Water Struggles: Save The Colorado:States Argue About Who Gets to Drain The Colorado River While Tribes Grant It “Personhood”

Colorado River at Dotsero.

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“Save The Colorado” is both a worthy but unfortunately distant goal and the name of an organization focused on doing just that. Its name came up as a part of a discussion at a dinner honoring Aaron Stone and Rob Smoke both of whom ran for the Boulder City Council on a platform that included  calling on that body to include opposition to the Gaza Genocide as a part of the city’s program. Out of approximately 35,000 votes cast, Stone got appromately 2500, Smoke 1500 votes. While the votes received are modest, in some ways given how late the candidates threw their hats into ring, theirs was well organized disciplined campaign which could serve as a model for candidates of all stripes trying to break the two party stranglehold on elected office, a worthy beginning.

In the free flowing discussion that followed a number of people spoke about about water issues. Given climate change, the long term drought that the entire western USA is experiencing and the general paucity of water resources west of the 100th meridian, combined with the cancer of uncontrolled development, water issues will dominate the politics of Colorado and surrounding states for a long time into the future; if anything their urgency can only intensify.

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States Argue About Who Gets to Drain The Colorado River While Tribes Grant It “Personhood”

11/12/2025; For Immediate Release; Contact: Gary Wockner, Save The Colorado, 970-218-8310

Colorado River, USA: November 2025 may turn out to be a pivotal month in Colorado River history as two important events merged into one. First, the 7 states in the Southwest U.S. didn’t reach an agreement on which states get to further drain the River. Second, the Colorado River Indian Tribes voted unanimously a week earlier to give the Colorado River “personhood” status declaring that the River is “alive.”

As news reports flooded the media today about how the States didn’t reach an agreement, not one story reported that the Colorado River itself is already drained 100% dry before it reaches the Sea of Cortez, nor did any story mention the environmental consequences of the States’ disagreement which could further drain and endanger the River through the Grand Canyon. At the same time a few stories trickled in about how the Colorado River Indian Tribes granted ‘personhood’ status to the River on their reservation which in part covers both sides of the River near Parker, AZ.

“How these two events coincide remains to be seen, but the stark difference between arguing about who gets to drain the River dry versus declaring the River a ‘person’ that is ‘alive’ reflects dramatically different worldviews,” said Gary Wockner of Save The Colorado. “The future of the Colorado River is immensely contested.”

Save The Colorado has worked with a few towns in Colorado to pass “Rights of Nature for Rivers” resolutions for local waterways that start the legal process of granting personhood rights to rivers. That program is described here on our website.

This press release is posted here.