Jaw Dropping …

Photo courtesy of Raise the River

Colorado Basin reservoirs have dropped from 92% of storage capacity in October 1989, to 53% of capacity by September 2019.

One of the things I find so helpful about the work of the Colorado River Research Group is that they put factoids like this into context, all within a highly readable, four page report.   

Their latest Reflections on Two Tumultuous Decades in the Colorado Basin gets us thinking more about the looming Interim Guidelines negotiations. The stark question in the report: Will ‘cooperation’ (which the Basin leadership has been getting better at) be enough to address what a rapidly warming (and weird) climate is bringing?

We’ve already seen this year the contradictions between a nice sized snowpack in the Rockies and a darn poor runoff. And, the structural deficit isn’t budging. 

The report does a good job of identifying some of the challenges ahead (including that always gnarly one ‘cooperation’.) 

The report also does a good job of calling out the challenge of the very senior water rights held by a number of Basin tribes. 

There is a big challenge missing for me in their report: there’s little political will to make the tough choices ahead. Part of building that political ‘center’ for the river, is to work with folks that will bear the brunt of shortages and increasing water costs: poor urban communities, the indigenous folks in the Delta, and Latino farmworker communities. 

Any solutions that will ensure equitable water security in the Basin must include the voices and concerns of these communities. To get there, water districts and environmentalists will have to turn some of their assumptions about ‘what works’ on their heads and learn the practice of allyship. 

You can read more about allyship at Confluence-west.com.

For the West,

Kimery Wiltshire