News of water shortages, exacerbated by climate change,
population growth, mining and other development, is everywhere
these days in the American Southwest. But on the Navajo
Reservation, a sovereign tribal nation that sits on about 16
million acres in northeast Arizona, southern Utah and western
New Mexico, nearly 10,000 homes have never had running
water. How that can and should be resolved is one aspect
of a case brought before the U.S. Supreme Court on March 20,
with the justices’ decision due any day now.
To hear water stakeholders tell their stories, the connection
to the Russian River is every bit as personal and spiritual as
it is professional in nature. Take, for instance, Dry Creek
Rancheria Tribal Chairman Chris Wright. The Pomo Indians tribal
leader is spearheading a major grant-funded,
multi-million-dollar, drought-resistant water capture plan. He
hopes it will spark interest from Healdsburg-area wineries and
farms in a 7,000-acre area to help with the water supply that
keeps the Russian River economic microcosm going. … The
phased-in project aims to replenish the groundwater basin with
up to 9,000-acre feet of water savings annually, when the
Russian River increases to high flows. Traditionally, that
stormwater runoff represents a wasted supply.
Shortly after sunrise on April 19, employees of PacifiCorp and
the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) opened all six outlet
gates along with nine of the spillway bays on Link River Dam,
initiating this year’s “surface flushing flow” for the Klamath
River. … The surface flushing flow is based on 2017
“guidance document” prepared by scientists and policy advisors
from the Yurok, Karuk, and Hoopa Valley tribes. Reclamation
formally adopted the surface flushing flow as part of Klamath
Project operations in 2019, after being required by a federal
court to implement these flows in 2017 and 2018. The purpose of
the flushing flow is to disturb river sediment and thereby
dislodge the colonies of microscopic worms that act as an
intermediate host for Ceratanova shasta, a parasite that
infects salmonids.
Before colonial and American expansion, California’s Delta
watershed was occupied by the original guardians of the Delta.
These were the Native Peoples of the numerous villages and
Tribes of the Bay Miwok, Coast Miwok, Plains Miwok, Maidu,
Nisenan, Ohlone, Patwin, Pomo, Wappo, Wintun, and Yokuts.
Today, those original villages and Tribes are represented by
many local tribal groups that still have a deep connection to
the Delta watershed from Mount Shasta to the Tulare Basin. As
the Council works towards its mission of achieving the coequal
goals, we must partner with Native American Tribes to ensure
their lived experiences and perspectives are heard and
reflected in our shared work to create a more resilient Delta.
This is why the listening session the Council held in April was
so crucial.
Only a month after finalizing funding agreements, the Gila
River Indian Community broke ground on its new Reclaimed Water
Pipeline Project to help the community with water resources and
conserve more water in Lake Mead. The 19.4-mile pipeline was
developed in record time, said Gila River Indian Community Gov.
Stephen Roe Lewis, and the community “continues to lead the way
in addressing the historic drought impacting Arizona and the
Southwest.” Tribal leaders, federal and state officials, and
project and construction leaders gathered on May 19 for a
groundbreaking ceremony at the construction site for the first
phase of the Reclaimed Water Pipeline Project near Sacaton.
In a widely-broadcasted press conference held on the banks
of the lower Yuba River yesterday, Governor Gavin Newsom,
the Yuba Water Agency, the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife (CDFW) and the National Marine Fisheries Service
(NMFS) announced a controversial plan to build a fish passage
canal around Daguerre Point Dam and begin a reintroduction
trap-and- haul effort around New Bullards Bar Dam. Shockingly,
no representatives of fishing groups, environmental groups and
Tribes were invited to be part of the negotiations for the
restoration effort nor invited to the press conference by a
state government that has constantly gushed
about “inclusion” and “diversity” but has done the very
opposite in practice.
They come from four counties and have only months to work.
Their interests often diverge and sometimes even conflict with
one another. But they have a common goal: Find a path forward
in a world without Pacific Gas & Electric’s Potter Valley power
plant. The stakeholders include water providers, agricultural
users and elected officials whose constituents depend on
diversions from the Eel River to help fill Lake Mendocino and
feed the upper Russian River in Mendocino and Sonoma counties.
They also include fishery interests that want two aging dams
removed from the Eel River to improve fish passage and restore
the river’s ecological function.
Preliminary construction work has begun as the Klamath River
Renewal Corporation prepares to remove a total of four dams.
Copco 2 — the first dam to go — will be removed from the
Klamath River by the end of September, according to Mark
Bransom, CEO of the KRRC. … The other three dams — Copco 1,
Iron Gate Dam and the John C. Boyle Dam — will be removed by
the end of 2024. Bransom says up to 400 crew members will be
working on this project through the end of next year. Right
now, multiple recreation sites near Copco 2 have been shut down
to allow more room for construction teams and traffic. As a
result, local recreation businesses like rafting companies may
see fewer customers this summer.
There is a stir of excitement at the Klamath Tribes Ambodat
Department with the first steps being taken to bring Chinook
salmon back to their Klamath homeland. Recently, Shahnie Rich
and Lottie Riddle, Klamath Tribal members and employees at
Ambodat, joined a team of biologists and partners in tagging
juvenile Chinook in order to study their downstream movement
through the Upper Klamath Basin. Rich was one of several fish
surgeons that implanted acoustic tags in the juvenile salmon to
track their movements from their release sites on the Wood and
Williamson Rivers, through Upper Klamath Lake and downstream in
the Klamath River. This was a collaborative effort involving
the Klamath Tribes, Trout Unlimited, Bureau of Reclamation,
Bureau of Land Management, California Department of Fish and
Wildlife, Cal Poly Humboldt, Oregon State University, U.S.
Geological Survey, National Marine Fisheries Service and U.C.
Davis.
Burning Man and [the town of] Gerlach are more tightly aligned,
joining conservationists and a Native American tribe in an
alliance against a powerful adversary: Ormat Technology, the
largest geothermal power company in the country. Both Burning
Man and Ormat share a vision for a greener future, yet neither
can agree on the road to get there. … Ormat has 15
plants in Nevada, which together contribute 433 megawatts to
the state’s electrical grid — enough to power 325,000 homes.
Geothermal environments, including hot springs, geysers and
steam vents found along the “Ring of Fire,” the tectonic
pathway encircling the Pacific Ocean, are home to a wide range
of biodiverse ecosystems. They can also serve as sacred sites
for Indigenous tribes and supply spring water to rural towns
like Gerlach.
The question of who has the right to use Colorado River water
is determined by law. Allocations are determined according to
priority — but some users have rights to more water because
they have older rights or were awarded higher priority. A
1908 U.S. Supreme Court decision established what became known
as the Winters Doctrine, which recognized that tribes should
have the right to enough water to establish a permanent
homeland within their reservation boundaries. When interpreted
fairly, this means Native tribes have some of the most senior
rights to Colorado River water. In practice, however,
tribes have been granted a mere fraction of these rights.
About 45 minutes west of Albuquerque, N.M., past miles of
desert and a remote casino, is the turn off for To’Hajiilee, a
non-contiguous part of the Navajo Nation. About 2,000 people
live here and none of them have indoor access to good drinking
water. … While To’Hajiilee’s isolation from the
rest of the Navajo Nation makes it somewhat unique, its lack of
access to clean drinking water is common across the sprawling
reservation that stretches across parts of Arizona, New Mexico,
and Utah. Those living on the Navajo Nation are 67
times more likely to not have running water or a toilet
than other Americans, according to the U.S. Water Alliance.
It’s evident here that, as a 2021 national report by the
alliance and DigDeep found, “race is the strongest predictor of
water and sanitation access.”
The land near Yosemite National Park had been tended by Irene
Vasquez’s family for decades. They took care of their seven
acres by setting small fires to thin vegetation and help some
plants to grow. But the steep, chaparral-studded slopes
surrounding the property hadn’t seen fire since Vasquez and
fellow members of the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation were barred
from practicing cultural burning on a wider scale some 100
years before. When a wildfire swept through in July, the dense
vegetation stoked flames that destroyed Vasquez’s home and
transformed the land into a scarred moonscape. With that, she
became one of many Indigenous residents to watch her ancestral
territory burn in recent years, despite knowing the outcome
could have been different.
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced
proposed federal baseline water quality standards for
waterbodies on Indian reservations that do not have Clean Water
Act standards, ensuring protections for over half a million
people living on Indian reservations as well as critical
aquatic ecosystems. Fifty years ago, Congress established a
goal in the Clean Water Act (CWA) that waters should support
fishing and swimming wherever attainable. All states and 47
Tribes have established standards consistent with that goal.
However, the majority of U.S. Tribes with Indian reservations
lack such water quality standards. This proposal would extend
the same framework of water quality protection that currently
exists for most other waters of the United States to waters of
over 250 Tribes and is the result of decades of coordination
and partnership with Tribes.
A California tribe has signed agreements with state and federal
agencies to work together on efforts to return endangered
Chinook salmon to their traditional spawning areas upstream of
Shasta Dam, a deal that could advance the long-standing goal of
tribal leaders to reintroduce fish that were transplanted from
California to New Zealand more than a century ago and still
thrive there. Members of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe have long
sought to restore a wild salmon population in the McCloud River
north of Redding, where their ancestors once lived. The
agreements that were signed this week for the first time
formally recognize the tribe as a partner participating in
efforts to save the endangered winter-run Chinook salmon.
As young Native Americans took the leap from the cliff next to
Pumpkin Springs into the cold waters of the Colorado River,
Amber Benally knew the trip had been special. It was the summer
of 2022 and the last full day on the river as part of the Grand
Canyon Trust’s Rising Leaders Program. Throughout the journey,
the 14 Native Americans had navigated through more than just
the white water. … Now, Benally said, the Grand Canyon
Trust, collaborating with the Grand Canyon Youth, are
organizing another trip as part of the Regional Intertribal
Intergenerational Stewardship Expedition (RIISE). Benally
said they are currently taking applications for the free trip
from Native Americans aged 16 to 20 years old and associated
with one of the 11 tribes with connections to the Grand Canyon.
In the wake of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service saying it
will not grant an emergency Endangered Species Act listing for
the Clear Lake hitch, the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians
voiced its disappointment with the decision. On Tuesday, Fish
and Wildlife announced that it wouldn’t give the listing, which
the California Fish and Game Commission, Lake County’s tribes
and the Center for Biological Diversity asked for the agency to
do last year. The hitch, a fish native to Clear Lake, is known
as the “chi” to Lake County’s tribes, for whom it has had an
important cultural role due to being a primary food source
historically.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in Arizona
v. Navajo Nation, No. 21-1484, a case consolidated with a
separate petition for certiorari filed by the U.S. Department
of the Interior (DOI), No. 21-51. The consolidated cases
involve a water rights case initially brought by the Navajo
Nation against DOI. The states of Arizona, Nevada, and
Colorado, along with six major municipal and agricultural water
providers with adjudicated rights to the Colorado River in the
Lower Basin, intervened in the case. Those states and public
water providers (Intervenors) filed the petition for certiorari
seeking review of the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Ninth Circuit.
Over the past year we’ve been showing you California’s effort
to save the winter run chinook salmon – a fish that has almost
been lost to dammed rivers and warming waters. It’s part of a
growing partnership between state and federal wildlife agencies
– and a small California tribe that’s been fighting to save
those fish for years, and bring them back home. On Monday, a
historic pact was signed to expand on those
efforts … For Sisk and the Winnemem Tribe this day
would have seemed improbable, or impossible, just a few years
ago. A tiny California tribe without federal recognition,
signing a formal agreement with state and federal partners.
When the moment arrived to actually sign the documents, the
tribe’s spiritual leader couldn’t help but acknowledge
generations of mistrust.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife, NOAA Fisheries
and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe signed agreements to restore
Chinook salmon to the mountains north of Redding, California,
on May 1, 2023. The agreements support a joint effort to return
Chinook salmon to their original spawning areas in cold
mountain rivers now blocked by Shasta Reservoir in northern
California. The goal is ecological and cultural restoration
which will one day renew fishing opportunities for the tribe
that depended on the once-plentiful salmon for food and much
more. The tribe signed a co-management agreement with CDFW and
a co-stewardship agreement with NOAA Fisheries, reflecting the
way the two agencies describe accords with tribes. This
three-way collaboration is a historic achievement that advances
our common goals.
This Spring, a high level delegation met inside the Arizona
Governor’s office to announce a huge water conservation deal.
The crowd was a who’s who of the western water world, including
top Biden administration officials, the head of Arizona’s
powerful water department, the state’s Governor Katie Hobbs,
and its senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema. But the man at the
center of the announcement was someone who probably wouldn’t
have even been invited to this type of event not too long ago:
Governor Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration proposed a plan to
distribute cuts from the Colorado River and resolve the
centurylong legal dispute between states across the American
Southwest that share its water supplies. Decades of drought and
overuse have brought the river’s water levels to historic lows.
States in the Lower Colorado River Basin — Arizona, California
and Nevada — now must choose between one of three options
proposed by the federal government. The outcome of these talks
will have far-reaching implications for agriculture and energy
in the region.
With Western water challenges in mind, Lorelei Cloud has a
message for policymakers: There should be room for partnerships
— not fear — when Native American tribes join the negotiating
table. In March, Cloud became one of the newest members of the
state’s top water agency, the Colorado Water Conservation
Board, when Gov. Jared Polis appointed her to represent the San
Miguel-Dolores-San Juan drainage basin in southwestern
Colorado. She’s also the first known tribal member to hold a
seat on the board since its creation in 1937. … Her
appointment comes at a time when tensions over water in the
West are high. The Colorado River Basin, which spans seven
states in the Southwest and portions of northern Mexico, is two
decades into a severe, prolonged drought.
Tulare Lake, the long dormant lake that made a surprise
comeback in California’s San Joaquin Valley this year, has
gotten so big with the wet weather that water experts say it
won’t drain until at least next year, and maybe well after
that. … While landowners as well as local, state and
federal officials are focused on keeping major towns and
infrastructure dry, the broader issue of whether there’s a
better way to manage water in the basin looms. … the
re-emergence of the lake, for some, has sparked a sense of awe
and enthusiasm, if not the desire for a more natural, more
resilient landscape. Nowhere does this sentiment run
deeper than among the ancestors of the native Yokuts whose
creation story was inspired by the historical waters.
The Department of the Interior today announced a $140 million
investment for water conservation and efficiency projects as
part of the President’s Investing in America agenda to enhance
the resilience of the West to drought and climate change.
Funding for 84 projects in 15 western states, provided through
the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and annual appropriations,
will go to irrigation and water districts, states, Tribes and
other entities and are expected to conserve over 230,000
acre-feet of water when completed. … In the Colorado
River Basin, 12 projects will receive more than $20 million in
federal funding from today’s announcement, resulting in more
than $44.7 million in infrastructure investments.
For 19-year-old Danielle Frank, California’s Trinity River is a
cultural lifeline. “We are water people. We are river people,”
she says. “And we believe that when our river drains and there
is no more water left, we will no longer be here.” Frank
is a Hoopa tribal member and Yurok descendant. The Trinity
River runs through her homeland. … The river has been
dammed, and water from the Trinity is often diverted to the
Central Valley. Frank says those diversions — combined with
droughts and global warming — are causing fish kills.
… So Frank is pushing for change. As the youth
coordinator for the nonprofit Save California Salmon,
Frank helps young people maintain their connection to the river
and learn how to influence water policy.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.”
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
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.
