Government Goings-on: The Big Sleep
—Alan Dulaney “Don’t do something—just stand there!” This call for inaction is often an appropriate dictum when faced with overly complex situations. Especially when passing law. In the last month...
Government Goings-on: The Conflict Spreads
—Alan Dulaney The Central Arizona Water Conservation District’s conflicts, once confined within Arizona, have now spilled across state boundaries into the Upper Colorado River Basin. The collaborative structure of the entire...
Government Goings-on: The Wheels Come Off
—Alan Dulaney Salvo and counter-salvo; battle is joined and every interest is defending its own water. The wheels have come off the Arizona wagon of cooperation on water issues. The...
Government Goings-on: The Shade of Water
—Alan Dulaney “Shade” is an old term signifying a ghostly suggestion of a former living presence. The shade of the Colorado River may wander the Lower Basin for decades, absent...
Government Goings-on: To Your Scattered Bodies Go
—Alan Dulaney Ever since the Governor’s Water Solutions Discussions essentially ended with summer, we have been waiting for the resultant legislation. And waiting. And waiting. Now it’s over, and the...
Government Goings-on: Rapids Ahead for 2018
—Alan Dulaney Lots of things that were predicted to happen in 2017, didn’t. The drought didn’t end (ignore what California thinks). Lake Mead didn’t fall below water level elevations that...
Government Goings-on: Adjudicating Groundwater
—by Alan Dulaney A recent Ninth Circuit Court ruling shakes the basic structure of Western water regulation by introducing the concept of prior rights into groundwater law where it was...
Government Goings-on: The Elephant in the Room
—Alan Dulaney For several months, the Governor’s Water Discussion Group has been secretly discussing serious problems within the Arizona water world. “Secretly” is a misnomer, however, since everyone knew who...