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Colorado River Bordering on Crisis, Report Finds

National Park Service
A 2013 photo taken in the Hite area of Lake Powell. The amount of water in the Colorado river has fallen steadily as climate change, drought, and overdraft of the river's supply continues

A team of researchers at the University of Colorado has a message for America’s next president:  Act swiftly to resolve issues on the Colorado River.

The team, called the Colorado River Future Project, issued a report Monday noting there are “serious and urgent opportunities and challenges” for the next administration. The river provides water for more than 35 million Americans, among them members of 11 Indian tribes. Its economic impact is estimated at $1 trillion. However, the river is in crisis because of drought, climate change, and overdraft of the dwindling supply. Lake Mead, the country’s largest reservoir, is just 37 percent full, close to the point at which the first-ever shortage declaration must be issued. The researchers interviewed 65 regional leaders and found considerable consensus on the most critical priorities. They recommend completing negotiations between the United States and Mexico to extend a water agreement that expires the end of next year, adding that the negotiations “should not be derailed by unrelated political considerations.” The team also calls for improved and sustainable water management in the river basin’s seven states; and for settling unresolved tribal water claims and giving tribes more freedom to decide the use of their water. The researchers say although the situation is serious, relationships among the key Colorado River entities in the past have been “remarkably successful in addressing difficult issues.”

Gail Binkly is a career journalist who has worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette and Cortez Journal, and was the editor of the Four Corners Free Press, based in Cortez.
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