Hello, my friends, all of you who are attending the Colorado River Water Users Association Conference in Las Vegas.
I'm proud of your efforts on the Colorado River issues for so many years.
I am proud of your work and my work with many of you on Colorado River issues over the last 20 years.
Today, I am helping represent our country in Copenhagen at the Global Climate Change Conference.
I am in Copenhagen because we all have a stake in the
agreements we are pursuing with other nations. And we all have a stake
in what we do over the coming months and years to cut carbon
emissions. And while I'm here representing the United States, an
important part of the perspective I bring to these negotiations is the
effects of climate change on the water uses on the Colorado River.
Our scientists confirm that temperatures in the Colorado River Basin
have increased more rapidly than in any other regions of the country and that this is
driving declines in river flows.
But many of you don't need studies to come to this conclusion. You have
already seeing first-hand the impacts of climate change. Water
managers across the West and on the Colorado River know better than anyone that small changes
in precipitation or temperature can drive big changes in our water
supplies and our way of life.
Snowmelt is coming earlier. Rains are replacing snows. Climate change
experts predict a 10-20% decrease in average water flow in the
Colorado River. You've already dealt with an extreme drought, and now
we could be looking at permanent reductions in supplies.
That's why we have to take action. At the national level, we need your
help to pass a comprehensive energy bill that will help us mover toward
energy independence, that will protect our children from the dangers of pollution,
and that will bring millions of new jobs here to America.
And in the West, we need to adjust to the impacts of climate change.
We need adaptive management strategies to respond to the effects of
climate change on water supplies and on the environment. And we need to
work as partners in the type of practical, problem-solving approach that --
frankly -- is the only way that we can get things done when it comes to water.
In the past ten months, we have already begun to deploy new strategies
for dealing with the impacts of climate change.
Through the new departmental Climate Change Response Council, we
are coordinating our response. We are pulling together scientific models
and databases and developing best management strategies to help land
and water managers. At the local level, we are assembling landscape
conservation cooperatives that will engage all our partners
and the public in crafting strategies geared to specific landscapes.
We have to try new things. We have to be flexible. And that's true for a
wide range of water challenges on the Colorado River Basin.
Water management on the Colorado near the Grand Canyon is a good
example.
We must find a way to manage the river's resources to meet two critically
important goals: First, protecting one of the world's most
treasured landscapes -- the Grand Canyon;
Second, delivering water for communities, agriculture, and industry,
and providing clean hydro electric power.
The Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program is designed to
help us meet these twin goals. This program involves a number of
Interior agencies--the Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the dam;
the U.S. Geological Survey, which provides unbiased science; the
National Park Service, which manages the park; the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It also involves state
and tribal representatives and non-governmental organizations.
Adaptive management means that we change our approach as needed
based on what we've learned. In that spirit, I am pleased today to
announce a significant initiative to help us improve our management of
the Glen Canyon Dam and the Colorado River through the Grand
Canyon.
Today, I am directing the development of a protocol for conducting
additional High Flow Experiments at the Dam. These experimental high
flows send sediment downstream to rebuild sandbars, beaches and
backwaters. The rebuilt areas provide key wildlife habitat, enhance the
aquatic food base, protect archeological sites, and create additional
camping opportunities in the canyon.
I know there has been some debate about the effectiveness of the High
Flow Experiments, but the one we did in 2008 demonstrated the
potential benefits of more experiments.
We will take a practical approach. If the new high-flow experiments don't
work, we will change them.
I also believe that we need to develop a long-term experimental and
management plan for Glen Canyon Dam. Since Secretary Babbitt
put the most recent adaptive management program in place, our
scientific understanding of the ecosystem has grown.
We have to take advantage of what we know now, and move forward.
Interior will work with the Adaptive Management Program stakeholders to
start developing this longer term plan.
2010 is a critical year, it is a critical year for our partnerships up and down the river if we are
to forge a plan that will provide flexibility but recognize our obligations.
Our goal must be a structure that works both in times of plenty and in
times of drought.
We are engaging all of our partners -- from federal agencies and tribes to
local and state governments and stakeholders -- in this effort. We will
reach across the border to Mexico because they, too, must be a partner
in the future of the Colorado River.
Now is the time to do it. And you are the ones who can help us get it
done.
Yes, the complexity of Colorado River issues requires us to be patient. It
requires us to be humble. It requires us to be practical. The challenges
that lie ahead are significant.
But in my life -- and in all the years I have worked on water -- I have
never known a time in which our opportunities have been so great.
Never before have we had such strong leadership, up and down the
river. Never before have we had the commitment, from top to bottom, to
find a common ground and a sustainable future.
Now I want to let you to know that the Colorado River is front and center in my priorities. Assistant Secretary of Water and Science,
Anne Castle is there representing President Obama and me today. She will speak to you on our behalf. She'll fill in
some of the details on issues that I've just mentioned. She is the very best. And we have the very best at the Department of Interior.
I'm proud of her and the vision and wisdom that she will bring to the family of stakeholders that will work on the future of the
Colorado River. I look forward to being with all of you sometime soon.
Thank you very much.