the source of the Colorado is a crucial test of our willingness to preserve a remnant of wild nature for future generations.

The epic clash at the heart of Oil and Water challenges us to change how we see rivers: as living systems rather than lifeless plumbing. And the unlikely protagonist of this story challenges us to avoid reducing people to simple categories. As we marshal our human resources for the monumental task of restoring our nation’s natural heritage, developers and environmentalists must mix.