The Colorado River In Colorado

Ohioans that petitioned to Congress about the monopolizing of acreage by private companies on the frontier after the War of Independence, the farmers also asked for “vacant lands”

One of the largest geographic physical structures in the United States is the Colorado River. Human activity and its interaction with this great river have an interesting history. The resources provided by the river have been used by humans, and caused conflict for human populations as well. One of these conflicts is water distribution, and the effects drought conditions have played in this distribution throughout the southwestern region. Major cities such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, and other communities in the southwest depend on the river. It provides water for over 20 million people, irrigation for 2 million acres of land, four thousand megawatts of hydroelectric energy, and over twenty million annual visitors for

The Colorado River Basin starts in the Rocky Mountains and cuts through 1500 miles of canyon lands and deserts of seven US states and two Mexican states to supply a collection of dams and reservoirs with water to help irrigate cropland, support 40 million people, and provide hydroelectric power for the inland western United States [1,2]. From early settlement, rights over the river have been debated and reassigned to different states in the upper and lower basin; however, all the distribution patterns lead to excessive consumption of the resource. In 1922, the seven US states signed into the Colorado River Compact, which outlined the policy for the distribution rights to the water [3], however, this compact was written during an exceptionally

If the east side farmers have it there way they will continue to be able to produce crops and farming on the east-side will still be a possibility. The Friant Dam has been irrigating the east side of the valley since 1944. Over 95% of all water collected at Millerton is used to help agriculture. It waters one million acres of farmland and because of it in the last 40 years the farming on the east side has taken over Southern California as the states leader in citrus farming, the value of this is 2.1 billion and it continues to grow. Although the farmers would prosper the environment would still suffer and the salmon run of yester year would still be an impossibility. The east side farmers argue that if there water was taken away only about a quarter of the east side could be farmed without Millerton. Without Millerton's water the farmers would have had to continue to pump their water from underground aquifers and if that had happened those aquifers would have gone dry 60 years ago.

The controversy over water rights has been a long battle that the Navajo Nation has endured for decades. This controversy which is complicated by numerous issues has only been increasing in recent years. For example the Navajo Hopi Little Colorado Water Settlement that has been in litigation for 33 years. Of particular note Navajo people and their elected officials are struggling to balance expectations with reality including legally mandated coordination with state and federal governments. As a result there has been notable conflict in resources associated with water management. These fundamental issues have been exasperated by a host of concerns: (1) deceased water availability due to drought or water development; (2) long

In their submitted statement of the lawsuit, PVID shares that, “[moving] farm water to cities are threatening the viability of agriculture in one of the oldest farming valleys on the river, which is central in helping us achieve a sustainable water future.”

The Colorado River compact has been the most beneficial project for the seven states that share it. The river has 29 dams that serve different purposes together with hundreds of miles of canals. Many farmers have been known to divert the river into their own farms to be used for irrigation. Irrigated land accounts for four million acres of the total land use. This relates to a large percentage of water used for agriculture. The products got from constant irrigation are a major economic boost to both the farmers and the United States. This also enhances living standards due to income earned by such farmers (Michael, 2010). This has enabled them to feed not only their states, but also the other neighboring countries through

The Red River Compact Commission was created and signed by 1978 by 4 states Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. The Red River, the northern boundary of a lot of the state, is a major water source for all four of these states and was being fought over until this commission was made to help solve many of the disputes that could come up. Similarly, Texas has more agreements with other states including the Sabine River Compact Commission and the Rio Grande Compact. These commission serves the same purpose as the other commission, to make sure that all states receive the correct amount of water and that neither state ruins the water for any other one. The United States has an agreement with Mexico regarding the Colorado River that helps decide what should be done with a river that gives water to more than 33 million people across the two nations. The agreement is made to help the Colorado River make it back to the Ocean which will in turn help refill Lake Mead, the main source of water for the city of Los Vegas. The major treaty between the US and Mexico that Texas has a large hand in is the Treaty of February 3, 1994. This treaty restricts the water that the other country can take from the Rio Grande river, and guarantees the US one-third of the water from 5 tributaries in Mexico, and guarantees Mexico all of the water from two other tributaries. This treaty also allows both nations to dam parts of this

The Colorado River is drying up and people are in desperate need for water. However, farmers and cities are fighting to see who should have the rights to the water.

Farmers should have rights because they are the ones who use the water for people’s fruits and veggies.

In my opinion, Yuma farmers should keep their existing water rights because they are big farmers of lettuce. Lettuce is one of the most popular vegetable in the United States. A fact that proves claim #1 is in paragraph 1. It says that if you eat lettuce at Thanksgiving to April than it is most likely from Yuma. So if they cut Yuma's water supply, the lettuce might die. If the lettuce dies, than there is going to be a lettuce shortage. Another fact from the article is in the section that is titled "Older Rights Means more Water." In this section, it staits that Yuma has one of the oldest water rights which leads to more water. If their rights were taken away, then you wouldn't have the leafy greens that you love during late fall, winter, or

The Colorado Basin, which begins in the Rocky Mountains and ends just south of the U.S./Mexico border into the Gulf of California, provides a significant amount of water for farms throughout areas of the Southwest.

The amount of money it would take to maintain the water distribution from the Colorado River will also be

had sold only the right to use the land, not the land itself. They did

Prior to settlement of the western United States, the Colorado River roamed free. Starting from cool mountain streams, the river eventually became a thunderous, silty force of nature as it entered the canyons along its path. The river nourished wetlands and other riparian habitats from the headwaters in the Rocky Mountains to the delta at the Sea of Cortez in Northwest Mexico. Settlers along the river harnessed these waters mainly for agriculture via irrigation canals, but flooding from spring runoff wreaked havoc on agricultural land, prevented development in the floodplain and full utilization of the water, a waste in the eyes of western farmers. In order to meet current and future water demands in the west, the Federal Government