Confluence April 2011 - Thinking Like A River Basin

Greetings!

Here’s some of what we’ve been hearing lately from Carpe Diem West’s network members from across the spectrum in the Colorado Basin:

“It’s not politically feasible to change the Law of the River, and renegotiating the Compact won’t create any new water, but we can bend the hell out of it.”

“We are beginning to see the limits of the resource. We’ve been operating with surpluses, but that’s coming to an end, perhaps accelerated by climate change.”

“This crisis could be the catalyst that forces the states to move beyond their internal interests to compromise and do the right thing for the good of the basin.”

But while Basin leaders say many of the same things in private, there is little sign of any public conversation about how we get to long-term, basin-wide solutions. To help figure out how this conversation might get started, we decided to "take the pulse" of prominent Basin leaders about the river’s challenges and what the possible universe of solutions might look like.

The results are the subject of the new report Carpe Diem West released today, Thinking Like a River Basin: Leaders’ Perspectives on Options and Opportunities in Colorado River Management. The report, prepared by the University of Montana’s Center for Natural Resources and Public Policy, is based on a series of confidential interviews with prominent members of the Colorado Basin community.

As one would expect, the views of this diverse group show nothing resembling consensus. But the report’s authors did find some intriguing trends - trends that bode well for the possibility of a basin-wide conversation:

First, there is near unanimity that the river is at or near its capacity to meet current demand. While not everyone attributes it to climate change, there is a widespread belief that drought is the new normal.

Second, there is a strong culture of avoiding litigation as a means of solving water conflicts. Leaders on all sides stated a preference for collaborative processes such as the negotiations that led to the 2007 Colorado River Accord.

Third, a surprising range of leaders saw value in opening decision making processes to a wider range of stakeholders - either within or alongside existing processes. Even some leaders who had reservations about doing this acknowledged that pressure is mounting to “set a larger table”.

So what are the next steps for Carpe Diem West? Our job is to listen and work collaboratively towards solutions, so we need to hear from you. Working with our Colorado Basin leadership network, we’ll be exploring options that allow smart, pragmatic decision makers to think - and act - like a river basin.

Regards,
Kimery

Kimery Wiltshire
Director
Carpe Diem West