Friday, November 14, 2008

Colorado Water Trust: Benefit screening of Drift From email from the Colorado Water Trust: Summit County Chapter of Trout Unlimited Presents: Drift: A confluence films production When: Tuesday, November 18th, doors open at 6pm, film starts at 7pm Where: Silverthorne Pavilion, Silverthorne, Colorado, next door to Cutthroat Anglers How much: $10 gets you choice seating for the hottest, new fly fishing film, a cold brew, and other cool schwag! First 75 attendees receive a Fishpond Piopod. Why you should attend: Proceeds go to the Colorado Water Trust Tom Bie, editor of The Drake Magazine, CWT Board member, and writer and narrator of the film will be there Help kick off the newly re-established local TU chapter See great fly fishing footage from your favorite Colorado rivers and beyond Bring Your Friends -- Drink A Beer -- Support our Rivers! Category: Colorado Water 7:18:53 AM     Beautiful snow There is a beautiful snowstorm going on outside of Gulch Manor this morning. Nice upslope winds. We hope that the storm dumps hard on the mountains. Dump baby dump! 7:11:59 AM     Pat Mulroy: Key to the region's water future can't be found in any renegotiation of the compact This is a surprise for us. Pat Mulroy -- Southern Nevada Water Authority General Manager -- is not interested in renegotiating the Colorado River Compact, according to Phoebe Sweet writing for the Las Vegas Sun. We thought that Arizona and Nevada would favor a renegotiation. What would they have to lose? From the article: At an Oct. 28 Brookings Institution event, Mulroy said she is going to make the case "whenever and wherever I can" that the key to the region's water future can't be found in any renegotiation of the compact. The reason: Nevada is unlikely to benefit from any attempt to change it, according to Mulroy and Kay Brothers, the water authority's deputy general manager. "I don't think we'd get any more water. In fact, I think we would lose water," said Brothers, explaining that the law was written during a particularly wet period and that climate change has further sapped an over-allocated river. "When they allocated, they gave away 15 million acre-feet (a year). We know the flows are much less than that." With climate change affecting the snow pack that melts into the river, its flows in coming years are expected to decrease. So, given that it is a shrinking water supply, Southern Nevada would have to fight just to keep its share of the river. And here's the clincher: All seven states would have to agree on the new allocations. Although population growth in Southern Nevada over the past 100 years is a compelling argument for more water, states such as Utah, Colorado and California that have experienced and continue to experience their own population growth aren't likely to give up water they might need one day, or in some cases already do. So, if the compact were to be renegotiated, no state is likely to gain water. "States would actually lose water ... or at the best stay the same," Brothers said. In fact, Sierra Club Southwest Regional Representative Rob Smith said that's the reason the compact should be reopened -- to carve into every state's allocation to leave more water in the river for wildlife. "The big question is not 'Who gets what?' but whether there is even enough to go around," Smith said. Smith, like Brothers, said all the states should fear that they would end up with less water. Brothers said the water authority's good working relationships with the other Colorado River Basin states, which have not always been so friendly, are more likely to bear fruit than a contentious renegotiation effort. For two decades, the authority has drawn the same amount of water from the lake as it puts in from its wastewater treatment plant in addition to the 300,000 acre-foot allotment. More recently the agency has negotiated plans to draw water from the Virgin and Muddy rivers through Lake Mead, to store water it doesn't use in reservoirs in California and Arizona and to use water it saves by lining canals or fallowing fields... But perhaps the most compelling reason to give up on rewriting the agreement is a more philosophical one: It's time for Southern Nevada to let go of its anger and come to terms with the reality of 300,000 acre-feet. More Coyote Gulch coverage here. Category: Colorado Water 6:58:08 AM

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