Amy Haas recently became the first non-engineer and the first woman to serve as executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission in its 70-year history, putting her smack in the center of a host of daunting challenges facing the Upper Colorado River Basin.

Yet those challenges will be quite familiar to Haas, an attorney who has a long history of working within interstate Colorado River governance. As the commission’s executive director, Haas is likely to play a major role in helping to address changing hydrologic conditions that result in a drier climate and less water for the Colorado, drought planning and ongoing water conservation efforts, as well as tribal water rights among Native Americans and their impact throughout the Colorado River Basin. These issues have implications throughout the Colorado River drainage.

In a Western Water Q&A, writer Gary Pitzer talks with Haas about the Upper Basin’s challenges and what’s ahead for the four Upper Basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

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