Under the elegant rusticity of the hand hewn logs and mortise and tenon beamery of the 1879 Thompson Barn, the tiny but mighty Crystal Valley Environmental Protection Association (CVEPA) held its 54th annual meeting and gathering. The beams had been crafted by Myron Thompson and family years before the founding of Carbondale (or even Satank!). Board and beam, this historic gem was reconstructed at the River Valley Ranch location in 1998. CVEPA is grateful to Brian Leasure for making the barn available to us.
Sixty-five members and friends gathered to share companionship, stories and a drink prior to hearing from two speakers. CVEPA’s successes have been hard earned and include limiting development, fostering reclamation and day-lighting environmental transgressions in our valley. What makes CVEPA different from other environmental organizations is that we are all volunteer, lacking fundraising and frequent events, free to concentrate on environmental defense. Raising memberships is vital in order to maintain a united voice when working with land managers and elected officials. New members are always welcome.
In this past year, there has been more development pressure and construction in the Upper Crystal River Valley than in the last half century, primarily focused on the Crystal City and McCLure Pass areas.
If there was a theme on Sunday, it was environmental journalism. Aspen Journalism writer, author, poet and activist Paul Andersen was awarded CVEPA’s prestigious Founders Award for Environmentalism. Anderson’s work is historical as well as current, and woven into our Elk Mountain Region. Always the entertainer, Anderson regaled the group with his wit.
The audience then had the pleasure to hear from a maven of all things Colorado River. Reporter Luke Runyon is heard very frequently on National Public Radio. He is the president of the University of Colorado’s Water Desk and the former president of the Society of Environmental Journalists, among other accomplishments. Runyan is also a recipient of the Edward R. Murrow award and a Scripps fellow.
Runyon lives near the “Fifteen Mile Reach,” which is an area of the desiccated river between the Cameo Roller Dam above Palisade and the mouth of the Gunnison River at Grand Junction.
In the reach, the powerful Colorado River is struggling at 42 cubic feet per second (cfs). (Two cubic feet is equal to 10 gallons of water.) This is plenty enough to take a bath in, and probably as warm, but hard to survive if you’re a fish. Cameo serves the lower Grand Valley and has very senior water rights by decree. It is now drawing 700 cfs from Reudi Reservoir, dropping the lake’s level almost nine feet this last week. The huge ditches in Grand Junction are running full, but the end is in sight and they may run dry within a month.
Runyon does not speak of “the drought,” rather he believes we have entered, or re-entered, a period of “aridification,” which is not likely to change with a great winter this year or any other weather events in the near future.
We are, unrealistically, expecting way too much out of the Colorado River and have set ourselves up for failure if we intend to continue present trends. Forty-million people have lifestyles and livelihoods, dreams and ambitions wrapped in unrealistic legal constructs for a resource that may not exist in the near future.
Runyon’s favorite photo is of the razorback sucker. The fish is a pre-historic, beautifully ugly example of adaptability over millenia. Not unlike the sucker, all our best intentions, and perhaps inventions, will not suffice when we turn on the tap, go to the spring or climb the mountain and there is nothing there.
Having covered the Upper and Lower Colorado River basins conferences for years, Runyon admitted that where there had been viable compromise in the past he sees failure now. Runyon also believes that the federal government is reluctant to enter the fray, seeing a dead pool of solutions.
Runyon is not buying the proposals for a pipeline from the Great Lakes or even massive de-salinazation projects, when conservation efforts are still unimplemented. His personal belief mirrors what CVEPA has always supported. Universal conservation is essential to the well being of our society.
After a captivating 40 minutes, Runyon opened the floor to a robust Q&A, which could have gone into the night. Afterward, the group sat on the patio, enjoying BBQ with a view of Mount Sopris after a brief rain shower graced the fairways.
In a time when all that is precious to us seems threatened, support of journalism has never been more important.
If you want to learn more about the CVEPA mission or become a member, visit cvepa.org or find us on Facebook.