Colorado Environmental Law Journal

“The happiest person in this country cannot help breathing in smokers’ cigarette fumes, auto exhaust, and airborne chemical dust, nor avoid drinking the water, and eating the food. The idea that happiness can insulate us against the results of our environmental madness is a rumor circulated by our enemies to destroy us.” Audre Lorde, The Cancer Journals[2] Introduction Pesticide poisonings cause untold human suffering across generations. Uncontrolled agricultural pesticide use hurts farmworkers and their families, contaminates groundwater, and destroys wildlife. Agricultural chemical poisonings are so Continue reading →

Introduction “‘[I]ncreases in heat-related deaths,’ ‘coastal inundation and erosion,’ ‘more frequent and intense hurricanes, floods, and other extreme weather events,’ ‘drought,’ ‘destruction of ecosystems,’ and ‘potentially significant disruptions of food production.’ ”[3] The U.S. Supreme Court has not minced words in outlining climate change’s potential threats. Climate change’s ubiquity and potentially expansive impacts mean that the federal administrative state, with a presence that spans every state and every industry, will need to confront what it means to fulfill its missions in a changing world. This is Continue reading →

Abstract Twenty-plus years of drought and overuse in the Colorado River system have dramatically changed the outlook for water users in the system’s Lower and Upper Basins. At the time of this Article’s writing, the United States Bureau of Reclamation was simultaneously working on two related, but separate, environmental review processes related to the management of the Colorado River and its major storage reservoirs. The river system was granted a short reprieve in the form of a long overdue and above-average snowpack in the winter Continue reading →

Introduction A tension exists that must be reconciled between Colorado’s management of its natural resources and its stated commitment to fighting climate change. The Colorado executive and legislative branches have, through laws, public statements, and plans, indicated their dedication to fighting climate change. In the 2019 regular session, the Colorado legislature enacted several bills directed toward combating climate change. For example, the Climate Action Plan to Reduce Pollution Act (“SB 19-1261”) sets climate targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by twenty-six percent by 2025, fifty Continue reading →

Introduction Colorado is a headwater state. Of the 158 rivers flowing through it, all but two originate in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. Major rivers, including the Colorado, the Rio Grande, the Platte, and the Arkansas, arise as small mountain streams that flow through plateaus and high mesas to the west, arid valleys to the south, and rolling plains to the east, before entering neighboring states.[3] Colorado is the highest contiguous state with an average elevation of 6,800 feet above sea level.[4] Colorado has fifty-nine mountain peaks Continue reading →

Abstract Over the past 200 years, the large majority of Colorado’s rivers have been altered to make way for development, agriculture, or transportation, or to deliver water to users more efficiently. Rivers have been buried by mining debris or concrete, channelized, levied, wholly diverted, riparian vegetation lost by grazing or land use practices, and thousands of miles of streams have become incised, disconnected from their floodplains. Numerous scientific studies over the past twenty years have documented why degraded rivers are problematic and why healthy functioning Continue reading →