The end of the Reclamation Era?

 An opinion piece in today's Arizona Republic by water lawyers Robert Glennon and Peter Culp says that the just-released Colorado River Water Demand and Supply Study signifies the end of "the Reclamation Era", or at least the end of reclamation as we have known it over the past 100 years. Noting that

"the once-radical idea that the American West cannot continue on its present course -- is coming not from environmentalists and academics, but from the West's professional water managers", 

the authors point out that Reclamation is no longer proposing business-as-usual approaches to water imbalances. Instead of focusing on building dams to divert water, most of the options outlined in the report involve water conservation and reuse - what are referred to as ""soft-path" - strategies. Furthermore, the Bureau's analysis indicates these are by far the most cost-effective approaches to bridging the supply gap.

Bottom line for Arizona: Arizona will need creative people and an open-minded approach if we will successfully meet our future water demands. This optimistic view suggests that Reclamation can be a meaningful and valuable partner in that quest.

This is the second opinion piece put out by Glennon and Culp in the past few months. See previous post.


Image is of Floyd Dominy, Commissioner of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation from 1959-1969, at Hoover Dam (Wall Street Journal)