From American Rivers’ River Blog (Amy Souers Kober):
Today, American Rivers and our partners at Nuestro Rio, Protect the Flows, Save the Colorado and the National Young Farmers Coalition are calling on Congress to give cities and farmers across the basin the tools they need to build a future that includes healthy rivers and reliable, sustainable water supplies. We are asking Congress to fund the Bureau of Reclamation’s WaterSmart and Title XVI Water Reclamation and Reuse programs. These programs help stakeholders optimize existing water infrastructure, maximize available water supplies, and provide healthy river flows for communities and ecosystems.
While over-allocation of water is most pronounced on the Colorado River, it’s a problem we’re seeing on rivers nationwide. In fact, the top four rivers in America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2013 suffer from outdated water management. What’s clear for all of these rivers is that we all need to be part of the solution. It’s time to work together to ensure clean water supplies and healthy rivers for our children and grandchildren.
Click here for a map showing the 10 rivers on this year’s list.
From AZCentral.com (Brandon Loomis):
The Colorado, the lifeblood of the Southwest, is at a crucial moment in its history, American Rivers says, and Congress and the states that tap its waters must plan for better use — and re-use — of its water to meet a growing need. “The current trends are not sustainable,” said Matt Niemerski, western water-policy director for American Rivers…
American Rivers has published “America’s Most Endangered Rivers” every year since 1986, and the Colorado has made the 10-river cut seven times. It has topped the list twice before, most recently in 2010. The group reorders the list annually to draw attention to particular rivers when a related policy decision is looming. This year, the group wants Congress to boost a WaterSmart program that is slated to get about $30 million next fiscal year for grants to water-conservation programs, Niemerski said. Such grants could help water providers build desalination or other treatment plants, or plan for smarter management. “We need to start this work now,” he said…
Arizona is entitled to 2.8 million acre-feet of Colorado River water a year, and 1.5 million of it flows through the Central Arizona Project canal from the state’s western edge to Phoenix, Tucson and points in between.
A CAP official was puzzled by the group’s choice to elevate the river’s threat status based on a government report that actually could signal the start of better regional water planning. “We all recognize (the Reclamation report) as a call to action,” said Chuck Cullom, CAP’s Colorado River program manager. He also mentioned a new agreement with Mexico allowing for storage of some of that country’s allocation in Lake Mead to ease shortages in drought years. “We’ve taken aggressive steps in the past year to protect and enhance the river,” Cullom said.
From The Denver Post (Bruce Finley):
The advocacy group American Rivers on Wednesday will declare the Colorado River “the No. 1 most endangered” in the nation.
Federal authorities warn that even if courts step in to reallocate shrinking river flows, 40 million people who rely on the Colorado still would face problems…“We can only solve this problem by working together,” Anne Castle, the U.S. Department of the Interior assistant secretary for water and science, said at a University of Denver law school forum. Negotiating competing uses on an over-subscribed river “is not without pain, not without litigation,” Castle said. However, a judicial decision “doesn’t solve these problems.”
American Rivers ranked the Colorado River most endangered due to worsening water deficits…
…people are, indeed, draining the river. Front Range cities divert about 500,000 acre-feet a year from the basin to sustain 80 percent of today’s population. More diversions are planned here and in Utah. For example, Denver Water, which supplies 1.3 million metro residents, is pushing to divert 18,000 acre-feet from upper Colorado River tributaries. “But we’re not looking at developing additional water resources on the Western Slope after the Moffat project,” utility planning director David Little said, calling American Rivers’ 300,000 acre-feet estimate “overblown.”[…]
…Colorado and the upper states face a dilemma, said Eric Kuhn, manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District, which represents 15 Western Slope counties. Are they still obligated to deliver 7.5 million acre-feet a year to lower states?
“Some of the Front Range folks take the view that Colorado is entitled to more water, and that the Lower Basin is using some of our water,” Kuhn said. “But how do you develop more water on a river that is already overused?”
If you are in Salida this evening check out the film Watershed:
#WATERSHED is headed to Salida, CO 4/17 7p! Come join the Greater Arkansas River Nature Association to learn about water security
— Watershed (@WatershedMovie) April 14, 2013