April 5, 2005: Never Satisfied
By Ahchie
Some
environmentalist groups are just never satisfied. The latest example is the
Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program. The 50-year
plan has been enacted in an effort to integrate species protection with
water and power needs. The plan has been in the works since 1994 and has been
cited as “the largest, the longest-term and the most innovative partnership
plan for habitat restoration on a river system in the United States.”
But, since it is supported by the Bush administration and because the plan
would actually benefit people, environmentalist groups (i.e. Pacific Institute,
Southwest Center, Defenders of Wildlife) are against the plan.
When will they ever be satisfied? Aren’t the environmentalists happy that the humpback chub fish will have a nice place to live for the next 50 years? Aren’t they the only people who really care about the razorback sucker and the southwestern willow flycatcher?
Environmentalists seem to have two main criteria to alert them to oppose something. The first is if a conservative republican like George W. Bush supports it and second is if the plan has a benefit for the human species. If these warning signs are triggered, they will cite anything they can to find an excuse to rail against it, going so far as to say they would rather do nothing than let the plan proceed.
The Colorado River plan violates both criteria. The excuse they are using to go against the plan is that they say it does not go far enough and should include Mexico. It is highly likely, however, that if the Bush administration were opposed to this same plan, the environmentalists would be all over it saying how great a plan it is and what a bad man GW is.
Included in the partnership that participated in developing the program is the Cocopah Indian Tribe, as well as other tribes, including the Hualapai, Quechan, and Chemehuevi tribes. If the Indians, who are always concerned about preserving their home land and have supposedly been frequent victims of the United States government, don’t have a problem with the plan, then perhaps neither should the environmentalists.
In
a side note, it has been discovered by a recent government study that 96%
of environmentalists object to efforts to reduce the problem of nocturnal
enuresis. In fact, many respondents were reported to have asked how they could
get involved in the campaign to preserve any and all nocturnal enuresis, as
they felt that any problems with nocturnal enuresis was due to a lack of habitat
caused by the government’s gross negligence of the environment. Apparently
they thought that “nocturnal enuresis” referred to the brown-throated
three-toed sloth (Bradypus variegatus) rather than the medical term for bedwetting.
When confronted with the fact that their responses opposed the reduction of
bedwetting, most respondents got angry and stormed off.
April 5, 2005: Officials Enact Colorado
River Plan
By Ken Ritter, Associated Press Writer
HOOVER DAM, Nev. - Water officials from California, Arizona and Nevada joined the federal government Monday in enacting a 50-year plan to protect the lower Colorado River and ensure states are able to get enough water and power from it.
The $626 million agreement will benefit "the many important species, including humans, that rely on the Colorado River," said John Keys, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, during a ceremony at the base of the massive Hoover Dam.
The program, called the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program, aims to protect threatened and endangered species along 400 miles of river from Lake Mead to the U.S.-Mexico border, while ensuring an uninterrupted supply of water and power.
The agreement calls for restoring 8,132 acres of riverside, marsh and backwater habitat for at least 26 species native to the river, including six federally protected species: the razorback sucker, bonytail and humpback chub fish; the Yuma clapper rail and southwestern willow flycatcher birds; and the desert tortoise.
"Today's agreement represents the largest, the longest-term and the most innovative partnership plan for habitat restoration on a river system in the United States," said Craig Manson, assistant Interior secretary for fish, wildlife and parks.
Though touted as an example of "cooperative conservation" supported by the Bush administration, the pact was derided by environmental groups, some of which dropped out of the decade-long negotiations.
"It's cooperation between the water users, power producers and federal government to provide legal and political protection from litigation," said Michael Cohen, of the Oakland, Calif.-based Pacific Institute.
Cohen said his group pulled out because environmentalists were outvoted and participating groups had no goal to improve habitat in the fragile Colorado River delta in Mexico's Gulf of California.
"This plan is worse than doing nothing because it effectively closes the door on meaningful lower Colorado River restoration for 50 years," Cohen said.
March 18, 2005:
MULTI-SPECIES CONSERVATION PROGRAM: Authority agrees to protect habitat, Agreement
provides protection for species that live along Colorado River and future
water transfers
By Henry Brean, Las Vegas Review-Journal
The Southern Nevada Water Authority board has signed on to a multistate agreement designed to protect habitat between Lake Mead and the U.S.-Mexico border while ensuring continued use of the river for water and power generation.
The Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program provides protections for at least 26 sensitive plants and animals. At the same time, it allows future water transfers of up to 1.57 million acre-feet among the lower Colorado River Basin states of Nevada, Arizona and California.
The program is expected to cost more than $626 million over its 50-year life span. The federal government will cover half the cost. The other half will be shared by the states, with California supplying 50 percent of the money and Nevada and Arizona each providing 25 percent.
Starting with a $1.4 million payment this year, the water authority will be responsible for almost $54.8 million of Nevada's $78.3 million share over the next 50 years. The remaining $23.5 million will come from the state's Colorado River Commission, Henderson's Black Mountain Industrial Center and the other Colorado River users.
Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy said Nevada's participation will release the authority from having to conduct expensive and time-consuming environmental studies for every new infrastructure project at Lake Mead.
"Most immediately," Mulroy said the agreement "clears the way" for the construction of a third intake to pull Colorado River water from deeper in the lake.
Zane Marshall, senior biologist for the water authority, said the conservation program was 11 years in the making and "represents a new era of cooperation on the Colorado River with approximately 30 stakeholders involved in its development."
With the involvement of so many participants, Mulroy said the process "has been painful," especially when it came to divvying up the costs.
Thursday's vote by the water authority board granted Mulroy the authority to sign the agreement.
Final approval will come April 4, when Interior Secretary Gale Norton adds her signature to the document during a ceremony on the banks of Colorado River, downstream from Hoover Dam.
In a separate vote Thursday, the board authorized water authority officials to pursue the purchase of land along the Colorado for use as riparian habitat. The authority would be able to subtract the cost of such a purchase from its share of the conservation program.
Mulroy said the land in question is in the Laughlin area, but no total acreage or specific parcels have been identified.
Any land acquisition will require board approval.
There are about 326,000 gallons in an acre-foot. The average Las Vegas Valley household uses about 70 percent of an acre-foot of water each year. Nevada's annual share of the Colorado River is 300,000 acre-feet, which accounts for about 90 percent of the valley's drinking water supply.
September 14, 2004:
Remarks Prepared for Delivery - Multi-Species Conservation Program
By The Honorable Gale Norton, Secretary of the Interior
While water has always been wanting in the arid West, it has become even
more scarce in recent years. According to researchers, the Colorado River
Basin is in the midst of perhaps the worst drought in 500 years.
That we are not at a crisis point in the Colorado River Basin is thanks to
the prudent measures that states continue to take and to the foresight of
our forefathers who saw that water scarcities would be a constant source of
consternation and conflict. To assure steady supplies of water, they built
great dams and filled vast reservoirs.
To meet future needs we will need lots of tools in our tool-kits. We believe that partnerships and cooperative agreements are the best bulwark against water crises and the best assurance of reliable water flows.
The Water 2025 program embodies this administration's proactive, protective approach.
Clarifying rights and responsibilities is important: We have formed a number of cooperative agreements on water use, such as the Colorado River Water Delivery Agreement, which we celebrated last fall at Hoover Dam. It resolved issues outstanding for 75 years and respects the rights of the seven basin states.
We are working with states regarding arrangements if the drought persists. We have entered into several Indian water rights settlements, and are cooperating in several ongoing negotiations.
We are facing several problems. The well-intended strictures of the Endangered Species Act can have unfortunate consequences, as has been seen on the Klamath Basin and the Missouri River.
In 2001, irrigation water was cut off in the Klamath Basin to protect endangered fish. We have taken many actions to avoid repeating that experience, including installing fish screens, expanding wetlands, improving irrigation efficiency and continuing scientific study of the area.
On the Missouri River, a fifteen year battle has raged regarding the endangered pallid sturgeon. Farmers want more water flow for the travel of barges carrying fertilizer and crops. Fish need low flows for hatching. Earlier this year, engineers and biologists of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the construction of more than 1,200 acres of shallow water habitat for the endangered fish.
It is important that we continue to perform long-term projects and look for creative solutions. The questions we face are complex. For instance, we need a great deal of research to determine what role hatcheries should play on the Colorado River: They are helpful for some, but not for others.
Meanwhile, almost all of the breeding habitats of the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher are close to water. When reservoirs are low, willows grow down closer to the water. As a consequence, its management moves from crisis to crisis as the reservoirs rise and fall.
Eradication of the invasive tamarisk (salt cedar) will continue to demand creative thinking and developing partnerships. Today's important step in furthering multi-species conservation plan prepares us to deal with issues like them.
This administration has always believed that partnerships have profound power. Today is proof that partnerships have the power to protect and preserve.
We have gathered to reinforce a long-lasting agreement that will assure the flow of Colorado River water to those whose lives and livelihoods depend on it, from Lake Mead to the border of Mexico.
Through today's signing of this memorandum of agreement, Arizona, California and Nevada are reconfirming the partnership with my department in the Lower Colorado Multi-Species Conservation Program.
The Program is a coordinated, comprehensive approach to conservation that exemplifies this administration's ethos of conservation through cooperation.
The Program is of unprecedented scope - 50 years - and is designed to protect currently endangered species and those that are at risk. It will bring more than $310 million in non-federal funds to assist in habitat enhancement along the lower Colorado River. Another $310 million is expected in federal funds. Over 8,100 acres will be restored, enhanced and protected.
Conservation on this scale has required many partners and many participants. The signatures by the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, the Southern Nevada Water Authority and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California represent only a portion of the many water users involved.
The program has been in formal development since 1997, when the Bureau of Reclamation and the Fish and Wildlife Service came together with the three lower basin states and other concerned parties. Several tribes have gotten involved, and so has the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The program also includes those who rely on power generated by the Colorado River.
It is appropriate that we work together to address the needs of endangered species and protect the southwest's access to the Colorado. This administration is convinced that environmental protection can, and should be a partner with economic growth.
Phoenix is a case in point. Last year, more than 41,000 jobs were created in Phoenix, an average of almost 800 every week. Phoenix's job growth rate was more than double the national average, making it the hottest market in the country.
The President and I are convinced that the best conservation decisions are often made by state and local authorities, with the federal government playing a supporting role. We believe that there not always need be a conflict between economic need and environmental protection, that cooperation can be the rule, not coercion.
It is not always easy to see the potential for cooperation. A decade ago, circumstances seemed to dictate that there would be a conflict between the need to preserve the threatened wildlife on the Colorado River and the need to supply state populations with water and power.
In 1994, much of the Colorado River was designated as critical habitat for four fish species. Now, in the lower Colorado River corridor there are seven species listed under the Endangered Species Act, including birds and tortoise.
At the same time and in the same area, human populations have exploded. Between 1990 and 2000, Arizona and Nevada experienced the highest percentage population growth in the nation.
People need that water. So does the wildlife. Constant confrontation and
conflict seemed the most likely outcome of the water scarcity coupled with
the well intended strictures of the Endangered Species Act.
Some believed that enforcement of the act would have required a drastic reduction
of water deliveries and taken away the livelihoods of many who depend on the
water.
The partnership strengthened today has changed that tortured course. As a consequence, instead of being faced with the potential for years of conflict, we can now foresee fifty years of cooperation.
This proactive planning and conflict resolution is a great break with the past. It's essential that we continue on this new course.
Today's agreement is a shining example. Never before have we undertaken a program of this scope. The partnerships reinforced today will protect endangered species and help ensure the continued orderly management of the Colorado River for the next half century.
Fifty years from now, the communities that depend on the Colorado River will still be thriving; the power that it produces will still be flowing. The states will have a certainty of water supplies; the at-risk species will still have a certainty of protection.
Completing analysis and development of the Multi-Species Conservation Program is one of the major environmental priorities of the Administration. It anticipates - and averts - potential crises, and enables cooperation along the Colorado for a long time to come.
Ultimately, the agreement proves that partnerships have the power to change the course of conflict; to preserve the lives of species and the livelihoods of people.
Thank you.
Reference: Program Participants
From www.lcrmscp.org
The program involves a broad-based state/federal/tribal/private regional partnership, which includes water, hydroelectric power and wildlife management agencies in Arizona, California and Nevada. The participants include:
Federal:
U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Bureau of Reclamation
National Park Service
Bureau of Land Management
Bureau of Indian Affairs
U.S. Department of Energy
Western Area Power Administration
Arizona:
Arizona Department of Water Resources
Arizona Game and Fish Department
Arizona Power Authority
Central Arizona Water Conservation District
Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation and Drainage District
City of Yuma, Arizona
California:
Colorado River Board of California
California Department of Fish and Game
Coachella Valley Water District
Imperial Irrigation District
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Palo Verde Irrigation District
San Diego County Water Authority
Southern California Public Power Authority
Southern California Edison
City of Needles, California
Nevada:
Colorado River Commission of Nevada
Nevada Department of Wildlife
Nevada Power Company
Overton Power District #5
Silver State Power
Southern Nevada Water Authority
Valley Electric Association
Tribes:
Lower Colorado River Tribal Coalition
Colorado River Indian Tribes
Hualapai Indian Tribe
Cocopah Indian Tribe
Quechan Indian Tribe
Chemehuevi Indian Tribe
Fort Mohave Indian Tribe
Other Public Interests:
Trout Unlimited/B.A.S.S.
Quadstate County Government Coalition (Imperial County, CA; San Bernardino
County, CA;
Lincoln County, NV; Mohave County, AZ)
National Wildlife Federation