Page 24 - River Compact News Today

Writers on the Range George Sibley is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, a nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively discussion about Western issues. He has written extensively about the Colorado River. Some Colorado River tribulations today remind me of a folk story: A young man went to visit his fiancé and found the family trembling and weeping. They pointed to the ceiling, where an axe was embedded in a rafter. “That could fall,” the father quavered. “It could ...

“That could fall,” the father quavered. “It could kill someone!” Puzzled, the young man climbed onto a chair, and pulled the axe out of the rafter. Everyone fell all over themselves thanking him. But he quickly broke off the engagement, concerned that such inanity might be inheritable. This resembles ongoing dithering over the 1922 Colorado River Compact, a 99-year-old agreement among the seven states through which the Colorado River meanders, on how the consumptive use of the river’s...

Writers on the Range: Pumping up fear on the Colorado River Durango, Colorado Tue 66% chance of precipitation 14% chance of precipitation 1% chance of precipitation Tuesday, April 27, 2021 5:03 PM Writers on the Range: Pumping up fear on the Colorado River Toggle font size Loading the English audio player... Some Colorado River tribulations today remind me of a folk story: A young man went to visit his fiancé and found the family trembling and weeping. They pointed to the ceil...

George Sibley: Pumping up fear along the Colorado River The Upper Basin states should not suffer all the pain for a drought-starved river. (Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Colorado River flows into Lake Powell near Hite Marina on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. By George Sibley | Writers on the Range   | April 26, 2021, 5:30 p.m. Some Colorado River tribulations today remind me of a folk story: A young man went to visit his fiancé and found the family trembling and weeping. They poi...

 and is republished here by permission. Interstate water disputes are as American as apple pie. States often think a neighboring state is using more than its fair share from a river, lake or aquifer that crosses borders. Climate stresses are raising the stakes. Rising temperatures require farmers to use more water to grow the same amount of crops. Prolonged and severe droughts decrease available supplies. Wildfires are burning hotter and lasting longer. Fires bake the soil, reducing forests’...

Interstate water disputes are as American as apple pie. States often think a neighboring state is using more than its fair share from a river, lake or aquifer that crosses borders. Climate stresses are raising the stakes. Rising temperatures require farmers to use more water to grow the same amount of crops. Prolonged and severe droughts decrease available supplies. Wildfires are burning hotter and lasting longer. Fires bake the soil, reducing forests’ ability to hold water, increasing evapo...

What do Colorado’s Front Range and the Californian coast have in common? They’re both fed by the Colorado River, one of the country’s most massive waterways. Despite its size, the river and its reservoirs have reached perilously low water levels due to increased use and the impacts of climate change. This week, Science Moab speaks with Brian Richter, the president of the organization Sustainable Waters, about the hazards of such limited water and how the Southwest is responding. ...

Southern California farmers spend their winters watching the snowpack in the Colorado Rockies, and what they see is the climate crisis hitting hard. When it melts, the snow that falls on these peaks will, eventually, make its way into the Colorado River, which connects the Southwest like a great tendon, tying the Continental Divide in Colorado to Southern California’s hayfields, where the Imperial Irrigation District is one of the country’s largest, and pouring from the faucets of urban use...

Here are some significant environmental and regulatory rulings and administrative actions from December 2020. THE U.S. SUPREME COURT Texas v. New Mexico On December 14, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court decided a water rights controversy involving sharing the water of the Pecos River. The 1949 Pecos River Compact provides for the equitable apportionment of the use of the Pecos River’s water by New Mexico and Texas, and a “River Master’s Manual,” approved by the Court in 1988, implements the ...

After two months without any significant moisture here on the Westside, it was nice to wake up one day last week and see 3 or 4 inches of snow. The dogs cavorted happily, the neighborhood seemed magical and I hoped that the sun would melt it away so that I wouldn’t have to shovel the sidewalk. I found myself thinking about water, and what it means for the future of our state and city. Let’s start with the snow that fell on my yard, and maybe on yours as well. It’s only partially ...