Government officials must aggressively address cutting Colorado River water use or risk creating near-term shortages, advocacy groups warned in a report released Wednesday.
The analysis prepared by the coalition led by the Great Basin Water Network, Living Rivers-Colorado Riverkeeper, the Utah Rivers Council and the Glen Canyon Institute also criticizes a lack of transparency and public input in recent months.
“We have seven very well-intentioned parties getting together in a back room and under the cloak of darkness discussing whatever they’re discussing,” said Zach Frankel, executive director of the Utah Rivers Council. “What’s being left out are all of the constituents who are suffering now and standing to suffer from the failed policies.”
River flows are divided among seven states — Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming in the Upper Basin and Arizona, California and Nevada in the Lower Basin — under a 1922 compact.
