Commentary: The commonsense thinking behind the Imperial Valley’s water rights
Last week, we briefly reviewed the history of how the Imperial Valley claimed and leveraged its water for the good of the nation, cementing its water rights in 1901, long before the major urban growth in the late 20th century and beyond. Those rights were vindicated with other laws and agreements over the decades to come, but the first major stamp of approval came in 1922 with the Colorado River Compact between six of the seven states which relied on the Colorado River. In recent years, however, some accusations have been making the rounds claiming that the Law of the River, including the 1922 Compact, should be overruled because more water was allocated among the states than the typical flow. The original legal guidelines, the critics claim, had no consideration of climate change, and now we need to rewrite the laws to take it into account.
-Written by columnist Brett Miller.Related article:
