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HOOVER DAM With the concrete towers of Hoover Dam in the background and the depleted waters of the nation’s largest reservoir below, an unlikely group of allies conservation activists, businesspeople and officials representing cities and farming communities on Thursday called for halting all plans that would take more water from the shrinking Colorado River.
The 10 people who spoke at the news conference said they’re part of a new coalition demanding a moratorium on new dams and proposed pipelines, including a proposal to transport Colorado River water to sustain urban growth in Utah.
They said they aren’t opposed to new development but that water supplies need to be identified first, especially as the reservoirs on the river have declined to new lows. The coalition also declared that the shortage-sharing efforts Western water officials have undertaken to date have been a failure. They said the status quo is no longer viable and the Colorado River need
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Santa Fe, New Mexico, once was sustained by the waters of the Santa Fe River, which begins in the high country of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, flows through the city and then onward to the Rio Grande.
But when Western cities grow, they look everywhere for more water, with little regard for the rivers they drain. As the city’s population grew, Santa Fe turned to its groundwater. Later, New Mexico reached across the desert to take water from the Colorado River and deliver it to Santa Fe, Albuquerque and other beneficiaries on the Rio Grande.
And yet the Santa Fe River downstream was not reduced to a dry and dusty arroyo. In fact, the riverbed is relatively verdant, supporting cottonwoods, willows and sustaining some irrigation in communities downstream. That moisture helps make Santa Fe a beautiful place in the desert.
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Denise Fort: Water can be wrung out too much
Durango, Colorado Currently Thu 3% chance of precipitation 7% chance of precipitation 1% chance of precipitation
Thursday, April 15, 2021 11:03 AM Denise Fort Denise Fort
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Santa Fe, New Mexico, once was sustained by the waters of the Santa Fe River, which begins in the high country of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, flows through the city and then onward to the Rio Grande.
But when Western cities grow, they look everywhere for more water, with little regard for the rivers they drain. As the city’s population grew, Santa Fe turned to its groundwater. Later, New Mexico reached across the desert to take water from the Colorado River and deliver it to Santa Fe, Albuquerque and other beneficiaries on the Rio Grande.
California
United-states
Santa-fe-river
New-mexico
Albuquerque
Irvine-ranch
University-of-new-mexico
Orange-county
Bureau-of-reclamation
Environmental-protection-agency
Pacific-institute