Save The World's Rivers

The Colorado River conference at CU-Boulder is usually a place where the water buffaloes get together and scheme about how they will continue to drain the river across the Southwest U.S. There've been a few changes in the past couple of years, including today's presentation about "Rights of Nature for the Colorado River" from John Bezdek, Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) Attorney.

We never thought we'd see this discussion at this conference!

"All of the recipes for ecological recovery are here. We just have to get out of the way." -- Eric Balken

‘A living, breathing thing’: As Lake Powell drops, Glen Canyon’s once lush ecosystem returns As Lake Powell recedes, the once-drowned Glen Canyon is surfacing and thriving ecosystems are emerging.

"A newly-registered European Citizens' Initiative petition calls on the European Union to come up with legislation that would let polluted rivers or deforested woodlands “take” their polluters to court, giving natural bodies legal rights akin to those of a company."

www.politico.eu

Remove the dams, damnit!

Why is this Trump official dead set on saving a failing California dam? Brooke Rollins’s latest culture war crusade threatens a delicate compromise between Potter Valley farmers and nearby tribes.

What's our opinion of Glen Canyon Dam?

It's a classic case of Infrastructure Sunk Costs Fallacy which occurs when governments continue funding and supporting massive public works or IT projects that are over budget and/or failing, simply because of the massive capital already invested. The logical error is letting unrecoverable past costs dictate future decisions, rather than evaluating future benefits versus future costs.

Why It Happens in Infrastructure:

1. Psychological Attachment: "Waste not, want not" drives the human urge to justify past decisions and avoid the embarrassment of abandoning a project.

2. Political Pressure: Elected officials often fear that admitting a multi-billion-dollar project is a failure will ruin their careers, leading them to "throw good money after bad".

2. Loss Aversion: The emotional pain of taking a definitive loss feels worse than the slow, incremental bleeding of additional funds.

Real-World Examples:

1. High-Speed Rail: Many state and national rail systems continue pouring billions of dollars into delayed, massively over-budget lines because initial phases are complete.

2. The Concorde: The UK and France continued to fund the supersonic Concorde aircraft long after it was glaringly clear it would never achieve economic profitability, solely due to prior investments.

3. Megaprojects (e.g., Tunnels & Bridges): Governments frequently tunnel halfway through a mountain or build massive incomplete highway bypasses, operating on the logic that "we are already halfway there" despite shifting economic viability.

How to Overcome It:

Rational decision-making requires ignoring all unrecoverable (sunk) costs and asking a simple, forward-looking question: "If I were starting this project today, knowing what I know now, would I still make this investment?"

By evaluating only the expected future costs (including environmental costs) against future benefits (including environmental benefits), project leaders can identify when it is actually more financially and environmentally responsible to kill a dead project rather than continue subsidizing it.

True?

Right?

Read: https://www.kunc.org/news/2026-05-31/uranium-problem-could-keep-colorados-newest-reservoir-in-limbo-for-months-after-initial-fill

“Rivers need water, and when you divert water out of rivers, you're causing ecological damage, in this case, in Grand County, severe ecological damage, and in a drought scenario, extreme drought like this one, it just gets worse and worse.” -- Gary Wockner, Save The Colorado

Uranium problem could keep Colorado's newest reservoir in limbo for months after initial fill Chimney Hollow will eventually pull water from the Colorado River near its headwaters in Grand County to serve a dozen fast growing cities on the Front Range from Broomfield to Greeley.

"If Colorado River flows don’t increase substantially in the next year or two, the Bureau of Reclamation will have little choice but to build tunnels to bypass Glen Canyon Dam and effectively drain the reservoir in order to keep water running into the Grand Canyon and on to Lake Mead."

Climate change comes for a Lake Powell marina Will Bullfrog survive the shrinking Colorado River?

“Given the extreme drought and political chaos on the Colorado River, we believe district court Judge Arguello’s ruling is now more important than ever. She cited how the new depletion would further drain the river and how climate change was intensifying and reducing flows. The Gross Dam project was ill-conceived from the get-go, and we believe we have a very strong case in the court of appeals.” -- Gary Wockner, Save The Colorado

Gross Dam injunction heads back to court after talks stall With negotiations failed so far, the dispute over an injunction against filling Denver Water's Gross Reservoir is headed to appeals court in July.