Sierra Club Water Sentinels Colorado River Sub-Team Vision and Actions/Mission Statement

On The Future of the Colorado River 

1. We envision a Colorado River whose operation and ecosystem functions support and maintain a healthy environment for migratory birds, endangered species, fish, wildlife, riparian ecosystems, adjacent wetlands, and active fluvial geomorphology. 

    

2. We envision a Colorado River that will continue to provide water for agriculture and urban users in a fair, equitable and realistic manner.  

3. We envision a Colorado River where Tribal Water Rights are acknowledged and tribes function as equal partners in determining the operations of the River. 

4. We envision a Colorado River that provides recreation and human experiences of the Colorado River and its natural environment while minimizing environmental impact. 

5. We envision a new paradigm for Colorado River management.

Actions to achieve the Vision:

• Develop river management policies and practices that are not solely focused on plumbing, hydrologic forecasts, and delivery projections but that also include flow needs for ecosystems, wildlife and recreation.

• Incorporate indigenous knowledge, wisdom and beliefs within the larger management practices and policies of the Colorado River.

• Provide flows that adequately maintain a new and reemerging Colorado River delta.

• Ensure sufficient agricultural runoff or other supplemental water to support the Salton Sea at a level sufficient to sustain it as one of the most important migratory stopovers on the Pacific Flyway. 

• Provide an equal voice and full voting Tribal representation at any negotiations for post-2026 management plans.

• Provide protections for paleontological, archeological and deeply rooted sacred tribal sites that emerge from shrinking reservoirs.

• Protect and promote recreational experiences as that are enabled by appropriately maintained reservoir depths and operations. (lower Cataract Canyon, lower Grand Canyon)

• Develop river management policies and practices that are not solely focused on plumbing, hydrologic forecasts, and delivery projections but that also include flow needs for tribes, ecosystems, wildlife and recreation.

• Re-evaluate, re-engineer and eliminate inefficient and/or unnecessary diversions of water 

• Decommission and/or re-engineer dams so that the river flows can move past these structures even below “dead pool”.

Reasons behind the Vision and Actions:

• Operation of the Colorado River system should include and maintain both effective minimum and seasonal flows to support functioning, healthy, riverine ecosystems and wildlife that have evolved over millennia in the Colorado River watershed. 
• The vast irrigated farm and range lands dependent on Colorado River are significant both for the regional economy and for the national food supply. Currently some 80% of the Colorado River flow is diverted for the purpose of growing crops. There must be significant improvement in agricultural practices, how water is used and crops raised, and/or a significant reduction in land devoted to agriculture.  The available water should determine the extent of agricultural land.
• The numerous Native American tribes within the Colorado River basin have long been ignored and abused in regard to their legitimate water rights and needs. This situation must be rectified. While the tribal needs for domestic and agricultural water uses are the same as Anglo-American needs, Tribal beliefs and customs often are not. Native Americans hold water, along with the land and rivers as sacred. They are relatives. This must also be respected and incorporated into the operations of the River. 
• Climate Change and increasing aridification, as well as Tribal and environmental needs have long been ignored by past management practices; these considerations require that the existing operational paradigm change. Traditional legal structures and engineering practices no longer suffice for future management of the Colorado River system. We all must now adapt and learn to live with what nature provides. That means adapting operations to a situation that is vastly different from the hydrology and political ideologies of 1922 and subsequent compacts and adjustments based on 20^th century norms. 

This document states our vision for the future of the Colorado River, as a river with its own needs and as a human resource in the post 2026 world. It reflects the philosophy of the Sierra Club (SC) and its Colorado River Task Force (CRTF) regarding the policies, management, and realities of the Colorado River Basin watershed. We understand the river’s past, its ecologic, legal and management history, and recognize that with climate change and increasing aridity, inefficient and unnecessary diversions will continue to degrade this much damaged ecosystem. We acknowledge the realities of the challenging management options that face the river today and its future. New values, Tribal Rights and evolving concepts of beneficial uses have added to the demands on the river’s flow even as flows are decreasing and diversions increasing. Nearly everyone understands that continuing with the status quo is unacceptable.