Carson City, NV –– The Great Basin Water Network released the following statement on the release of the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Near-Term Operations of the Colorado River.
“Any way you look at it, it would be hard to deny that litigation is coming. However, it is important to underscore that the Upper Basin water managers get to have their cake and eat it too under Alternatives 1 and 2. Nothing in the Draft SEIS impacts Upper Basin consumptive uses –– nor do the Alternatives negate the Upper Basin’s desires to develop considerable quantities of water in the coming years and keep Glen Canyon Dam running like it is 1990. The Upper Basin states are clinging to their paper water rights and memories of past management mindsets. But the water doesn’t exist. All the while, if conditions continue to diminish, the Lower Basin will solely feel the pain to the detriment of ecosystems and communities. We need to erase the structural deficit and modernize Lower Basin accounting moving forward, but the Upper Basin needs to make meaningful contributions to help balance the Colorado River System.”
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