Tribes and environmental groups are challenging how the state
manages water in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a
major source for much of California, arguing the deterioration
of the aquatic ecosystem has links to the state’s troubled
legacy of racism and oppression of Native people. A group of
activists and Indigenous leaders is demanding that the state
review and update the water quality plan for the Delta and San
Francisco Bay, where fish species are suffering, algae blooms
have worsened and climate change is adding to the
stresses.
Navajo Nation leaders say failing septic and solid waste
systems are becoming an increasing concern in many areas of the
reservation. One tribal lawmaker has gathered nearly 170
accounts from residents of Blue Gap, Many Farms and other
chapters about deficient sanitation facilities in homes.
Officials say it’s a serious environmental contamination issue
that threatens land and water and creates significant health
risks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As drought conditions continue, people who rely on the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are demanding California make sure
their communities are protected. Early Tuesday, a group
gathered in front of the California State Water Resources
Control Board building to demand the state enforce the
Bay-Delta plan. It’s been a long fight and the group said
enough is enough. For many of the tribes, the Delta is an
important lifeline.
The fish need the water, the farmers and ranchers need the
water, and the fish win. Because coho salmon are on the
Endangered Species List in the region, and the Scott and Shasta
Rivers are important to their survival. The State of California
put emergency rules in place governing groundwater around those
rivers, and the people in agriculture take exception. We hear
the environmental side of the issue in this interview. Craig
Tucker, Natural Resources Policy Advocate for the Karuk Tribe,
lays out the importance of the water for the fish …
A Trump era decision has further imperiled endangered fish
species in the Trinity River, and commercial fishermen and
local tribes are demanding the federal government take action.
This week, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s
Associations and its sister organization Institute for
Fisheries Research sent the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation a 60-day
notice of their intention to sue the federal agency for
violating the Endangered Species Act. The amount of water the
bureau is diverting from the Trinity River to the Central
Valley Project has decimated the river’s salmon populations
…
After decades of negotiation, the largest dam-removal project
in U.S. history is expected to begin in California’s far north
next year. The first of four aging dams on the Klamath River,
the 250-mile waterway that originates in southern Oregon’s
towering Cascades and empties along the rugged Northern
California coast, is on track to come down in fall 2023. Two
others nearby and one across the state line will follow.
… The native flora and fauna in the region are bound to
prosper as algae-infested reservoirs at the dams are emptied,
the flow of the river quickens and cools, and river passage
swings wide open.
The Clear Lake hitch is one of 13 species endemic to
California’s largest, oldest and now most toxic lake. Known
as chi to local tribes, the hitch teeter on the edge
of extinction, a fate to which their cousins, two other
formerly endemic lake species — the thicktail chub (last seen
in 1938) and the Clear Lake splittail (last seen in the
1970s) — have already succumbed. Clear Lake hitch are
vanishing because of our unabated appetites for fossil fuels,
sportfishing, irrigation water and wine.
Blue states, green groups and tribes that are challenging a
Trump-era Clean Water Act rule are trying an unusual procedural
move that could allow them to restart their case in federal
district court and bypass an appeal that’s currently underway
in the Ninth Circuit. The coalition is suing the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency to overturn a 2020 rule that
restricted states’ and tribes’ authority to deny permits for
projects such as pipelines under section 401 of the Clean Water
Act.
The final hurdle is in sight and expected to be overcome, in
the decades-long fight to remove four dams from the Klamath
River and hopefully allow restoration of the river’s Chinook
salmon population which was once the third-largest in the
country, but in recent years has plummeted by as much as
ninety-eight percent. The four dams were built between 1903 and
1967 as part of PacifiCorp’s Klamath Hydroelectric Project and
are now obsolete. Removing them will provide native migratory
fish, like Chinook salmon, access to larger spawning grounds.
It will also help restore the natural flow of the river,
providing innumerable benefits to the entire ecosystem.
A lawsuit over the U.S. government’s refusal to release water
for a Yurok Tribe water ceremony during drought conditions in
2020 will proceed without a local irrigation district, which a
federal judge in California found Monday sought to litigate
issues beyond the scope of that case. In his ruling, U.S.
District Judge William H. Orrick said the Klamath Irrigation
District’s intervention bid …
Two recent moves aim to benefit water access for tribal
communities in the Colorado River basin. One, a bill in the
U.S. Congress, could increase access to clean water. Another,
the release of a “shared vision” statement, outlines the goals
of tribes and conservation nonprofits. Tribes in the basin hold
rights to about a quarter of the river’s flow, but have often
been excluded from negotiations about how the river’s water is
used.
On a cool day in late April, a small crowd gathers around a
truck-mounted water tank at Lakeside Farms, on the southeastern
shore of Upper Klamath Lake…. All eyes are focused on the
tank’s outlet, where U.S. Fish and Wildlife Science fish
biologist Jane Spangler stands poised with a net. Her
colleague, science coordinator Christie Nichols, opens the
valve. Water gushes out; within seconds, a stream of tiny fish
pours into the net…. Nichols and Spangler are here to stock
the pond with over 1,000 young C’waam and Koptu — Lost River
and shortnose suckers, two endangered species that inhabit
Upper Klamath Lake and that are at the heart of the area’s
water conflicts. It’s the first time that hatchery-raised
suckers have been released on private land.
[A crowd has gathered] to stock the pond with over 1,000 young
C’waam and Koptu—Lost River and shortnose suckers, two
endangered species that inhabit Upper Klamath Lake and that are
at the heart of the area’s water conflicts. … The pond
is part of an innovative restoration project at Lakeside Farms,
which is just north of Klamath Falls. … Altogether, it’s a
hopeful demonstration of cooperation in a region that has seen
bitter fights between tribes, farmers, and wildlife advocates
over who gets water.
For the 20th year in a row, people from tribal communities
along the Klamath River are preparing to run the more than 300
mile length of the river, tracing the route of the salmon that
are struggling to survive. … A new 13-minute documentary
called “Bring the Salmon Home” by filmmaker Shane Anderson
highlights the Klamath Salmon Run, which is set to begin at
7:30 a.m. Thursday. The Salmon Run was started after a historic
fish kill in 2002 decimated the Klamath River’s salmon.
Two species of endangered sucker fish could face extinction
this year because the federal government let farmers take
irrigation water from Upper Klamath Lake instead of leaving
enough water in the lake for the fish born this year to
survive, the Klamath Tribes claim. … Last year, the fight
over the region’s water risked a standoff between extremist
farmers who threatened to take control of the irrigation system
the government had shut off in an effort to prevent the
extinction of two species of endangered sucker fish sacred to
the Klamath Tribes: the c’waam, or Lost River sucker and koptu,
or shortnose sucker.
At California’s second biggest freshwater lake, the latest
fallout of drought is gruesome: dead fish in nearby stream beds
that have run dry. Some of the foot-long, silvery Clear Lake
hitch have been decapitated by racoons and other varmints,
which have had easy pickings of the beached minnow. The
grim sightings by Lake County and tribal crews surveying the
lake have prompted a rescue effort over the past week to save
hitch, a threatened species found only in this region.
California water regulators hosted a public forum on Wednesday
to collect comments about re-adopting drought emergency
regulations for Siskiyou County’s Scott and Shasta River
watersheds. … In response [to current drought conditions],
the California Department of Fish and Wildlife
is requesting the re-adoption of a 12-month drought
emergency regulation to protect salmon, steelhead and
other native fish.
Congress will consider a bill finalizing a water rights
settlement for the Hualapai Tribe in Arizona. KNAU’s Melissa
Sevigny reports, it will resolve the tribe’s longstanding
claims to the Colorado, Bill Williams, and Verde rivers.
Arizona Representative Tom O’Halleran introduced the bill to a
House committee last week. It allows the Hualapai Tribe to
divert 3,414 acre feet of water from the Colorado River each
year. It also establishes a trust fund of $180 million to
construct a project to convey the water to the Hualapai
Reservation. A separate fund of $5 million will be set aside
for carrying out the terms of the agreement.
As the climate warms and the threat of water scarcity grows, a
Native-governed nonprofit in Arizona is working to bring back
Indigenous crops that are adapted to hot, dry conditions. The
Ajo Center for Sustainable Agriculture trains Indigenous
growers in traditional farming methods. And it shares seeds for
a range of crops, including drought-tolerant varieties of
squash, beans, and corn.
Lake County’s drought conditions led this week to the need to
rescue hundreds of threatened native fish. Lake County Water
Resources staff and the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife, working alongside of Robinson Rancheria and
Habematolel Pomo tribal members, leapt to the rescue on
Thursday when it was reported that there were Clear Lake hitch
in an isolated pool in Adobe Creek near Soda Bay in Lakeport.
The hitch, a large minnow found only in Clear Lake and its
tributaries, has been a culturally important fish for the Pomo
tribes, which considered it a staple food.
It’s time that California’s water management caught up with
current realities and lived up to the laws on the books. But
that is unlikely to happen until more people understand the
violent, racist, and exclusionary history that props up our
current system of water rights and understand that we are not
stuck with this system – we can choose to reject it and adopt,
instead, a system of water management that reflects current
societal values.
Following the driest three-month stretch in the state’s
recorded history and with warmer months ahead, the Department
of Water Resources (DWR) announced its seventh round of grant
awards for local assistance through the Small Community Drought
Relief program. In coordination with the State Water Resources
Control Board, DWR has selected 17 projects … 14 will
directly support disadvantaged communities, including three
Tribes, and will replace aging infrastructure, increase water
storage, and improve drinking water quality and supply.
Congressman Jared Huffman introduced a new bill this week that
aims to give land back to the Yurok Tribe. HR7581, known as the
Yurok Lands Act, would expand the Yurok reservation boundaries
and give the tribe more than 1,229 additional acres of U.S.
Forest Service land. … By reclaiming land, the Tribe
hopes to help keep local forests and salmon populations
healthy.
The Klamath Basin provides a cautionary tale for Oregon about
the need to plan more intentionally and sustainably with its
shrinking water supply. Though the state and its watersheds
aren’t newcomers to drought, research suggests that climate
change is magnifying the impacts of the region’s natural wet
and dry cycles…. Oregon’s next governor will inherit a
state whose ecosystems, economy and communities are enduring
their driest period in 1,200 years.
The state of California has released the final version of its
Pathways to 30×30 report. Here are five things to know about
the terrestrial conservation elements of this landmark
effort: 1. Freshwater Conservation The Pathways
document is explicit about the critical need to expand
protection of California’s rivers, streams, wetlands, and other
freshwater resources …
Spirits live here. That’s what Paiute and Shoshone tribal
members say about the Owens Lake playa, an arid, eerily flat
expanse along the eastern Sierra Nevada range that is prone to
choking dust storms. It is best known as the focal point
of a historic feud that began in the early 1900s,
when Los Angeles city agents quietly bought up ranch lands and
water rights for an aqueduct to quench the thirst of the
growing metropolis 200 miles to the south.
The group “We Advocate Through Environmental Review” and the
Winnemem Wintu Tribe challenged the environmental impact report
prepared by the city [of Mt. Shasta] and Siskiyou County. They
argued county officials offered a misleading report and failed
to properly look at the impacts of the bottling plant on the
environment. The groups filed two lawsuits, one against the
city and one against the county.
A Native American tribe in Oregon said Tuesday it is assessing
its legal options after learning the U.S. government plans to
release water from a federally operated reservoir to downstream
farmers along the Oregon-California border amid a historic
drought. Even limited irrigation for the farmers who use
Klamath River water on about 300 square miles of crops puts two
critically endangered fish species in peril of extinction
because the water withdrawals come at the height of spawning
season, The Klamath Tribes said.
Members of the Klamath Tribal community gathered Friday morning
in the parking lot next to the headgates to protest the Bureau
of Reclamation’s decision to release water from the lake in
apparent violation of Endangered Species Act requirements for
the fish the tribe calls C’waam and Koptu (Lost River and
shortnose suckers), and to call for solutions to the basin’s
decades-long water crisis.
Entering a third year of drought, the once-vast Tule Lake, a
vestige of the area’s volcanic past and today a federally
protected wetland, is shriveling up. Its floor is mostly
cracked mud and tumbleweed. By summer, the lake is expected to
run completely dry, a historic first for the region’s signature
landmark and the latest chapter in a broader, escalating water
war.
The Yurok Tribe and Redwood National Park and State Parks will
soon release the first four California condors to take flight
in the heart of the bird’s former range since 1892.
… Comprised of biologists and technicians from the Yurok
Tribe and Redwood National and State Parks, the Northern
California Condor Restoration Program will collaboratively
manage the flock from a newly constructed condor release and
management facility near the Klamath River.
In a legal victory for the Center for Biological Diversity, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed today to again consider
Endangered Species Act protections for the Clear Lake hitch.
This large minnow is found only in Northern California’s Clear
Lake. In 2020 the agency wrongly denied the hitch protection
despite severe declines in spawning fish and a near complete
loss of tributary spawning habitat due to drought and water
withdrawal.
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.”
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.
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
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.
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.
The 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.
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
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.
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.
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
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:
As 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.
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 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.
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
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.
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.
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
The American River, with headwaters
in the Tahoe and Eldorado national forests of the Sierra Nevada,
is the birthplace of the California Gold Rush. It currently
serves as a major water supply, recreational destination and
habitat for hundreds of species. The geologically diverse
North, Middle and South forks comprise the American
River or the Río de los Americanos, as it was called during
California’s Mexican rule.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 the country of 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.
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.
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.
The Colorado River provides water to 40 million people and 4
million acres of farmland in a region encompassing some 246,000
square miles in the southwestern United States. The 32-page
Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River covers the history of the
river’s development; negotiations over division of its water; the
items that comprise the Law of the River; and a chronology of
significant Colorado River events.
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.
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.
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.
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.
