MEDIA UPDATE: Colorado River Storage System Headed For Historic Low As Upper Basin States Prepare To Further Drain It

MEDIA UPDATE: Colorado River Storage System Headed For Historic Low As Upper Basin States Prepare To Further Drain It
June 16, 2018

With last week’s forecast from the Bureau of Reclamation, the Colorado River Storage System is headed for a historic low. Nice pull quotes in this piece by Luke Runyon at KUNC in Colorado:

“We’re in uncharted territory for the system. Everything is new, and it is all bleak. None of it is positive” — Jeff Kightlinger, GM of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

http://kuer.org/post/colorado-river-reservoirs-expected-be-less-half-full-headed-historic-low#stream/0

The KUNC story fails to mention that proposed new dams and diversions on the Colorado River system could take out over 300,000 acre feet of new water out of the Colorado River every year, thus exacerbating the “uncharted territory”. Save The Colorado is the only organization in the Colorado River basin that is tracking every proposed new dam/diversion, and arguing and/or fighting against them. The proposed new dams/diversions are listed here: http://savethecolorado.org/campaigns/fighting-irresponsible-water-projects/

We are in “UNCHARTED TERRITORY” [read: “BAD”] but the Upper Basin states — WY, CO, and UT — are trying to further drain the river system. I frequently use the word “insane” to describe this, as reported two weeks ago in Aspen Journalism about the lawsuit we have filed to stop one of the projects. https://www.aspenjournalism.org/2018/06/02/court-battle-continues-over-windy-gap-firming-project/

“We are just trying to inject some sanity and stop the madness,” said Gary Wockner, director of Save the Colorado, an environmental nonprofit based in Ft. Collins that supports the Colorado River and is the lead petitioner in the case. “The Colorado River is the most dammed, drained, depleted river on the planet.”

Gary Wockner, Save The Colorado