Dropping Shoes & Political Vacuums
Friends of Confluence West -
In this week’s Three Drop Thursday:
Can we figure out the CRB before the new Administration does?
Nature Abhors a Vacuum
A Communications Pocket Guide for Climate Scientists (and for many of us!)
Our first ‘End Note’
We’re all waiting for more federal shoes to drop in the Colorado River Basin and more shoes with Forest Service, National Park Service, NOAA, BLM, and NRCS employees and funding—the list is long.
Along with the heartbreaking human consequences of all these layoffs, the western wildfire season is of immediate concern. We already have too few federal staff working on forest and watershed restoration projects and too few wildfire firefighters. On the heels of that worry, is the Colorado River Basin.
I’m often asked why Confluence West spends so much time highlighting the CRB. It's simple: It’s one of the essential river basins on the planet. Water for over 34 million people, for 150 endangered species, the economy with a $1.4 trillion output and 16 million jobs, and provides about 15% of the world’s crops and 13% of its livestock. Unless we start making fundamental changes quickly in how this basin is managed, there won’t be much of a river left a century from now, give or take a few years.
My crystal ball isn’t very helpful right now, but we’re tracking as best we can. Of course, by the time you read this piece, everything may have changed again! Who knows?
As always, we look forward to your comments and questions.
For the West,
Kimery
Many excellent NGOs, water utilities, tribes, Nations, communities, and public agencies are working to protect rivers and forests in the American West from climate change's (sometimes overwhelming) challenges. We are proud to partner with many of them.
Why support Confluence West? What we’ve learned over the past 17 years is this: Long-term, equitable solutions require all of the terrific, dedicated people from every sector, issue area, perspective, expertise, and culture to bring their part of the elephant, their truth, to the table.
We build and lead projects that connect diverse decision-makers who, in turn, create science- and evidence-based campaigns. Check out our work! Or, email Kimery.
Filling the CRB vacuum before the Administration does
At Confluence West, we are working to build an effective and diverse coalition of Colorado River users and decision-makers.
This leadership group will explore how to:
Establish a robust, basin-wide stakeholder campaign that advocates for increased funding and ecosystem protections.
Ensure the recognition of the Tribes’ water rights in the Colorado River Basin (along with actual water implementation.)
Create a more transparent decision-making process for the Colorado River Basin.
We don’t want to walk down the same street and fall into the same hole.
Contact us if you’d like to learn more about this evolving, diverse stakeholder coalition we and our experienced CRB colleagues want to build.
Photo: Glen Canyon Institute
Hard times in the Colorado River Basin
We all know the saying that nature (and people) become uncomfortable with vacuums and strive to fill them. There’s a significant political, leadership, and decision-making vacuum in the Colorado River Basin. Here's a quick snapshot:
The Upper Basin and Lower Basin states remain at odds (the individual states will likely tussle as well, but only after the UB and LB find some common ground.)
Many states are tiptoeing towards litigation - some openly, others quietly. (Please, water gods - not the Supreme Court.)
The IRA funding (about $2B spent, about $2B left to go) for fallowing, stream restoration, water conservation projects, etc., is on hold.
In January, there was a decent snowpack in the Upper Basin about 85% of normal. (With the spring runoff, there will be more water and withdrawals.)
At the end of last month, Lake Mead was 36 percent full or 64 percent empty. As of Monday, Powell was at 3,563; 136FT below full pool (Powell is starting to get lots of snowmelt runoff.)
Last year, we also saw a good snowpack, but late in the snow season, there was a significant warm-up in the higher elevations, leading to flashy runoff and not nearly the amount hoped for downstream.
Many Colorado River Basin agencies are simply trying to keep a low profile and avoid attracting attention from the new Administration. This includes the 40 CRB Tribes - most of their water (about 20% or 2.9MAF) remains unadjudicated.
Communications Online Pocket Guide for Climate Scientists (and many of us)
The Climate Science Legal Defense Fund recently published A Pocket Guide for Scientists: Safeguarding Online Communications. The Fund points out that emails sent to and from scientists increasingly face scrutiny through various means, including aggressive open records requests, subpoenas, and even hacking.
Not just scientists - many of you reading this should also pay attention.
End Note - What’s next?
You’ll all remember a few weeks ago, the Army Corps in California released water - spring planting water - into the Tulare Basin (about 6,378 AF). On Tuesday, the Army Corps released 8,000 AF in 50 minutes from Cochiti Dam, located on the Rio Grande, 50 miles north of Albuquerque. The release was reported as a “procedural error during routine maintenance.” Because Cochiti is an earthen dam, there’s been concern about the possibility of partial or complete collapse during a flood for years.
Snarkiness aside, John Fleck makes an important point in his recent post:
“We all love to complain about the federal government's water management work, but the complaints are based on narrow questions and presume a broad societal consensus that there's a bunch of stuff the federal government can be reliably counted on to do while we argue over details. Reclamation and the Corps are gonna operate the dams, for example. The details we argue about are at important margins, but they're at the margins, based on the presumption that the basic stuff will get done.”
My point here is a serious question, not a rhetorical one: What would it mean for Western water management if the federal government became an unreliable partner? What must we do to prepare? What does that even look like?
Darn good question, John.
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