Colorado Rivers Update: “All Damming Must Be Stopped”

Hi Friends of the Colorado River!

As you slide into the holidays, know that we are still working hard and are racing through the end of the year to save rivers across the West!

First, our amazing boardmember, Dan Beard, was highlighted in this article in the Las Vegas Sun today. Dan spoke at the “Dam The Status Quo” conference in Las Vegas last week along with other VIPs and climate scientists. Dan is a former Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, appointed by President Clinton, and Dan is the author of the book, Deadbeat Dams.

Speaking truth to the power he knows so well, Dan went straight to the point when he said, “All damming should be stopped. There’s just not enough water to keep Lake Powell and Lake Mead operational. You have to have one over the other. Glen Canyon Dam should be decommissioned.”

We are thrilled have Dan’s  provocative system-changing voice on our Board along with his perspective as a deep insider in federal politics. The ecological health of the Grand Canyon, Glen Canyon, and the entire Colorado River continue to be dragged down by Glen Canyon Dam as water managers scramble to try and save the dam. The “one dam solution” — decommissioning Glen Canyon Dam and saving Hoover Dam and Lake Mead — needs to be consistently pushed to the forefront of Colorado River politics.

Second, our Rights of Nature for Rivers program continues to make news — check out this story in the Greeley Tribune. As the State of Colorado grapples with massive population growth and diminishing water supplies, we are STANDING UP AND SPEAKING OUT for the original water rights holders which are the rivers across the state. The legal concept of “beneficial use” needs to be expanded to include the Rights of Rivers, and the Colorado Water Community needs to be expanded to include the rivers themselves.

Ownership of water rights is only 150 years old across the Western U.S., but the rivers have been ‘owning’ this water for millions of years. Our Rights of Nature for Rivers program speaks for those rivers. We’re not naive to think we’re going to change laws and systems overnight, but our steady drumbeat of speaking out for rivers is working to slowly change the public dialogue across the West.

Finally, as the dam builders and water buffaloes across the West continue their relentless effort to dam and destroy our rivers, we are speaking out everywhere and in every publication to protect rivers. Here in The Colorado Sun, we are quoted against a massive proposed pipeline to divert the South Platte River before it reaches the state line with Nebraska and then to “pumpback” the South Platte’s water all the way to Denver.

These schemes — which propose to dam, divert, and pumpback the water out of rivers all across the state — are increasingly promoted by what we call “The Growth Machine”. In the madding effort to pack more and more people into the Front Range of Colorado, the state’s rivers are sacrifice zones for this growth. Never one to back away from speaking truth to power, we are speaking against The Growth Machine and its river-destroying mindset.

Win, lose, or draw, we are fighting every fight to protect rivers across the West!

We wish you all a Happy Holiday season and we greatly appreciate your support!

You can donate online by clicking here: https://savethecolorado.org/donate/