Three Drop Thursday
Reading tea leaves, stuck wheels, and what if?
Friends of Confluence West -
Welcome to Three Drop Thursday, a snapshot of what we’ve been paying attention to this week.
On the one hand, we're all sending up hosannas for the big snowpack in the Upper Colorado River Basin. On the other hand, no Basin choir is yet belting out 'kumbaya.'
Below - reading tea leaves, stuck wheels, and what if?
For the West,
Kimery
Reading tea leaves
Former DOI Secretary and Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt has pretty much seen it all in the Colorado River Basin. As he said in this E & E piece last week, "Mediation often helps explore new ideas that are not yet in play because nobody's thought of them. That's what mediators do, they tease out people to think of new ways of settling this stuff. That's what we really need at this point."
Mr. Babbitt's comments come at the same time Senator Bennet and Congressman Neguse announced formation of the Colorado River Basin Congressional Caucus. Tea leaves are currently being read as to whether or not the Caucus will provide political cover for DOI to make the really tough choices or further mire the current UB/LB impasse.
One stuck (as far as is publicly known) in-the-mud wheel
This week's Washington Post article (again quoting Governor Babbitt) "There are discussions going on but they're not making much progress. The level of distrust and animosity is really remarkable."
While we all (very much) hope that Mr. Babbitt is overstating, what's eyebrow-raising is that even with the IRA $4B on the table, there haven’t been announcements of any irrigation district signing up for AF reductions.
What If?
In the same E & E piece cited above, John Berggren at Western Resources Advocates added, "Secretary Babbitt's right in that Interior can't do this [sustainably manage the Colorado River Basin] alone. States can't do this alone. The tribes can't do this alone. The NGOs can't do this alone. There needs to be collaboration across all those groups to get it done. The problem is there is no existing institutional structure for that conversation to happen."
A few years ago, we had a place for "check your guns at the door" conversations, and collective development of new approaches. The Colorado Futures Project ended when the states decided they had figured out how to better manage the Basin (e.g., the DCP.) Time for Daughter of Colorado Futures Project?
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