{"id":1411,"date":"2025-10-19T11:01:36","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T11:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/audiomateria.com\/?p=1411"},"modified":"2025-10-24T19:16:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T19:16:52","slug":"despite-the-finger-pointing-california-and-the-lower-basin-are-doing-our-part-for-the-colorado-river-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/audiomateria.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/19\/despite-the-finger-pointing-california-and-the-lower-basin-are-doing-our-part-for-the-colorado-river-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite the finger pointing, California and the lower basin, are doing our part for the Colorado River (Letters)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Lower Basin is doing our part for the Colorado River<\/h4>\n

Re: “California and Arizona’s water negotiators wrong to target Colorado<\/a>,” Oct. 12 editorial<\/p>\n

The editorial misrepresented both facts and intent.<\/p>\n

In a perfect encapsulation of the us-vs-them mentality pervading the Colorado River Basin, my recent quote in the Los Angeles Times calling for\u00a0all\u00a0of the Basin States to abandon legal hardlines for a compromise solution was reinterpreted by the Post\u2019s Editorial Board as \u201cover-the-top hyperbole\u201d and \u201caccus[ing] the upper basin states of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico of clinging to \u2018their most aggressive and rigid dreamland legal positions.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

As tempting as it is to look outward rather than inward for the solution to dwindling runoff and storage in the Colorado River Basin, that approach leads only to failure.<\/p>\n

California, Arizona, and Nevada (the Lower Basin States) have not been sitting idly by in the face of this historic drought. Over the past two decades, collective Lower Basin actions have raised the elevation of Lake Mead by nearly 190 feet. From 2023 through the end of 2026, we are projected to cut water use by a staggering 7.5 million acre-feet, more than double the Upper Basin\u2019s annual use.<\/p>\n

Going forward, we have proposed annual cuts to the Lower Basin that dwarf current commitments, with those reductions expanding to the Upper Basin only if hydrology worsens. In all the proposals discussed so far, the Lower Basin has offered to take on 85% or more of the needed cuts.<\/p>\n

Lower Basin representatives are also acting to protect the farms and families we represent, who make up three-quarters of the Basin\u2019s residents. We cannot accept a solution in which the Upper Basin does not meaningfully participate.<\/p>\n

We are running out of time. New Colorado River rules must be adopted before 2026. The key issue is how all seven Basin States will share in the cuts necessary to live with less water.<\/p>\n

Scapegoating downstream may feel satisfying, but it solves nothing. The only way forward is through compromise and cooperation — not falsehoods and finger-pointing.<\/p>\n

JB Hamby,\u00a0El Centro, Calif.<\/em><\/p>\n

Editor’s note: Hamby is Chairman of the Colorado River Board of California.<\/em><\/p>\n

Supreme Court hearing is another case of Colorado targeting Christians<\/h4>\n

Re: “Fighting Colorado for the free speech I need and my clients deserve in my office<\/a>,” Oct. 12 commentary<\/p>\n