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Colorado River Update: “Destroy The Dam”, says TV News

Hi Friends of the Colorado River!

It is your support that keeps us working! Please donate online here: http://savethecolorado.org/donate/

The past two weeks have seen a flurry of news about the future of the Colorado River as the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released a report indicating how much water would need to be cut, and who would have to cut it, to save Glen Canyon Dam. As usual, Save The Colorado was right in the mix of the news stories across the U.S.!

First, the Wall Street Journal (read it here) included us in their story about the cuts that the Bureau of Reclamation proposes to make to water users in Arizona and California. As we note in the article, this is the first time in history the federal government has stepped in and threatened to impose cuts. In fact, those cuts likely would’ve happened this year if not for the large snowstorms that repeatedly blanketed California and the Southwest U.S.

That the government made the threat signals a new paradigm for water management in the Colorado River system, one long overdue as the River has become increasingly drained and destroyed by the drought and overuse.

Second, in keeping with our “Tear Down Glen Canyon Dam” campaign, we again beat the drum of dam decommissioning as a climate solution for the Colorado River chaos. We were thrilled to be highlighted on Channel 9 News in Denver arguing that Glen Canyon Dam should be torn down. In addition, one TV affiliate titled the segment, “Destroy The Dam”!

We told Channel 9 news (watch the full news story here): 

“It makes no sense to manage the entire Colorado River system to generate electricity because you can generate electricity in all sorts of other ways. So we actually think they should decommission the dam and tear it down rather than trying to drill massive holes in it using this sort of Hail Mary approach to keep the turbines spinning to create hydropower.”

Finally, the national outlet, E&E News, also picked up on our climate solution to the Colorado River. In this story, we whacked the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for again proposing to cut water from farmers instead of moving forward with a plan to decommission Glen Canyon Dam. Read the E&E News story here.

We told E&E News that it makes more sense to remove the dam rather than to drain and dry up farms, at least in the near term. We said, “Their entire focus was on saving their system: They’re trying to save their dams and hydropower plants, and they are going to put farmers out of business to do it.”  

The Biden administration, unfortunately, is obsessed with “protecting its system” of dams and reservoirs above all else. We believe this decision is a type of climate denial because there’s never going to be enough water in the Colorado River to keep both Lake Powell and Lake Mead functioning.

Rest assured that as the chaos swirls, we will stay on top of it and in the mix, always arguing to improve the ecological health of the river by stopping proposed new dams and tearing down old deadbeat dams.

It is your support that keeps us working! Please donate online here: http://savethecolorado.org/donate/

Thank you for your support!

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