Top Eleven Un-Reported (or under-reported) Stories about the Colorado River in 2017

2017 was a year full of stories, but at least 11 Colorado River stories received little or no news reporting. These stories deserve to get going right off the bat in 2018.

If a dam is built on a river, and no one hears it…

1. Las Vegas State Senator, Tick Segerblom, calls for a ‘Palace Revolution’ during the Ceaser’s Palace gathering of the Colorado River Water Users Association.
2. The number of proposed new dams/diversions in the Upper Basin of the Colorado River is escalating, but very few news reports are focusing on the number of dams/diversions nor their cumulative impact of over 300,000 acre feet of new water diverted every year.
3. The Walton Family Foundation, which says it has pledged $100 million to save the Colorado River, came out in support of the largest proposed new diversion, the re-engineering of Fontenelle Dam in Wyoming, which would divert up to 125,000 acre feet of new water every year out of the Green River.
4. The supposedly “historic agreement between the U.S. and Mexico” — Minute 323 — won’t release water to the Sea of Cortez. It will continue to divert 99.7% of the river’s water to farms and cities in the two countries, while allowing a minuscule 0.3% for wetlands construction near the river channel in Mexico.
5. For lack of freshwater flowing to the Sea of Cortez, fish are endangered and on the brink of extinction in the Colorado River Delta.
6. Hoover Dam and Lake Mead are estimated to produce as much greenhouse gas emissions as a coal-fired powerplant of similar electricity output.
7. Former Colorado Water Conservation Board director, James Eklund, still represents the State of Colorado on the Upper Colorado River Commission while working for a private law firm that is representing water pipeline developers. Further, as of Jan 22, 2017, he has been unresponsive to a Colorado Open Records Act request.
8. The price-tag of the Colorado Water Plan increased from $20 billion to $40 billion, but almost no one has asked a question about where the money would go.
9. The stories about “historic collaboration on the Colorado River” are not true, but they keep getting repeated.
10. The non-profit media covering Colorado River stories was increasing being funded by the Walton Family Foundation. These media outlets are publicly listed as grantees: KUNC, Aspen Journalism, Society for Environmental Journalism, Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources, High Country News. The IJNR trips also funded non-profit and for-profit reporters (18 reporters in the Upper Colorado River in 2017; the 2018 Lower Colorado River trip attendees are not posted yet), who have written about the Colorado River, to attend the trip. Other non-profit media outlets may also be funded by Walton through pass-thru money or by coalitions of multiple funders. Further, some of the stories created by Walton-funded news outlets are being pushed out by, and shared by, other for-profit and non-profit media without any disclosures or notices. (If there are more, let me know. If these are not accurate, let me know.)
11. The Walton Family Foundation has a clear agenda about using the Colorado River as a “Liquid Asset” for “Impact Investing” posted on their website and is spending millions of dollars per year promoting that agenda including hiring and funding former federal and state agency officials, funding university research/law centers, funding Denver Water, and funding many environmental groups. In 2017, a Walton-related organization, the “Windward Fund”, posted a job announcement for the “Liquid Assets Project, Project Manager”.

(This post was updated Jan. 6, 2018)

(Disclosure: I am a small donor to Aspen Journalism, and I direct the “Save The Colorado River Campaign”.)