Click the link to read the article on the Aspen Journalism website (Heather Sackett):
October 4, 2024
Tribes in the upper Colorado River basin are still struggling to get compensated for water to which they are entitled but aren’t using.
Tribes had hoped to be included in a new round of federal funding through the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation aimed at conservation programs in the Upper Basin and possibly get paid for their water that they aren’t using. But it appears that will not be the case, Lorelei Cloud, vice chair of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, said on Sept. 20.
“Reclamation agreed to include tribal forbearance programs under the B2W program where we were looking forward to announcing and working on a proposal,” Cloud said. “On Sept. 18, the state of Colorado informed the Southern Ute Indian Tribe that Reclamation has reconsidered its position and will no longer include tribal programs in the B2W program. This decision needs to be reversed.”
The comments came during a panel discussion at the Colorado River Water Conservation District’s annual seminar in Grand Junction. Cloud put out a call to action for attendees to help them plead their case to federal officials. She noted that the title of the panel was “Does History Repeat Itself?”
“We haven’t changed anything,” she said. “No matter how tribes are trying, we haven’t changed anything.”
Becky Mitchell, Colorado’s representative to the Upper Colorado River Commission and the state’s lead negotiator on Colorado River issues, has advocated for more tribal inclusion. She said Colorado officials were notified by phone that Reclamation would not fund forbearance with B2W money.
“Both the tribes and the states thought that this was an option for the use of that funding,” Mitchell said. “There are commitments that have been made, not just in this last year, but in the last 200 years, and it’s time to make good. … We’re going to continue to work with the tribes to pursue federal funding in an effort to correct these historic injustices.”
