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Topic: Tribal Water Issues

Overview April 24, 2014

Tribal Water Issues

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Aquafornia news September 27, 2023 The Sacramento Bee

Opinion: Proposed Shasta Dam Raise is bad for salmon, tribes and CA

For years, the politically-connected Westlands Water District has fought to raise Shasta Dam. This debate has been renewed by House Resolution 215, introduced by California Central Valley Congressman David Valadao (R-Hanford), which would override a California law that blocks the dam raise. That project would harm salmon, California’s fishing economy and Indigenous Americans. This is a big deal for the fishing community. California’s salmon fishery is closed this year for only the third time in history. … This closure was caused by the mismanagement of Central Valley rivers during a drought. Low spring flows, caused by storing too much water for summer agricultural deliveries, is a major cause of the fishing shutdown. Raising Shasta Dam would represent another blow to the survival of salmon runs and fishing jobs.
-Written by Scott Artis, executive director of the Golden State Salmon Association.

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Aquafornia news September 26, 2023 Drought.gov

News release: NIDID invests approximately $2 million to build tribal drought resilience

NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) has announced approximately $2 million in funding for projects to support tribal drought resilience as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. This investment will help tribal nations address current and future drought risk on tribal lands across the Western U.S. while informing decision-making and strengthening tribal drought resilience in a changing climate.  Proposals may request funding of up to $700,000 total to be disseminated in the first year and expended over three years in the form of cooperative agreements. A total of 3–5 projects may be funded depending on the project budget requested. 

Related articles: 

  • Fox 40 – Sacramento: Millions in state funding received to improve Sacramento groundwater storage 
  • CA Department of Water Resources: State delivers $55 million to Sacramento water agencies in support of local water resilience projects
  • KCRA – Sacramento: Sacramento water managers receive $55 million in state funding to improve water resilience
  • Engineering News-Record: Army Corps begins taking applications for new dam loan program
  • WaterWorld: News release - EPA announces $7.5B available in WIFIA funding
  • Water Finance & Management: Survey: 66% of Americans say water requires more federal funding
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Aquafornia news September 25, 2023 Arizona Capitol Times

Tribal water infrastructure needs more than one-time fix, senators told

The infusion of federal money for infrastructure projects is a welcome first step toward fixing deep problems with water systems on tribal lands, but it’s only a first step, an Arizona official testified Wednesday [Sept. 25]. Brian Bennon, director of the tribal water department at the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, said tribes need to make sure they have funding for operation and maintenance of the systems to keep them going … Bennon was joined by Ken Norton, director of the Hoopa Valley Tribal Environmental Protection Agency, and Jola WallowingBull, director of the Northern Arapaho Tribal Engineering Department, to testify on the problems that come with underfunding of Native water systems.

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Aquafornia news September 21, 2023 NBC News

California is engaged in the world’s largest dam removal project in hopes of letting nature rebound

This time next year, a series of massive dams that block off the Klamath River will no longer exist. The soil and rocks originally dug and transported from a nearby mountain in the 1950s will be returned to their home and the river will run freely again.  The Iron Gate Dam, which opened in 1964 as the last of four dams that, at nearly 200 feet tall each, regulated the flow of the river and time releases for the local water supply in Northern California, is now part of the world’s largest dam removal and river restoration project. Iron Gate is scheduled to be the final stop for decommissioning crews. 

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Aquafornia news September 18, 2023 The New York Times

Opinion: Libya showed what happens if we ignore aging dams

The collapse of two dams in Libya, unleashing torrential floodwaters that left at least 3,000 people dead and over 4,200 still missing, was both predicted and preventable. And they won’t be the last big dams to collapse … In the United States, the second most prolific dam-builder after China, the average age of dams is 65 years old and an estimated 2,200 structures are at high risk of collapse. … The fact that it’s increasingly difficult to justify many dams’ existence is one reason there is a growing movement, often led by Indigenous peoples and other marginalized populations, to remove them. Most notably, the removal of four dams on the Klamath River along the Oregon-California border, set to be completed next year, will be the largest such effort in history.
-Written by Josh Klemm and Isabella Winkler, co-directors of International Rivers, a group that advocates for healthy rivers and the rights of river communities.

Related articles:

  • SLO Tribune: Two Central Coast reservoirs will get $17 million repair their dams
  • CBS – San Francisco: Army Corps of Engineers rushes to repair Pajaro River levee before winter rains
  • Santa Cruz Sentinel: Santa Cruz reports vandalism along San Lorenzo River levee​
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Aquafornia news September 18, 2023 SJV Water

Tübatulabal tribe celebrates homecoming with return of a slice of its ancestral lands

Tribal members celebrated the return of more than 1,200 acres of their ancestral lands in the jagged hills above Weldon on Saturday in a ceremony marked with gratitude, emotion and prayer. Chairman Robert Gomez opened the event by thanking a large number of people who helped find, purchase and deed the land back to the Tübatulabal tribe, which has called the Kern River Valley home for more than 5,000 years. Western Rivers Conservancy was chief among those Gomez called out for their help in obtaining the land. Western Rivers, a non profit dedicated to restoring rivers, helped secure funding through the state Wildlife Conservation Board and Sierra Nevada Conservancy and facilitated the handover of the land to the tribe.

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Aquafornia news September 18, 2023 The Good Men Project

Reviving a famously polluted California lake

Jesus Campanero Jr. was a teenager when he noticed there was something in the water. He once found a rash all over his body after a swim in nearby Clear Lake, the largest freshwater lake in California. During summertime, an unbearable smell would waft through the air. Then, in 2017, came the headlines, after hundreds of fish washed up dead on the shore. “That’s when it really started to click in my head that there’s a real issue here,” says Campanero, now a tribal council member for the Robinson Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians of California, whose ancestors have called the lake home for thousands of years. The culprit? Harmful algal blooms (HABs). 

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Aquafornia news September 14, 2023 SJV Water

Tule River tribe suffers chronic water problems, even in record wet year

Despite a record snowpack that has kept the South Fork of the Tule River flowing at a steady clip, residents of the Tule River Reservation – who get 60 percent of their supplies directly from the river – were recently without water for eight days. The problem, ironically, was too much water. Specifically, from Hurricane Hilary. When the late summer storm drenched dry, burn-scarred mountainsides, the runoff brought a torrent of muck with it and fouled the reservation’s intake and treatment system. But Hilary was just the tribe’s most recent go-round with water problems from an outdated system built to serve a fraction of the homes now on the reservation.

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Aquafornia news September 12, 2023 Courthouse News Service

Judge finds feds violated law by favoring irrigators in the Klamath Basin

A magistrate judge in Oregon sided with the Klamath Tribes on Monday in finding that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation violated the Endangered Species Act by misallocating limited water supplies from the Upper Klamath Lake, harming endangered sucker fish and other aquatic wildlife. In the 52-page findings and recommendation, U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark D. Clarke found the central question is whether the federal government broke the law by allocating water for irrigation when it knew it could not comply with its Endangered Species Act obligations to endangered sucker fish in the Upper Klamath Lake, a freshwater reservoir in the southern Oregon portion of the Klamath Basin.

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Aquafornia news September 6, 2023 Daily Kos

Blog: Coalition of groups submits protest against water rights application for Sites Reservoir

Friends of the River (FOR) and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), along with a coalition of tribes and environmental organizations, on August 31 submitted a protest against the water rights application and petitions of the Sites Project Authority for the proposed Sites Reservoir. FOR and CSPA, two of California’s oldest and most respected water conservation organizations, said this protest is part of a legally required process to ensure public concerns are addressed when granting water rights in California. 

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Aquafornia news September 6, 2023 Public Policy Institute of California

Blog: Exploring the Yurok Tribe’s management of the Klamath River

Melodie Meyer is associate general counsel for the Yurok Tribe in Northern California—one of the few California tribes whose members still reside on a portion of their ancestral lands. The Yurok reservation borders a 44-mile stretch of the Klamath River; we asked Ms. Meyer to tell us more about efforts to protect the watershed. The Tribe’s water programs center around managing water quality—ensuring that the tributaries that drain into the Klamath are healthy and not polluted. The environmental department’s water division has staff dedicated to dealing with permitting for the water programs, as well as a water quality control plan and a water pollution control ordinance.

Related articles: 

  • Herald and News: Commentary – Water management opportunities during dam removal
  • U.S. Bureau of Reclamation: Press release - Reclamation affirms Klamath Project 2023 water supply
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Aquafornia news September 1, 2023 KAKE - Wichita

Hualapai Tribe celebrates a billion gallons worth of water right

The Hualapai Tribe has secured thousands of acre-feet of water a year with an act signed by President Joe Biden in 2022. Hualapai tribe members celebrated Wednesday, at Grand Canyon West, decades’ worth of work to get federally protected water rights for their tribe. President Biden signed the Hualapai Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act last year, which was introduced by Arizona’s Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Sen. Mark Kelly. The settlement allocates a little over one billion gallons of water per year to the tribe. … They now need more money to help build a pipeline to get the water from their 108 acres of the Colorado River to where the tribe needs it. This will not only help families but also help the tribe grow economically.

Related article: 

  • Arizona Public Radio: Hualapai Tribe celebrates solar array, water rights victory
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Aquafornia news August 31, 2023 CalMatters

Tearing down Klamath dams: The world’s largest dam demolition

Oshun O’Rourke waded into the dark green water, splashing toward a net that her colleagues gently closed around a cluster of finger-length fish. The Klamath River is wide and still here, making its final turn north to the coast as it winds through the Yurok reservation in Humboldt County. About 150 baby chinook salmon, on their long journey to the Pacific, were resting in cool waters that poured down from the forest. … For more than a hundred years, dams have stilled the Klamath’s flows, jeopardizing the salmon and other fish, and creating ideal conditions for the parasite to spread. But now these vestiges of an early 20th-century approach to water and power are being dismantled: The world’s largest dam removal project is now underway on the Klamath River.

Related articles: 

  • Western Water Rewind: ‘If you unbuild it, they will come’ 
  • KOBI: Klamath Tribes raise concerns for public health near toxic algae bloom 
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Aquafornia news August 28, 2023 ABC 15 - Arizona

Navajo Nation continues fight for water rights

JoAnne Yazzie-Pioche calls the LeChee Chapter of the Navajo Nation near Page home. She’s also the president of the chapter. Throughout the years, she’s seen many changes. “I remember when there was hardly anything here in Page,” she says. “There was no Highway 98. It was all dirt roads.” There’s even running water in some parts of LeChee that they get from Page and the Colorado River. Throughout much of the Navajo Nation, however, hauling water is still a way of life.

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Aquafornia news August 25, 2023 ABC30 - Fresno

Tule River Tribe declares a water shortage emergency

The Tule River Tribe has declared a water shortage emergency. The tribe has been facing a clean water shortage for almost a week. Tule River leaders say a lighting strike knocked the power out and impacted this water plant last week leaving hundreds of locals without clean water. In an already stressed system. The murky river water is making it impossible for locals to use 60% of their water supply. A little higher at about 1,400 feet in elevation, the water at Painted Rock dam is also dirty.

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Aquafornia news August 24, 2023 State Water Resources Control Board

News release: Board provides $152,000 to ensure safe drinking water for Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe in Mono County

Working with federal partners, the State Water Resources Control Board has committed more than $152,000 from California’s Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience (SAFER) drinking water program to support operational assistance and an interim solution for the Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe in Mono County to address elevated arsenic in wells on the Benton Reservation. The SAFER funding will ensure the Tribe has access to safe and affordable drinking water while a long-term solution is developed through a well-drilling and treatment project lead by the Indian Health Service (IHS) with possible additional funding from federal partners.

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Aquafornia news August 23, 2023 Eureka Times-Standard

Minimum flows set for Scott River in state water board meeting

Last week, the state Water Board heard a petition to retain minimum water flows for the Scott River, a key Klamath tributary. The petition was brought by the Karuk Tribe, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and the Environmental Law Foundation. The board eventually directed staff to reinstate the emergency regulations for both the Scott and Shasta rivers, a major win for the petitioners who say flows must be maintained to protect endangered salmon. The board also directed staff to begin work on permanent regulation for flows in the Shasta and Scott rivers. … The petition was filed in May and centered around an expected end to emergency drought minimums. The lapse began on Aug. 1, with water levels in both rivers dropping below these minimums since. 

Related article: 

  • Water board hits pause on flows for Scott, Shasta rivers
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Aquafornia news August 21, 2023 CNN

Klamath, California: The Salmon Festival is not serving salmon this year, with the hope of restoring a food central to area tribes

The Yurok Tribe’s annual salmon festival in Klamath, California, is a little different this year. Yes, there’s a noisy parade, yes there are dozens of stalls selling T-shirts and jewelry, yes there are kids wrestling it out in a traditional stick game and yes there is plenty of food. But for only the second time in the 59-year history of the celebration, salmon is not being served. … Salmon are central to the Yurok, whose territory stretches 40 miles or so up the Klamath River from this beautiful, rugged coast. … The Yurok have stopped fishing for salmon, hoping it will help the devastated population bounce back. Hence, the lack of salmon to eat at the festival.

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Aquafornia news August 21, 2023 High Country News

EPA investigates claims of civil rights violations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

California’s top water agency is under federal investigation after a coalition of California tribal nations and environmental justice groups filed a civil rights complaint accusing it of discriminating against several Native tribes and communities of color. The complaint, filed in December, says the California Water Resources Control Board has failed to protect the water quality of one of the nation’s largest estuaries — the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta — and has intentionally blocked tribal members and residents of color in some cities from giving input on major decisions.

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Western Water April 21, 2023 Nick Cahill Colorado River Bundle 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 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 Nick Cahill 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 Nick Cahill Colorado River Bundle 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.”

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Western Water July 7, 2022 Nick Cahill 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.”

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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 Colorado River Bundle 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 Layperson's Guide to the Colorado River 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 Layperson's Guide to the Colorado River 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

American River

American RiverThe 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.

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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 Bundle

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 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.

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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 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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Publication May 20, 2014 Colorado River Basin Map

Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River
Updated 2018

Cover page for the Layperson's Guide to the Colorado River .

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.

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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

Cover page of draft California Water Plan Update 2023

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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