Managing the Colorado River ... 100 Years Later

Published January 12, 2023 at 3:49 PM MST

Glen Canyon Dam and Bridge, Page, Arizona

When state and federal negotiators met in 1922 to divide up the water in the Colorado River, they did so with a mistaken understanding of how much water there actually was in the river. It’s a mistake we’ve been dealing with ever since.

Those negotiators built the Colorado River Compact on the back of bad science. Because of that, Colorado River specialist Eric Kuhn tells us, it’s taken piecemeal tweaks and workarounds to make the Compact work for the past hundred years. Kuhn argues that, in the face of climate change, continuing on the compact’s present course would be a recipe for disaster. He joins us to explain the need for a new scientific foundation for the management of the Colorado River.

GUESTS:

Eric Kuhn is the retired General Manager of the Colorado River District and the co- author of “Science Be Damned: How Ignoring Inconvenient Science Drained the Colorado River” | Amazon |Bookshop | @R_EricKuhn
John Fleck is an author, journalist and writer in residence at University of New Mexico School of Law and the co- author of “Science Be Damned: How Ignoring Inconvenient Science Drained the Colorado River” You can read his work at inkstain. @jfleck

Airdate: Friday, Jan 13, 2023 at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.