Is the Colorado Water Plan a "River Destroyer's Manifesto?"

Hello Friends of the Colorado River!

The State of Colorado is creating a "Colorado Water Plan" -- is it a "River Destroyer's Manifesto?" As we've discussed on this blog many times, several states in the Southwest U.S. are busy creating "water plans" and all of them are looking grim.  Last week, we got a look at the plan for the Denver Metro area and northern Colorado.  And it is GRIM. Because over 50% of the flow in the Colorado River originates in the state of Colorado, what happens in Colorado impacts the river and water suppliers from the Grand Canyon to Phoenix to Los Angeles. Take a look at this story in the Boulder Weekly that just came out. The draft plan in the Denver area reads like a river destroyer's manifesto -- they propose to further dam, drain, and divert every river in the state including the Colorado River and point that water to the sprawling Denver megalopolis along the Front Range mountains of Colorado. Recall, you sent Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper over 1,000 emails asking him to protect the Colorado River in this plan -- we still don't know what the Governor's going to do. Stay tuned for all the action. This is likely going to be a brutal fight to keep Colorado's rivers alive and we will need your voice!

Now for some better news! Those cool kids at the Redford Center and the Sonoran Institute have came out with a great new video about their future plans to keep restoring the Colorado River Delta in Mexico! Narrated by Robert Redford, this new video discusses the "pulse flow" earlier this year and offers really amazing new images we hadn't seen before.

The pulse brought the desert back to life -- not just the plants, animals, and river in the desert, but the people along the river too.  This video has some great footage of children and families playing in the river for the first time in their lives. In addition, the video talks about the next step in the process, that of getting a long-term solution of an ongoing flow in the Colorado River Delta.  Take a look at this video and click through to Raise the River to learn more.

July 25th was Colorado River Day! That's right, for the third year in a row, Save The Colorado helped celebrate and support Colorado River Day, which is the day in 1921 that the U.S. Congress named it the Colorado River. Events occurred in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. Elected officials, youth groups, and business leaders were involved. See more here on the Colorado River Day website.

Save The Colorado had the great pleasure of working with New Belgium Brewing (makers of Fat Tire and Skinny Dip Beer) on Colorado River Day. One of our amazing volunteers came up with the idea for "Coast Cards" which were given out to visitors at the bar in the brewery in Fort Collins.  The Coast Cards were a letter to Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper asking him to focus on conservation, to stop new dams, and to restore rivers in the Colorado Water Plan process. Here's a pic of one of the coasters in the brewery. Click here to take a look at our Colorado River Day blog, and see our volunteer, Ellie Barber, delivering these Coast Cards to the Governor's office.

Stay tuned for more action and information on how you can help protect and restore the Colorado River!

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