Western Water: An Era of New Partnerships on the Colorado River
The Water Education Foundation’s November/December 2013 issue of Western Water examines how the various stakeholders have begun working together to meet the planning challenges for the Colorado River Basin, including agreements with Mexico, increased use of conservation and water marketing, and the goal of accomplishing binational environmental restoration and water-sharing programs.
Much of the content for this issue of Western Water came from the in-depth panel discussions at the Symposium, “An Era of New Partnerships on the Colorado River.” The Foundation will publish the full proceedings of the Symposium in 2014.
Historically, management of the river was largely viewed as an Upper Basin (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) issue or a Lower Basin (Arizona, California and Nevada) issue, although each faces similar challenges, among them: water supply, environmental protection, water conservation, water transfers and climate change. With the 2007 adoption of coordinated operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the Colorado River Basin Study, which was released in December 2012, and a recent series of binational agreements between the U.S. and Mexico on the Colorado River, policymakers are beginning to address issues from a broader, basin-wide perspective.
“We need to be thinking about different interests in the river as opposed to geographic locations. You have municipalities, you have tribes, you have the environment, recreation, you have agriculture,” said Jim Lochhead, general manager of Denver Water, speaking at the Water Education Foundation’s September 2013 Colorado River Symposium in Santa Fe, N.M. “How do we balance demands in the system to accommodate those various interests in a way that equitably allows for additional development, economic opportunity in the Basin, and that equitably apportions shortages? I think that there are ways that we can do that within the existing frameworks that we have.”
The digital format of Western Water includes videos, audio interviews, animated graphics and easy-to-access links to the reports cited in the article and related background information. Click here to receive a free preview.
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