COLORADO RIVER: LIFEBLOOD OF THE WEST
“Whiskey is for drinking. Water is for fighting.” You’ve heard this proverbial quote before, and today you hear it louder and more often in the Colorado River Basin. Western water law, western states water compacts, water policy, and decisions about how this limited public resource is allocated will continue to be extremely complex, and will remain a highly charged issue into the near future. Western water “grabbing” wars began in the mid-1800s during the gold rush. Periods of truce can last for decades, but during times of drought and western states’ population growth, the combatants take up arms, and the