Comment on Opinion: As the Colorado River has shrunk, we’ve born the burden. Now California, Nevada and Arizona must help.

Opinion: As the Colorado River has shrunk, we’ve born the burden. Now California, Nevada and Arizona must help.

In recent days the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming submitted an alternative plan outlining the proposed operations of Lake Powell and Lake Mead after 2026. Woven throughout this alternative plan submitted to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation by these Upper Basin Division States is the need to restore balance to the vital lifeline of the West — The Colorado River. Righting the imbalances that have caused these two reservoirs to drop to historic and critically low volumes will require more assurances than are contained in the 2007 operating guidelines or the plan currently proposed by California, Arizona, and Nevada, the Lower Division Basin states. It’s a positive step that the Lower Basin states have acknowledged their role in this imbalance, but we are deeply troubled by their assertion that additional constraints be placed on Upper Basin water users when we use just over half of our legal apportionment. (Colorado River Basin map sourced from ArcGIS StoryMaps and images by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post) The 1922, the Colorado River Compact attempted to provide certainty and security of water supplies for both the Upper and Lower Basins.

 

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