The GWC in 2024 is working to revitalize the Colorado River Research Group (CRRG), a group of prominent academics and close colleagues offering an 鈥渋ndependent, scientific voice鈥� on key Colorado River issues.聽 The CRRG was formed in 2014, and has produced policy briefs on many salient subjects, including basin hydrology and climatology, reservoir operations, Tribal water rights, environmental restoration, and water conservation.
The most recent CRRG policy brief was issued earlier this month, and is entitled: 鈥�Imagining the River We Deserve: How the Post-2026 Rulemaking is Only One Step Towards Sustainability鈥� (CRRG Publications | Getches-Wilkinson Center | University of Colorado Boulder). Echoing the theme of the upcoming June conference, the publication acknowledges that the current post-2026 rulemaking is critically important in stabilizing the two big reservoirs on the system. That work should not, however, distract attention from the much grander goals of the Colorado River community for a healthy, sustainable river managed in a holistic fashion.聽 The Colorado, after all, is the ecological and cultural centerpiece of the Southwest; it鈥檚 much more than a plumbing system.聽 Post-2026, its unclear whether there鈥檚 a clear process, or set of processes, for getting all this work done. The CRRG intends to play a role in shaping and informing those discussions.
*Thumbnail photo image by Len Necefer