Amelia Flores always knows where she is in relation to the Colorado River. At her home, a half-mile from its course through western Arizona, she can hear the boats and smell the river. Feel the breeze over its waters.
In November, the Colorado River Indian Tribal Council chairwoman joined other council members in making a historic decision to protect their namesake river by giving it the same rights as a person. Tribal members knew they wanted to protect their lifeblood from escalating threats, but it took about a year to decide the right way to do it.
“It didn’t mature overnight,” Flores said. “It just evolved as the concerns started to grow.”
The Colorado River Indian Tribes, or CRIT, a federally recognized tribe located in southwestern Arizona just south of Lake Havasu, is just one of many groups trying to find a way to preserve the shrinking Colorado River. It is the water supply for 40 million people and multibillion-dollar industries, and the home of endangered fish species and sensitive environments, like the Grand Canyon.
But higher temperatures, slow management changes and persistent human demands have overstressed the roughly 250,000-square-mile river basin, which includes Colorado.
“It’s a resource that our Creator … really gave to us,” Flores said, adding that it’s up to communities to be good stewards.
For Colorado River Indian Tribes, one way to be good stewards was to unanimously approve a resolution to give the river personhood status under tribal law.
The resolution acknowledges the Colorado River as a living entity whose health and well-being are linked to the well-being of tribal members.
CRIT’s water rights are some of the most powerful in the Colorado River Basin. The tribe is also near growing communities in Arizona looking for predictable water supplies in the face of potential water cuts and a changing climate.
People have come to CRIT seeking agreements to lease the tribes’ water. Now, with the resolution, the tribal council can require them to acknowledge the river’s personhood as part of the agreement.
That would include taking action to preserve the river, Flores said, although the idea hasn’t been tested in the five months since the resolution’s passage.
Others have pulled different levers. Some have used federal laws designed to protect species within the river ecosystem to preserve free-flowing, dam-less rivers. In Colorado, community groups, from boating outfitters to farmers and conservation organizations, have teamed up on water projects, like whitewater parks, that have benefits for both industries and the environment.
Humans first connect with water in a mother’s womb, Flores said, saying the river is in their blood. She grew up on the reservation hearing her father and other leaders talk about the importance of their environment: “Take care of the water, take care of the land.”
“As stewards, that’s what we’re called to do, to protect, for our people,” Flores said. “It’s important to me and important to others is to make sure that the river is there and make sure that we can continue our rituals with the river.”
The most endangered river
In 2022, American Rivers, a conservation nonprofit, ranked the Colorado River the most “endangered” river in the nation in an annual report.
At the time, the Colorado River Basin was 20 years into a deep drought. The water level at Lake Powell, an immense reservoir on the Utah-Arizona border that stores water for millions of people, was falling at a rapid rate. The federal government made a historic call for states to cut down on their water use. River officials were concerned Powell’s water level would fall too low for turbines in Glen Canyon Dam to generate electricity for communities across the West.
Their goal? To leverage “endangered” — like CRIT used personhood — to inspire the public to take action and get the states and federal government to install more aggressive conservation measures, Sinjin Eberle, American Rivers’ senior director of regional communications, said.
“It is a great vehicle for engaging people who may not have the depth of knowledge about what’s going on in the river at any given time,” Eberle said.
American Rivers has also placed all or part of the Colorado River on its top 10 list about 12 times since 1990.
The rivers highlighted in the nonprofit’s Most Endangered Rivers report are often nominated by communities. In some cases, these local partnerships have been tied to other efforts to protect rivers, like the push to create an urban national wildlife refuge on the Santa Cruz River near Tucson, Arizona.
In 2022, the ranking raised attention and prompted media coverage, Eberle said. Policymakers and government agencies know about the report, and occasionally, work with American Rivers to take action.
“Did anything change in terms of policy on the Colorado River because of this listing, and I would argue, probably not in that specific case,” he said. “But when we do these things, it often does lead to policy solutions that are really effective.”
In 2015, the nonprofit listed the river mainly because of a controversial project to build a tram over the Grand Canyon. The resulting public input helped sway Navajo Nation policymaking and the project was ultimately canceled, Eberle said.
The Colorado River won’t be on American Rivers’ list this year, Eberle said. To qualify, there needs to be a key decision point that the public can take action on within 12 months after the report comes out.
The public’s opportunity to comment on the next key decision point, water cuts and management starting in October, ended March 2. American Rivers plans to release its next endangered rivers report April 14, he said.
In 2022, federal and state officials were trying to reach an agreement over near-term water cuts and reservoir management before 2026, so the timing worked, Eberle said.
“It’s a suite of tools”
Debates over the future of the shrinking, overstressed Colorado River has Colorado Sun readers weighing in with ideas for how to protect it.
“Could the Colorado River be declared an ‘endangered species’ (or some other critical wilderness designation) to immediately and automatically protect it from further abuse and overuse, and to help keep it from going ‘extinct’?” one reader asked in response to a call for reader questions about the river basin.
The short answer is no. Rivers cannot be classified as an endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act because the law specifically applies to plants, animals and microorganisms, not ecosystems, habitats or geographical features, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, one of the leading federal agencies responsible for implementing the act.
But communities across the Colorado River Basin have used other designations and legal levers to protect sections of the river and its tributaries.
In Colorado, some communities, like Nederland and Ridgway, passed “rights of nature” resolutions to protect local rivers. (Nederland later repealed its resolution in favor of a new dam.) Others have been able to maintain certain water levels in rivers — which can help create healthier environments for fish and other aquatic species — by working with recreation groups, like rafting and fishing outfitters, that want consistent, good flows for their businesses.
The Colorado River passes through Shoshone Power Plant, April 9, 2024, near Glenwood Springs. The power plant is at the center of a landmark water rights deal in Colorado. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)The Western Slope’s historic effort to buy powerful Colorado River water rights tied to the Shoshone Power Plant aims to provide both benefits for the environment and endangered fish species, and secure water supplies for cities, farms and industries across the state.
In some cases, communities have sought designations under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, which preserves free-flowing rivers and streams, or Outstanding National Resource Waters, which focuses on improving water quality.
Colorado has more than 80 stream segments and waterways with an outstanding waters designation, covering 7,600 miles of waterways, according to the Colorado River District, based in Glenwood Springs.
American Rivers tracks rivers and protection efforts across the country, finding that roughly 80% of the nation’s 4.4 million miles of rivers are inadequately protected and two-thirds are currently completely unprotected.
“There’s not one tool. It’s a suite of tools. They are time-consuming, and they require stakeholder engagement,” said Page Buono, a spokesperson for American Rivers. “Is there a silver bullet designation that can protect the Colorado River where it’s at right now? I think that is not the case.”
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