A monthly members-only column by Alan Dulaney
Fall is upon us, and in the higher elevations the aspen leaves are beginning to turn golden. Soon the cottonwoods along the rivers of the Southwest will follow suit, and their leaves will brighten to shades of red, orange and a deeper yellow. It is a beautiful season, this changing of the leaves across the landscape, and it presages the shift from warm summer to the cold winter, at least in the upper elevations.
Alas, that frosty wind is already blowing through the seven states of the Colorado River Basin. In early June, President Trump nominated Ted Cooke to be the new Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, and sent his name over to the United States Senate for confirmation. Ted Cooke has long experience in water issues, especially those centered around the Colorado River. For several years, he was the General Manager of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, which operates the Central Arizona Project (CAP) canal, upon which cities and farms in the three-county service area with irrigation water and municipal drinking water. It is a critical position for Arizona, now locked in negotiations with the other six Basin states over the future of Colorado River operations.
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