by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow
The Daily Sentinel
An early lesson I learned as a young staffer for the late Sen. Bill Armstrong was the importance of careful consideration. He disliked being rushed into hasty decisions and developed a standard response to any demand for immediate action. “If you need an answer right now,” he would say, “the answer is no.” If there was time for more thought, homework, reading and studying all the implications, the answer could be different. He understood that rushed judgments are rarely good judgments.
Colorado River negotiators ought to keep that in mind as they are being prodded to make new interstate agreements that could supplant a century of western water law.
CNN reported a few days ago that the Biden administration is “trying to throw a Hail Mary to save the Colorado River” before President Joe Biden leaves office in two months. His appointees would love to be able to boast of finally solving the problem of administering the river during times of drought. One can certainly understand that objective; everyone wants bragging rights. But that is their agenda, not Colorado’s.
The Biden administration demanded, as it has for four years, that all seven Colorado River Basin states agree to divide the river’s water differently than the existing interstate compact requires, to “protect” the river into the future. They forget that the ultimate “protection” for Colorado and the other Upper Basin states (Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico) is rigid enforcement of the existing interstate compact, which has governed distribution since 1922.
