Environmental leaders from the state gathered downtown last week to kick off an effort to conserve water in the Colorado River.
It's called the Waterkeepers. And a big name in environmental law was here to help kick off the effort: Robert Kennedy Jr. Kennedy started the effort on the Hudson River in New York, and the Waterkeepers is now a global effort to protect specific waterways.
“Over the course of the last 50 years, that organization has grown to be a worldwide organization encompassing hundreds of different branches and chapters throughout the world,” Nevada Public Radio's Heidi Kyser explained. Kyser attended the kickoff event.
The group filed dozens of lawsuits to help clean up the Hudson River and they don't seem afraid to do the same thing for the Colorado River.
Clark County Commissioner-elect Tick Segerblom will be the local water defender. He will be looking for ways locally to better protect the river.
But Kyser said the group's aim is not just conservation of the water system.
“The overarching goal of the Colorado River Keepers is to completely reconfigure the law of the river and undo some of the regulations that they see as harmful,” she said.
'The Law of the River' is the Colorado River Compact, which was signed in the 1920s and it is used to this day to set up how much water each state that uses the river will be allocated.
However, critics of the compact say it is not only outdated but also based on faulty information. They argue that the river levels it uses to dole out water rights were some of the highest levels recorded compared with the current levels that are after years of drought in the West.
Kyser said the event seemed like an effort to get everyone in Southern Nevada's environmental community excited about their efforts and bring some star power to the cause in the form of Robert Kennedy Jr.
Heidi Kyser, writer, Desert Companion Magazine
