Some call it The American Nile.
It’s the Colorado River, it’s the lifeblood of the West, and it’s out of balance.
The seven states in the river’s basin are using more water than the river can provide.
As a result, the Colorado River is the most endangered river in America, according to the conservation nonprofit American Rivers.
And the 100-year-old water truce among seven states of the Southwest may be moving toward open hostilities as those states that rely on the river are scrambling to secure water for their residents and industries.
What can and should be done to ensure our taps keep flowing as the region continues its explosive growth?
The Gazette dispatched a team of reporters, a photographer and a videographer the length of the entire river to tell the stories of those struggling with the 22-year megadrought. And now the Gazette is hosting a symposium to talk about solutions, entitled The Future of Colorado Water: Scarcity and Opportunity.
We’ve assembled some of the most esteemed water experts in the West to hash out the challenges and answer your questions directly on the future of the river:
James Eklund, a water lawyer who served as Colorado’s lead negotiator and signatory on the Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan and as director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
Don Brown, the former Colorado Commission of Agriculture and an expert on the rural impacts of water law.
Jennifer Gimbel, interim director and senior water policy scholar at the Colorado Water Center in Fort Collins.
Jennifer Pitt, the Colorado River Project director at Audubon.
Troy Eid, who co-chairs the American Indian Law Practice Group for Greenberg Traurig LLP. The former U.S. attorney for the District of Colorado is also a past state cabinet officer for Colorado’s Governor's Office.
The forum will be held on Zoom on Aug. 18 from 8-9 a.m. MDT and you can register at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_t07Q8i66QTWDXOlNIfqJWA
The discussion comes just days after the Bureau of Reclamation’s Aug. 15 deadline for the seven states — including Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico in the Upper Basin, and Arizona, Nevada and California in the Lower Basin — to agree on a plan to conserve 2 to 4 million acre-feet of river water next year to avoid a collapse of the river system, including hydropower production on Lake Powell and Lake Mead.
If no plan is in place, the federal government has promised to step in with its own mandatory cuts, which could impact all 40 million people who live in the Colorado River Basin.
Eklund, for one, believes we need big, visionary plans for water management, not a pointing of fingers or a tweaking of the dials at this point. We need a “fundamental realignment of the system,” he said.
How might proposals now on the table affect you? How can you help save the Colorado?
Tune in Aug. 18 at 8 a.m. and find out.
