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Topic: Tribal Water Issues

Overview April 24, 2014

Tribal Water Issues

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Aquafornia news May 23, 2025 UC Berkeley

This university alliance is training students to strengthen tribal food, energy and water systems

… As a graduate student in UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design, (Kanani) D’Angelo is working with her home community to identify strategies for incorporating traditional Ahupua’a practices into urban environments. These strategies include restoring the 400 year old ancient royal fishpond, Loko Iʻa Pāʻaiau and marking the locations of streams that have now been diverted underground. … Launched in 2021 with a five-year, $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Native FEWS Alliance is a multi-university consortium designed to equip students with the multi-disciplinary skills they need to strengthen food, energy and water systems (FEWS) in tribal communities. Though the alliance has benefited numerous students … the future of the program is now in jeopardy after its funding became one of approximately 380 NSF grants unexpectedly terminated earlier this month. 

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Aquafornia news May 14, 2025 Nevada Current

EPA terminates $20 million Walker River Paiute Tribe water infrastructure grant

The Environmental Protection Agency has terminated a $20 million grant that would have funded the construction of critical water and energy infrastructure on the Walker River Paiute Tribe reservation in Northern Nevada. Nevada’s Clean Energy Fund was notified May 1 the EPA terminated a $20 million Community Change Grant awarded to the nonprofit to advance major infrastructure projects that would help the Walker River Paiute Tribe adapt to the impacts of climate change. The grant is one of more than 780 environmental justice grants terminated by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, according to court documents filed as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the Trump administration.

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Aquafornia news May 8, 2025 The Oregonian

Opinion: A surge of salmon – and hope – after Klamath dams’ removal

Last year, we watched as the last of four dams were removed from the Klamath River in a historic endeavor. Karuk and Yurok citizens sighed in relief, grateful that decades of tribal-led activism, scientific research and litigation had succeeded in reopening 400 stream miles of spawning habitat for salmon and other species. The tears of joy came just a few weeks later, when research cameras showed the first of more than 6,000 fish traveling past the first dam site. Spawning salmon were crossing into Oregon’s Spencer Creek, a tributary of the Klamath, for the first time in 112 years. The salmon had remembered the way, for it is embedded into their DNA just as it is in our ancestors’ – a testament of shared memory and spiritual connection between our people and the river.
–Written by Russell “Buster” Attebery, chairman of the Karuk Tribe, and Joseph L. James, chairman of the Yurok Tribe.

Other Klamath River news:

  • KOBI (Medford, Ore.): White-water rafting on the ‘New Klamath’ River
  • IFLScience: Largest dam removal project in the world triggers return of salmon after years of campaigning
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Aquafornia news May 6, 2025 Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, University of California

Bargaining for tribal water in California

This article documents the current status of tribal water rights
in California and explains why they differ from other states. … In 1908, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed in Winters v. U.S. that through the creation of reservations, tribes are entitled to water rights sufficient to meet their homeland needs. … The Klamath Tribes in Oregon, the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe (PLPT) in Nevada, and five reservations along the California-Arizona border hold high-priority Winters rights to surface water crossing the California state line. In each case, the sovereignty tribes were able to exert over their rights increased when tribal priorities aligned with state or federal interests.

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Aquafornia news May 1, 2025 Lake County News (Clear Lake, Calif.)

Environmental panel approves bill calling for tribal input on water projects

A bill requiring the State Water Quality Control Board or regional water quality control board to describe and consider the impact on tribes of proposed water projects subject to their approval was approved (Wednesday) by the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials. Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-San Bernardino) introduced the bill, AB 362, that also requires the state and local boards to adopt, when applicable, water quality standards to protect reasonable protections of tribal water uses. … In managing water quality and access, the State Water Board designates certain uses such as recreation, navigation, and preservation and protection of aquatic resources and wildlife as beneficial uses of water that are defined in the California Code of Regulations. 

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Aquafornia news April 28, 2025 John Fleck at Inkstain

Blog: A modest Colorado River proposal

A group* of my Colorado River collaborators has put together what we hope can be a useful set of foundational principles as the basin states and federal leadership search for a path toward a negotiated agreement for post-2026 Colorado River management. They’re based on a number of key premises: The Colorado River Compact will remain the foundation of the river’s management, but we have to find a way past the deep disagreement between Upper and Lower basin states on what the Compact actually says.

Other Colorado River Basin news:

  • Aspen Times (Colo.): Pitkin County pledges $1 million to Shoshone water rights purchase
  • Arizona Republic (Phoenix): Video: Why is the Colorado River drying up? Blame supply, demand and politics
  • The Daily Sentinel (Grand Junction, Colo.): Opinion: Colorado River: The sky is falling, again
  • Colorado Politics (Denver): Federal judge tells Denver Water to share construction details with challengers of dam project
  • Steamboat Pilot & Today (Colo.): Colorado snowpack at lowest point in 10 years as mixed winter season nears its end
  • Yellowscene Magazine (Boulder, Colo.): The evolution of agriculture in Colorado
  • KKCO (Grand Junction, Colo.): How Zebra Mussels could impact summer activities
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Aquafornia news April 25, 2025 KCLU (Thousand Oaks, Calif.)

Breaking down barriers: A Central Coast creek is cleared so endangered fish can reach spawning areas

In a major environmental restoration project, two barriers were removed from Jalama Creek, allowing Southern Steelhead to swim up the creek. … “Southern California Steelhead are highly endangered,” said Larra Riege, Restoration Manager at the Dangermond Preserve. … ”Removing these barriers, these ghost dams and the other barrier, removing old infrastructure that’s not serving any purpose anymore, being able to take them out and then let nature take its course is really satisfying.” … Researchers are preparing their first survey to see if the steelhead are discovering that the once-blocked creek is again open for fishy business. The conservancy is looking at additional projects to clear fish passage barriers on Jalama Creek tributaries, to give the fish even more breeding and living space.

Other habitat restoration news:

  • California Trout: News release: CalTrout acquires key Elk River land parcels, returns historic site to Wiyot Tribe for cultural restoration
  • Times Standard (Eureka, Calif.): CalTrout acquires Elk River parcels for restoration, returns land to Wiyot Tribe
  • National Law Review: Blog: ESA habitat rule change sparks federal-state environmental clash
  • San Diego Union-Tribune: Opinion: Restoring our coastal canyons and wetlands is crucial​
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Aquafornia news April 23, 2025 KUNR (Reno, Nev.)

Native American group creates free online resource for tribal water law information and updates

Securing the proper legal documents to protect their water rights often takes time and money that tribes can’t afford. That’s why the Native American Rights Fund’s Tribal Water Institute created The Headwaters Report. The report breaks down the ins and outs of tribal water law, updates what’s going on in the courts and Congress, and highlights what water issues are on the horizon. Daniel Cordalis, a staff attorney with the Colorado-based group, said some tribes will pay third-party firms thousands of dollars a month to provide them with that information. “And it’s information every tribe should have,” he continued. “And the cost is a barrier to getting this kind of information for a lot of tribal nations, and it shouldn’t be one. I think it lifts the whole tribal communities up if they’re able to have the same information.”

Other tribal water news:

  • ABC15 (Phoenix, Ariz.): The legacy of water rights on the Ak-Chin reservation
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Aquafornia news April 22, 2025 Civil Eats

An ancient irrigation system could help farmers manage water

On a stormy spring day, Devon Peña stood atop a sagebrush-covered hill and looked down on Colorado’s San Luis Valley. Dark clouds had unleashed a deluge just a few hours earlier, but now they hovered over the mountains, veiling the summits above. Below, rows of long, narrow fields extended from Culebra Creek toward a man-made channel, the main artery of the valley’s centuries-old “acequia” irrigation system. This was the “People’s Ditch,” a waterway holding the oldest continuous water right in Colorado. … The acequia system was once dismissed by Western water managers. But as a changing climate brings increasing drought and aridification to the Southwest, time-tested solutions like this one could hold the key to mitigating the worst impacts of climate change, especially in rural communities.

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Aquafornia news April 21, 2025 Inside Climate News

Oak Flat is sacred to Western Apache. The Trump administration intends to approve a plan to destroy it

The Trump administration on Wednesday signaled it intends to approve a land transfer that will allow a foreign company to mine a sacred Indigenous site in Arizona, where local tribes and environmentalists have fought the project for decades and before federal courts rule on lawsuits over the project. … The federal government’s initial environmental impact statement for Resolution Copper’s mine concludes that the project will destroy sacred oak groves, sacred springs and burial sites, resulting in what “would be an indescribable hardship to those peoples.” It would also use as much water each year as the city of Tempe, home to Arizona State University and 185,000 people. It would pull water from the same tapped-out aquifer the Phoenix metro area relies on, where Arizona has prohibited any more extraction except for exempted uses like mines. 

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Aquafornia news April 16, 2025 Walton Family Foundation

Blog: When Colorado River restoration is an “act of cultural survival”

Along the U.S.–Mexico border in Arizona, the Cocopah Indian Tribe is accustomed to change. Over centuries, they have seen borders drawn that intersect their homeland. They’ve watched their traditional way of life adapt and survive with each new generation. The Cocopah are known as “the river people,” a name given long before the Colorado River was diverted through modern canals and dams. As the water disappeared, so did sacred animals that dwelled in the riverside habitat. … To reconnect to this cultural power source, the Cocopah have partnered with the National Audubon Society on two significant restoration projects on the reservation’s North and West sections. Federal grant funding is helping the Tribe transform more than 400 acres in the Colorado River floodplain.

Other Colorado River restoration news:

  • The Rocky Mountain Collegian (Fort Collins, Colo.): Colorado confronts water vitality in American West​
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Tour September 8, 2025 - 6:00pm - September 12, 2025 - 9:30am Become a Tour Sponsor! Nick Gray

Klamath River Tour 2025
Field Trip - September 8-12

*IMPORTANT* In anticipation of high demand, the Foundation will be allocating tickets via a lottery method with a maximum of 3 entrants per organization. To be considered, please thoroughly review the tour details below so you’re fully aware of the time and financial commitments, then complete this entry form. Entrants selected via the ticket lottery will be contacted beginning on June 12 with an opportunity to register for the tour.

This special, first-ever Foundation water tour will not be offered every year! Join us as we examine water issues along the 263-mile Klamath River, from its spring-fed headwaters in south-central Oregon to its redwood-lined estuary on the Pacific Ocean in California.

Running Y Resort
5500 Running Y Rd
Klamath Falls, OR 97601
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Aquafornia news April 30, 2024 Colorado Sun

Upper Basin tribes gain permanent foothold in Colorado River talks

Six tribes in the Upper Colorado River Basin, including two in Colorado, have gained long-awaited access to discussions about the basin’s water issues — talks that were formerly limited to states and the federal government. Under an agreement finalized this month, the tribes will meet every two months to discuss Colorado River issues with an interstate water policy commission, the Upper Colorado River Commission, or UCRC. It’s the first time in the commission’s 76-year history that tribes have been formally included, and the timing is key as negotiations about the river’s future intensify. … Most immediately, the commission wants a key number: How much water goes unused by tribes and flows down to the Lower Basin?

Related tribal water articles: 

  • Upper Colorado River Commission: News release - Upper Basin tribes sign historic memorandum of understanding with Upper Division states
  • Parker Pioneer: CRIT signs historic water rights agreement with Secretary Haaland, Gov. Hobbs
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Aquafornia news April 10, 2024 Stanford Report

Addressing the Colorado River crisis

Sustaining the American Southwest is the Colorado River. But demand, damming, diversion, and drought are draining this vital water resource at alarming rates. The future of water in the region – particularly from the Colorado River – was top of mind at the 10th Annual Eccles Family Rural West Conference, an event organized by the Bill Lane Center for the American West that brings together policymakers, practitioners, and scholars to discuss solutions to urgent problems facing rural Western regions.

Related articles: 

  • Summit Daily: Colorado River district seeks Summit County’s help in clinching $99 million Western Slope water rights deal
  • Fronteras: The Colorado River loses more than 19M acre-feet of water annually, but where does it go?
  • Aspen Daily News: A classic comeback for Old Man Winter
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Tour March 12, 2025 - 7:30am - March 14, 2025 - 6:30pm Become a Tour Sponsor! Nick Gray

Lower Colorado River Tour 2025
Field Trip - March 12-14

Tour participants gathered for a group photo in front of Hoover DamThis tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.

Check out this highlight video of one of our recent tours!

The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.

Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
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Publication March 4, 2024 Colorado River Basin Map

Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River Basin
Updated 2024

Cover of Layperson's Guide to the Colorado River Basin

Learn the history and challenges facing the West’s most dramatic and developed river. 

The Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River Basin introduces the 1,450-mile river that sustains 40 million people and millions of acres of farmland spanning seven states and parts of northern Mexico.

The 28-page primer explains how the river’s water is shared and managed as the Southwest transitions to a hotter and drier climate.

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Aquafornia news February 5, 2024 JFleck at Inkstain

Blog: Senate hearing Thursday on tribal access to clean water: it takes more than just a pile of money

The U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee is holding an important hearing Thursday on S. 2385, a bill to refine the tools needed to help Tribal communities gain access to something that most non-Indian communities in the western United States have long taken for granted: federally subsidized systems to deliver safe, clean drinking water to our homes. … This is the sort of bill (there’s a companion on the House side) that makes a huge amount of sense, but could easily get sidetracked in the chaos of Congress. The ideal path is for the crucial vetting to happen in a process such as Thursday’s hearing, and then to attach it to one of those omnibus things that Congress uses these days to get non-controversial stuff done. Clean water for Native communities should pretty clearly be non-controversial.

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Western Water November 16, 2023 Colorado River Basin Map Western Water News: Tribes Gain Clout as Colorado River Shrinks - an In-Depth Look By Nick Cahill

Tribes Gain Clout as Colorado River Shrinks
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: Tribes hold key state-appointed posts for first time as their water rises in value

A CAP canal in North PhoenixThe climate-driven shrinking of the Colorado River is expanding the influence of Native American tribes over how the river’s flows are divided among cities, farms and reservations across the Southwest.

The tribes are seeing the value of their largely unused river water entitlements rise as the Colorado dwindles, and they are gaining seats they’ve never had at the water bargaining table as government agencies try to redress a legacy of exclusion.

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Western Water April 21, 2023 WESTERN WATER-Upper Colorado River States Add Muscle as Decisions Loom on the Shrinking River’s Future By Nick Cahill

Upper Colorado River States Add Muscle as Decisions Loom on the Shrinking River’s Future
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Upper Basin States Seek Added Leverage to Protect Their River Shares Amid Difficult Talks with California and the Lower Basin

The White River winds and meanders through a valley.The states of the Lower Colorado River Basin have traditionally played an oversized role in tapping the lifeline that supplies 40 million people in the West. California, Nevada and Arizona were quicker to build major canals and dams and negotiated a landmark deal that requires the Upper Basin to send predictable flows through the Grand Canyon, even during dry years.

But with the federal government threatening unprecedented water cuts amid decades of drought and declining reservoirs, the Upper Basin states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico are muscling up to protect their shares of an overallocated river whose average flows in the Upper Basin have already dropped 20 percent over the last century.

They have formed new agencies to better monitor their interests, moved influential Colorado River veterans into top negotiating posts and improved their relationships with Native American tribes that also hold substantial claims to the river.

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Tour March 13, 2024 - 7:30am - March 15, 2024 - 6:30pm Nick Gray

Lower Colorado River Tour 2024
Field Trip - March 13-15

Tour participants gathered for a group photo in front of Hoover DamThis tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.

The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.

Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
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Tour September 12, 2023 - 7:00pm - September 15, 2023 - 5:30pm Nick Gray

Eastern Sierra Tour 2023
Field Trip - September 12-15

This special Foundation water tour journeyed along the Eastern Sierra from the Truckee River to Mono Lake, through the Owens Valley and into the Mojave Desert to explore a major source of water for Southern California, this year’s snowpack and challenges for towns, farms and the environment.

Grand Sierra Resort
2500 E 2nd St
Reno, NV 89595
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Western Water December 9, 2022 Colorado River Basin Map WESTERN WATER-As Colorado River Flows Drop and Tensions Rise, Water Interests Struggle to Find Solutions That All Can Accept By Nick Cahill

As Colorado River Flows Drop and Tensions Rise, Water Interests Struggle to Find Solutions That All Can Accept
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: Chorus of experts warn climate change has rendered old assumptions outdated about what the Colorado River can provide, leaving painful water cuts as the only way forward

Photo shows Hoover Dam’s intake towers protruding from the surface of Lake Mead near Las Vegas, where water levels have dropped to record lows amid a 22-year drought. When the Colorado River Compact was signed 100 years ago, the negotiators for seven Western states bet that the river they were dividing would have ample water to meet everyone’s needs – even those not seated around the table.

A century later, it’s clear the water they bet on is not there. More than two decades of drought, lake evaporation and overuse of water have nearly drained the river’s two anchor reservoirs, Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border and Lake Mead near Las Vegas. Climate change is rendering the basin drier, shrinking spring runoff that’s vital for river flows, farms, tribes and cities across the basin – and essential for refilling reservoirs.

The states that endorsed the Colorado River Compact in 1922 – and the tribes and nation of Mexico that were excluded from the table – are now straining to find, and perhaps more importantly accept, solutions on a river that may offer just half of the water that the Compact assumed would be available. And not only are solutions not coming easily, the relationships essential for compromise are getting more frayed.

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Western Water September 16, 2022 WESTERN WATER-A Colorado River Veteran Moves Upstream and Plunges into the Drought-Stressed River's Mounting Woes By Nick Cahill

A Colorado River Veteran Moves Upstream and Plunges into The Drought-Stressed River’s Mounting Woes
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Chuck Cullom, a longtime Arizona water manager, brings a dual-basin perspective as top staffer at the Upper Colorado River Commission

Chuck Cullom, executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission. With 25 years of experience working on the Colorado River, Chuck Cullom is used to responding to myriad challenges that arise on the vital lifeline that seven states, more than two dozen tribes and the country of Mexico depend on for water. But this summer problems on the drought-stressed river are piling up at a dizzying pace: Reservoirs plummeting to record low levels, whether Hoover Dam and Glen Canyon Dam can continue to release water and produce hydropower, unprecedented water cuts and predatory smallmouth bass threatening native fish species in the Grand Canyon. 

“Holy buckets, Batman!,” said Cullom, executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission. “I mean, it’s just on and on and on.”

  • Read more
Western Water July 7, 2022 Colorado River Basin Map WESTERN WATER-A Colorado River Tribal Leader Seeks A Voice In the River's Future--And Freedom to Profit From Its Surplus Water By Nick Cahill

A Colorado River Tribal Leader Seeks A Voice In the River’s Future–And Freedom to Profit From Its Water
WESTERN WATER Q&A: CRIT Chair Amelia Flores Says Allowing Tribe to Lease Or Store Water Off Reservation Could Aid Broader Colorado River Drought Response and Fund Irrigation Repairs

Amelia Flores, chairwoman of the Colorado River Indian Tribes.As water interests in the Colorado River Basin prepare to negotiate a new set of operating guidelines for the drought-stressed river, Amelia Flores wants her Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) to be involved in the discussion. And she wants CRIT seated at the negotiating table with something invaluable to offer on a river facing steep cuts in use: its surplus water.

CRIT, whose reservation lands in California and Arizona are bisected by the Colorado River, has some of the most senior water rights on the river. But a federal law enacted in the late 1700s, decades before any southwestern state was established, prevents most tribes from sending any of its water off its reservation. The restrictions mean CRIT, which holds the rights to nearly a quarter of the entire state of Arizona’s yearly allotment of river water, is missing out on financial gain and the chance to help its river partners.

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Western Water March 25, 2022 California Water Bundle WESTERN WATER-New EPA Regional Administrator Tackles Water Needs with a Wealth of Experience and $1 Billion in Federal Funding By Douglas E. Beeman

New EPA Regional Administrator Tackles Water Needs with a Wealth of Experience and $1 Billion in Federal Funding
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Martha Guzman says surge of federal dollars offers 'greatest opportunity' to address longstanding water needs, including for tribes & disadvantaged communities in EPA Region 9

EPA Region 9 Administrator Martha Guzman.Martha Guzman recalls those awful days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible time.”

She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely greatest opportunity.”

  • Read more
Tour March 8, 2023 - 7:30am - March 10, 2023 - 6:30pm Nick Gray

Lower Colorado River Tour 2023
Field Trip - March 8-10

This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.

The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.

Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
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Western Water January 14, 2022 Colorado River Basin Map By Douglas E. Beeman

As the Colorado River Shrinks, Can the Basin Find an Equitable Solution in Sharing the River’s Waters?
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: Drought and climate change are raising concerns that a century-old Compact that divided the river’s waters could force unwelcome cuts in use for the upper watershed

Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell, a key Colorado River reservoir that has seen its water level plummet after two decades of drought. Climate scientist Brad Udall calls himself the skunk in the room when it comes to the Colorado River. Armed with a deck of PowerPoint slides and charts that highlight the Colorado River’s worsening math, the Colorado State University scientist offers a grim assessment of the river’s future: Runoff from the river’s headwaters is declining, less water is flowing into Lake Powell – the key reservoir near the Arizona-Utah border – and at the same time, more water is being released from the reservoir than it can sustainably provide.

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Tour March 16, 2022 - 7:30am - March 18, 2022 - 6:30pm Nick Gray

Lower Colorado River Tour 2022
Field Trip - March 16-18

The lower Colorado River has virtually every drop allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.

The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.

Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
View map
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Western Water December 10, 2021 Colorado River Basin Map WESTERN WATER-A Colorado River Veteran Takes on Top Water & Science Post at Interior Department By Douglas E. Beeman

A Colorado River Veteran Takes on the Top Water & Science Post at Interior Department
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Tanya Trujillo brings two decades of experience on Colorado River issues as she takes on the challenges of a river basin stressed by climate change

Tanya Trujillo, Assistant Interior Secretary for Water and Science For more than 20 years, Tanya Trujillo has been immersed in the many challenges of the Colorado River, the drought-stressed lifeline for 40 million people from Denver to Los Angeles and the source of irrigation water for more than 5 million acres of winter lettuce, supermarket melons and other crops.

Trujillo has experience working in both the Upper and Lower Basins of the Colorado River, basins that split the river’s water evenly but are sometimes at odds with each other. She was a lawyer for the state of New Mexico, one of four states in the Upper Colorado River Basin, when key operating guidelines for sharing shortages on the river were negotiated in 2007. She later worked as executive director for the Colorado River Board of California, exposing her to the different perspectives and challenges facing California and the other states in the river’s Lower Basin.

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Tour May 20, 2021 - 2:30pm - 5:30pm Nick Gray Learn About Infrastructure and Environmental Restoration During Lower Colorado River Tour

Lower Colorado River Tour 2021
A Virtual Journey - May 20

This event explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.

The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour. 

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Western Water December 13, 2019 Colorado River Basin Map Gary Pitzer

Can a Grand Vision Solve the Colorado River’s Challenges? Or Will Incremental Change Offer Best Hope for Success?
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: With talks looming on a new operating agreement for the river, a debate has emerged over the best approach to address its challenges

Photo of Lake Mead and Hoover DamThe Colorado River is arguably one of the hardest working rivers on the planet, supplying water to 40 million people and a large agricultural economy in the West. But it’s under duress from two decades of drought and decisions made about its management will have exceptional ramifications for the future, especially as impacts from climate change are felt.

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Western Water May 23, 2019 Gary Pitzer

150 Years After John Wesley Powell Ventured Down the Colorado River, How Should We Assess His Legacy in the West?
WESTERN WATER Q&A: University of Colorado’s Charles Wilkinson on Powell, Water and the American West

We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls ride over the river, we know not. Ah, well! We may conjecture many things.

~John Wesley Powell

Explorer John Wesley Powell and Paiute Chief Tau-Gu looking over the Virgin River in 1873.Powell scrawled those words in his journal as he and his expedition paddled their way into the deep walls of the Grand Canyon on a stretch of the Colorado River in August 1869. Three months earlier, the 10-man group had set out on their exploration of the iconic Southwest river by hauling their wooden boats into a major tributary of the Colorado, the Green River in Wyoming, for their trip into the “great unknown,” as Powell described it.

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Western Water May 9, 2019 Colorado River Basin Map Gary Pitzer

With Drought Plan in Place, Colorado River Stakeholders Face Even Tougher Talks Ahead On The River’s Future
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: Talks are about to begin on a potentially sweeping agreement that could reimagine how the Colorado River is managed

Lake Mead, behind Hoover Dam, shows the effects of nearly two decades of drought. Even as stakeholders in the Colorado River Basin celebrate the recent completion of an unprecedented drought plan intended to stave off a crashing Lake Mead, there is little time to rest. An even larger hurdle lies ahead as they prepare to hammer out the next set of rules that could vastly reshape the river’s future.

Set to expire in 2026, the current guidelines for water deliveries and shortage sharing, launched in 2007 amid a multiyear drought, were designed to prevent disputes that could provoke conflict.

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Tour March 11, 2020 - 7:30am - March 13, 2020 - 6:30pm Nick Gray New Experience Announced for Lower Colorado River Tour: Topock Gorge Boat Trip Get a 'Hard Hat' Tour of Hoover Dam and Visit Lake Mead on Lower Colorado River Tour Take the Pulse of the ‘Lifeline of the Southwest’ on the Lower Colorado River Tour

Lower Colorado River Tour 2020
Field Trip - March 11-13

This tour explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.

The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour. 

Silverton Hotel
3333 Blue Diamond Road
Las Vegas, NV 89139
View map
  • Dan Bunk & Mike Bernardo Presentation
  • Seth Shanahan Presentation
  • Chuck Cullom Presentation
  • Vineetha Kartha Presentation
  • Tina Shields Presentation
  • Kevin Hempe Presentation
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Western Water January 4, 2019 Douglas E. Beeman

Women Leading in Water, Colorado River Drought and Promising Solutions — Western Water Year in Review

Dear Western Water readers:

Women named in the last year to water leadership roles (clockwise, from top left): Karla Nemeth, director, California Department of Water Resources; Gloria Gray,  chair, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California; Brenda Burman, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner; Jayne Harkins,  commissioner, International Boundary and Water Commission, U.S. and Mexico; Amy Haas, executive director, Upper Colorado River Commission.The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.

These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.

We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:

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Western Water November 2, 2018 Colorado River Basin Map Gary Pitzer

As Shortages Loom in the Colorado River Basin, Indian Tribes Seek to Secure Their Water Rights
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: A study of tribal water rights could shed light on future Indian water use

Aerial view of the lower Colorado RiverAs the Colorado River Basin becomes drier and shortage conditions loom, one great variable remains: How much of the river’s water belongs to Native American tribes?

Native Americans already use water from the Colorado River and its tributaries for a variety of purposes, including leasing it to non-Indian users. But some tribes aren’t using their full federal Indian reserved water right and others have water rights claims that have yet to be resolved. Combined, tribes have rights to more water than some states in the Colorado River Basin.

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Western Water August 10, 2018 Colorado River Basin Map Gary Pitzer

New Leader Takes Over as the Upper Colorado River Commission Grapples With Less Water and a Drier Climate
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Amy Haas, executive director, Upper Colorado River Commission

Amy Haas, executive director, Upper Colorado River CommissionAmy 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 for the past year has served as deputy director and general counsel of the commission. (She replaced longtime Executive Director Don Ostler). She has a long history of working within interstate Colorado River governance, including representing New Mexico as its Upper Colorado River commissioner and playing a central role in the negotiation of the recently signed U.S.-Mexico agreement known as Minute 323.

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Tour April 11, 2018 - April 13, 2018

Lower Colorado River Tour 2018

Lower Colorado River Tour participants at Hoover Dam.

We explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.

The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.

Hampton Inn Tropicana
4975 Dean Martin Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89118
View map
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River Reports December 19, 2017

Winter 2017-18 River Report
A Warmer Future and Increased Risk

Rising temperatures from climate change are having a noticeable effect on how much water is flowing down the Colorado River. Read the latest River Report to learn more about what’s happening, and how water managers are responding.

  • Read River Report Winter 2017-18 here
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Western Water Magazine December 11, 2017

The Colorado River: Living with Risk, Avoiding Curtailment
Fall 2017

This issue of Western Water discusses the challenges facing the Colorado River Basin resulting from persistent drought, climate change and an overallocated river, and how water managers and others are trying to face the future. 

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Tour February 27, 2019 - 7:30am - March 1, 2019 - 6:30pm Nick Gray

Lower Colorado River Tour 2019

This three-day, two-night tour explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.

The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour. 

Best Western McCarran Inn
4970 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89119
View map
  • Warren Turkett
  • Dan Bunk
  • Seth Shanahan
  • Deanna Ikeya
  • Doyle Wilson
  • Gerald Filipiak
  • Sarah Bartlett
  • Tina Shields
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Aquapedia background August 25, 2016 California Water Map Layperson's Guide to the Central Valley Project

American River

North Fork American RiverThe American River originates high in the Sierra Nevada just west of Lake Tahoe, in the Tahoe and Eldorado national forests.

The birthplace of the California Gold Rush, the river today is a prime recreational destination and a major water supply source for the federal Central Valley Project.

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Publication August 19, 2014

Protecting Drinking Water: A Workbook for Tribes

This 109-page publication details the importance of protecting source water – surface water and groundwater – on reservations from pollution and includes a step-by-step work plan for tribes interested in developing a protection plan for their drinking water. The workbook is designed to serve as a template for such programs, with forms and tables for photocopying. It also offers a simplified approach for assessment and protection that focuses on identifying and managing immediate contamination threats.

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Video May 27, 2014

The Klamath Basin: A Restoration for the Ages (20 min. DVD)

20-minute version of the 2012 documentary The Klamath Basin: A Restoration for the Ages. This DVD is ideal for showing at community forums and speaking engagements to help the public understand the complex issues related to complex water management disputes in the Klamath River Basin. Narrated by actress Frances Fisher.

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Video May 27, 2014

The Klamath Basin: A Restoration for the Ages (60 min. DVD)

For over a century, the Klamath River Basin along the Oregon and California border has faced complex water management disputes. As relayed in this 2012, 60-minute public television documentary narrated by actress Frances Fisher, the water interests range from the Tribes near the river, to energy producer PacifiCorp, farmers, municipalities, commercial fishermen, environmentalists – all bearing legitimate arguments for how to manage the water. After years of fighting, a groundbreaking compromise may soon settle the battles with two epic agreements that hold the promise of peace and fish for the watershed. View an excerpt from the documentary here.

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Video May 21, 2014

Protecting Drinking Water on Tribal Lands

This 30-minute DVD explains the importance of developing a source water assessment program (SWAP) for tribal lands and by profiling three tribes that have created SWAPs. Funded by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the video complements the Foundation’s 109-page workbook, Protecting Drinking Water: A Workbook for Tribes, which includes a step-by-step work plan for Tribes interested in developing a protection plan for their drinking water.

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Maps & Posters May 20, 2014

Klamath River Watershed Map
Published 2011

This beautiful 24×36-inch poster, suitable for framing, displays the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas and Indian reservations within the Klamath River Watershed. The map text explains the many issues facing this vast, 15,000-square-mile watershed, including fish restoration; agricultural water use; and wetlands. Also included are descriptions of the separate, but linked, Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement, and the next steps associated with those agreements. Development of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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Maps & Posters May 20, 2014

Truckee River Basin Map
Published 2005

This beautiful 24×36-inch poster, suitable for framing, displays the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas and Indian reservations within the Truckee River Basin, including the Newlands Project, Pyramid Lake and Lake Tahoe. Map text explains the issues surrounding the use of the Truckee-Carson rivers, Lake Tahoe water quality improvement efforts, fishery restoration and the effort to reach compromise solutions to many of these issues. 

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Maps & Posters May 20, 2014

Nevada Water Map
Published 2004

This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, illustrates the water resources available for Nevada cities, agriculture and the environment. It features natural and manmade water resources throughout the state, including the Truckee and Carson rivers, Lake Tahoe, Pyramid Lake and the course of the Colorado River that forms the state’s eastern boundary.

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Maps & Posters May 20, 2014

Colorado River Basin Map
Redesigned in 2017

Redesigned in 2017, this beautiful map depicts the seven Western states that share the Colorado River with Mexico. The Colorado River supplies water to nearly 40 million people in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and Mexico. Text on this beautiful, 24×36-inch map, which is suitable for framing, explains the river’s apportionment, history and the need to adapt its management for urban growth and expected climate change impacts.

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Publication May 20, 2014

Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law
Updated 2020

The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law, recognized as the most thorough explanation of California water rights law available to non-lawyers, traces the authority for water flowing in a stream or reservoir, from a faucet or into an irrigation ditch through the complex web of California water rights.

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Publication May 20, 2014

Layperson’s Guide to the Klamath River Basin
Published 2023

The Water Education Foundation’s second edition of the Layperson’s Guide to The Klamath River Basin is hot off the press and available for purchase.

Updated and redesigned, the easy-to-read overview covers the history of the region’s tribal, agricultural and environmental relationships with one of the West’s largest rivers — and a vast watershed that hosts one of the nation’s oldest and largest reclamation projects.

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Publication May 20, 2014

Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water Management
Published 2013

The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication that provides background information on the principles of IRWM, its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water management approach.

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Aquapedia background February 10, 2014 Layperson's Guide to the Klamath River Basin Klamath River Watershed Map

Klamath River Basin

Cropland around Upper Klamath Lake in Oregon

The Klamath River Basin is one of the West’s most important and contentious watersheds.

The watershed is known for its peculiar geography straddling California and Oregon. Unlike many western rivers, the Klamath does not originate in snowcapped mountains but rather on a volcanic plateau. 

A broad patchwork of spring-fed streams and rivers in south-central Oregon drains into Upper Klamath Lake and down into Lake Ewauna in the city of Klamath Falls. The outflow from Ewauna marks the beginning of the 263-mile Klamath River.

The Klamath courses south through the steep Cascade Range and west along the rugged Siskiyou Mountains to a redwood-lined estuary on the Pacific Ocean just south of Crescent City, draining a watershed of 10 million acres. 

A bounty of resources – water, salmon, timber and minerals – and a wide range of users turned the remote region into a hotspot for economic development and multiparty water disputes (See Klamath River timeline).

Though the basin has only 115,000 residents, there is seldom enough water to go around. Droughts are common. The water scarcity inflames tensions between agricultural, environmental and tribal interests, namely the basin’s four major tribes: the Klamath Tribes, the Karuk, Hoopa Valley and Yurok. Klamath water-use conflicts routinely spill into courtrooms, state legislatures and Congress. 

In 2023, a historic removal of four powers dams on the river began, signaling hope for restoration of the river and its fish and easing tensions between competing water interests. In February 2024, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced a “historic” agreement between tribes and farmers in the basin over chronic water shortages. The deal called for a wide range of river and creek restoration work and modernization of agricultural water supply infrastructure. 

Water Development

Farmers and ranchers have drawn irrigation water from basin rivers and lakes since the late 1900s. Vast wetlands around Upper Klamath Lake and upstream were drained to grow crops. Some wetlands have been restored, primarily for migratory birds.

In 1905, the federal government authorized construction of the Klamath Project, a network of irrigation canals, storage reservoirs and hydroelectric dams to grow an agricultural economy in the mostly dry Upper Basin. The Project managed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation irrigates about 240,000 acres and supplies the Lower Klamath Lake and Tule Lake national wildlife refuges managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Klamath River Basin

Water Management

Since 1992, federal mandates to restore populations of fish protected by the Endangered Species Act have led in some dry years to drastic cuts in water deliveries to Klamath Project irrigators.

Water in Upper Klamath Lake must be kept above certain levels for the endangered shortnose and Lost River suckers. Lake levels and Klamath River flows below Iron Gate Dam also must be regulated for the benefit of threatened coho salmon (See Klamath Basin Chinook and Coho Salmon).

Conflict

In 2001, Reclamation all but cut off irrigation water to hundreds of basin farmers and ranchers, citing a severe drought and legal obligations to protect imperiled fish. In response, thousands of farmers, ranchers and residents flocked to downtown Klamath Falls to form a “bucket brigade” protest, emptying buckets of water into the closed irrigation canal. The demonstrations stretched into the summer, with protestors forcing open the irrigation headgates on multiple occasions. Reclamation later released some water to help farmers.

Karuk fisheries workers netting salmon in Klamath River.In September 2002, a catastrophic disease outbreak in the lower Klamath River killed tens of thousands of ocean-going salmon. The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations sued Reclamation, alleging the Klamath Project’s irrigation deliveries had violated the Endangered Species Act. The fishing industry eventually prevailed, and a federal court ordered an increase to minimum flows in the lower Klamath.

Compromise

The massive salmon kill and dramatic water shut-off set in motion a sweeping compromise between the basin’s many competing water interests: the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement. The 2010 agreements included:

  • Removal of four hydroelectric dams
  • $92.5 million over 10 years to pay farmers to use less water, increase reservoir storage and help pay for water conservation and groundwater management projects.
  • $47 million over 10 years to buy or lease water rights to increase flows for salmon recovery.

Dam Removals

Congress never funded the two agreements, allowing the key provisions to expire. The restoration accord dissolved in 2016. The hydroelectric pact, however, was revived in an amended version that did not require federal legislation.

The new deal led to the nation’s largest dam removal project ever undertaken.

The Klamath's Copco No. 2 DamCalifornia and Oregon formed a nonprofit organization called the Klamath River Renewal Corporation to take control of the four essentially obsolete power dams – J.C. Boyle, Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2 and Iron Gate – and oversee a $450 million dam demolition and river restoration project.

Taking out the dams will open more than 420 miles of river and spawning streams that had been blocked for more than a century, including cold water pools salmon and trout need to survive the warming climate.  

Demolition crews took out the smallest dam in 2023 and the others were scheduled to come down by the end of 2024.

The images of yellow heavy machinery tearing into the dam’s spillway gates prompted a cathartic release for many who have been fighting for decades to open this stretch of the Klamath.

“I’m still in a little bit of shock,” said Toz Soto, the Karuk fisheries program manager. “This is actually happening…It’s kind of like the dog that finally caught the car, except we’re chasing dam removal.”

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Aquapedia background January 30, 2014

Coachella Valley

The Coachella Valley in Southern California’s Inland Empire is one of several valleys throughout the state with a water district established to support agriculture.

Like the others, the Coachella Valley Water District in Riverside County delivers water to arid agricultural lands and constructs, operates and maintains a regional agricultural drainage system. These systems collect drainage water from individual farm drain outlets and convey the water to a point of reuse, disposal or dilution.

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Aquapedia background January 30, 2014 California Water Map Layperson's Guide to California Water

California Water Plan

Every five years the California Department of Water Resources updates its strategic plan for managing the state’s water resources, as required by state law.

The California Water Plan, or Bulletin 160, projects the status and trends of the state’s water supplies and demands under a range of future scenarios.

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Western Water Magazine November 1, 2011

Solving the Colorado River Basin’s Math Problem: Adapting to Change
November/December 2011

This printed issue of Western Water explores the historic nature of some of the key agreements in recent years, future challenges, and what leading state representatives identify as potential “worst-case scenarios.” Much of the content for this issue of Western Water came from the in-depth panel discussions at the Colorado River Symposium. The Foundation will publish the full proceedings of the Symposium in 2012.

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Western Water Magazine November 1, 2009

The Colorado River: Building a Sustainable Future
November/December 2009

This printed issue of Western Water explores some of the major challenges facing Colorado River stakeholders: preparing for climate change, forging U.S.-Mexico water supply solutions and dealing with continued growth in the basins states. Much of the content for this issue of Western Water came from the in-depth panel discussions at the September 2009 Colorado River Symposium.

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Western Water Magazine January 1, 2004

Remnants of the Past: Management Challenges of Terminal Lakes
January/February 2005

This issue of Western Water examines the challenges facing state, federal and tribal officials and other stakeholders as they work to manage terminal lakes. It includes background information on the formation of these lakes, and overviews of the water quality, habitat and political issues surrounding these distinctive bodies of water. Much of the information in this article originated at the September 2004 StateManagement Issues at Terminal Water Bodies/Closed Basins conference.

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