Save The Colorado River Update: Holding Officials Accountable!

Hi Friends of the Colorado River!

When public officials do the right thing to support the Colorado River, we like to let them know. When they do the wrong thing, we also like to let them know.

In San Diego, one right thing is happening so we are happy to thank the Mayor of San Diego, Bob Filner, and two members of the City Council for continuing to move forward with a water recycling program and facility.  Two weeks ago, the Council’s Natural Resource Committee voted to move forward on the City’s water recycling and purification program, a process that will eventually allow San Diego to purify its wastewater into potable drinking water. Eighteen months ago, our Save The Colorado River campaign visited San Diego’s water recycling facility — it’s an impressive technology that will help meet water supply demands without further taxing the Colorado River.  If San Diego can do it, can every city in the Southwest U.S. do it?  We say yes!  Our friends at the San Diego Coastkeeper have been hard at work for years helping to make this happen — you can read more about the Council Committee vote on Coastkeeper’s website here.  Please take a moment to send a quick tweet thanking Mayor Filner, such as: “Thank you @BobFilnerMayor for supporting water recycling in San Diego. It helps protect the #CORiver! bit.ly/Z71c0G”

And unfortunately the wrong thing is continuing to happen with the State of Colorado.  Two weeks ago, Jennifer Gimbel who is the Director of Colorado’s Water Conservation Board (CWCB), continued to make public comments about draining more water out of the Colorado River.  Despite Colorado John Hickenlooper’s talk about “starting every discussion about water with conservation,” Gimbel’s leadership at CWCB continues to promote more dams, diversions, and pipelines.  We are very disappointed in Gimbel and the CWCB in this regard.  To let her know, we’ve created a page on Facebook where you can click through and “like” or comment about your disappointment too.  Please click through here to read more about it and tell Gimbel to focus on conservation first, not draining more water out of the Colorado River.

As you all know, the threats to the Colorado River are significant, including human population growth, climate change, energy extraction, and several proposals for new dams and pipelines.  In a recent National Geographic blog, Jennifer Pitt begins a much-needed discussion about adaptation strategies when climate change occurs.  The good news is that some cities have water conservation efforts that prove that all cities can become more resilient in the face of climate-change induced drought.  Take a look at this blog here.

Thanks for your support!