By John Fleck and Eric Kuhn The world outside of Bishop’s Lodge in New Mexico got its first glimpse of the nascent Colorado River Compact on in the days following the Nov. 16, 1922, meeting as Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover briefed reporters on the barest details of what was transpiring behind closed doors. For the …
By Eric Kuhn and John Fleck On Nov. 16, 1922, the representatives of the seven Colorado River Basin states and federal lead negotiator Herbert Hoover settled what is, from today’s perspective, the most important element, of the Colorado River Compact. Holed up a century ago at Bishop’s Lodge outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, they had …
By Eric Kuhn and John Fleck Colorado River Commission Chairman Herbert Hoover gathered the seven states’ representatives at opened at 11:00 a.m. Nov. 15, 1922, for the 17th meeting in their efforts to forge an agreement to share the Colorado River. They had been holed up at Bishop’s Lodge outside Santa Fe for five days, …
By Eric Kuhn and John Fleck When the Colorado River Compact Commission’s members returned to negotiations on the morning of Nov. 14 , 1922, they were presented with three important questions – one which survived as language in the final compact and two which did not, but all three of which remain important to the …
By Eric Kuhn and John Fleck As the Colorado River Compact Commission’s negotiators returned to their task on the morning of Nov. 13, 1922, the shape of the compact was beginning to emerge into view. Colorado Compact Commission Chairman Herbert Hoover opened the meeting by returning to the unresolved question from the previous evening – …
Continue reading ‘A century ago in Colorado River compact negotiations: Where to draw the line?’ »
By Eric Kuhn and John Fleck As the Colorado River Compact Commission negotiators returned to their discussions for a short 8 p.m. Sunday evening meeting Nov. 12, 1922, they began trying to dive into the details of how to divide up the great river. In trying to make the broad concept of dividing the river …
Continue reading ‘A century ago in Colorado River Compact Negotiations: Turning to Murky Details’ »
By Eric Kuhn and John Fleck With the arrival of all of the commissioners and their key advisors, the Commission got back together on Saturday morning. The purpose of this meeting had been agreed to back in early April. Each commissioner would be given the opportunity to suggest the form of a compact. Nevada’s James …
By Eric Kuhn and John Fleck Santa Fe, New Mexico, was off the beaten path in November 1922. That was the point. After a logjam and a seven-month break, the Colorado River Commission finally reconvened in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the Bishops Lodge on Nov. 9, 1922, to try to find common ground …
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Colorado River political and policy discourse is tangled right now around an increasingly unhelpful set of questions. They involve process: Should the federal government step in and impose cuts? Should the Lower Basin states, especially Arizona and California, do more to save themselves? Should we pay farmers to fallow? How much? Should the Upper Basin …
Continue reading ‘a Colorado River hypothetical and an attention-getting cuss word’ »
Helpful piece by Luke Runyon on steps toward accounting for Lower Colorado River evaporation and riparian system losses. During a September Colorado River symposium held in Santa Fe, both Interior Department Secretary Deb Haaland and Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton told attendees that the issue of evaporation and transit loss in the Lower …
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