Off the Hook on Court Lets Bush Administration Environmental Duties to Mexico: Colorado River Ruling to be Appealed

Washington, D.C. – Defenders of Wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity, and other environmental co-plaintiffs are disappointed, but not deterred, by yesterday's ruling by a federal district court judge that the U.S. government is not responsible for the harmful environmental effects of its Colorado River management on the river's delta ecosystem in Mexico. Spokespersons for the organizations said they intend to appeal the decision and redouble efforts to amend the Colorado River binational water treaty to protect the entire river, not just the portion in the United States.

Judge Robertson's decision closes the first chapter of a lawsuit brought by eight U.S. and Mexican environmental groups who challenged the U.S. government's turning of a blind eye to ecological devastation in the Colorado River delta caused by U.S. management of Colorado River dams and diversions. Judge Robertson found that although U.S. Colorado River management has caused extensive damage to Mexico's natural resources – including the federal listing of endangered fish, bird, and dolphin species under the Endangered Species Act – he found that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is not responsible for mitigation of these impacts.

"The ruling flies in the face of the well-recognized principle of international environmental law that each country has not only the sovereign right to manage its own affairs but also the solemn responsibility to ensure that activities within its borders do not cause environmental harm elsewhere. The over-riding issue here is one of cross-border equity. By modern standards, the U.S. basically stole the Colorado River from Mexico -- and continues to steal it every day it does not allow sufficient water to cross the border to provide for the reasonable ecological, economic and cultural health of the delta and gulf."

"This decision tramples on the commonsense notion that the United States should be a good neighbor, said David Hogan, Rivers Program Coordinator for the Center for Biological Diversity. "Apparently it's not enough for the U.S. Government to ignore our own environment – we're wrecking Mexico's as well. It's snubs like this that lead to international political hostility toward our country."

In 1997, the Bureau of Reclamation consulted with the Fish and Wildlife Service on the effects of the dams and water diversions in the United States. Fish and Wildlife found that Reclamation's activities jeopardize several endangered species, including the bonytail chub, razorback sucker and southwestern willow flycatcher. Fish and Wildlife assigned conservation measures for species on the U.S. side of the border, but cited a lack of authority for similar protection of U.S.-listed species found south of the border.

For centuries, sediments carved from the Grand Canyon settled out in the vast delta region where the river meandered between the Gulf of California and the basin now occupied by the Salton Sea. The nearly 2 million acre delta region was a morass of marshes and jungle-like riverside forest vegetation. River diversions in the U.S. have dried out and greatly reduced the size of the delta, causing many species to become endangered including the Yuma clapper rail, desert pupfish, totoaba (a large sea bass once a commercial fishery), and the vaquita (the world's smallest and rarest porpoise).

Over the last 20 years, a much smaller but still vibrant wetland ecosystem has risen again in the delta, in response to spilled water from the U.S. Roughly 4,000 acres along 80 miles of the Colorado River corridor through the delta are today covered with native cottonwood and willow riparian habitat, in contrast to the 350 mile stretch of the lower river in the U.S. that supports less than 250 acres due to near total river manipulation and channelization.

Katherine Meyer of Meyer and Glitzenstein represented Defenders of Wildlife, Center for Biological Diversity, Asociacion Ecologica de Usuarios del Rio Hardy-Colorado (AEURHyC), Sierra Club, the Humane Society of the United States, Centro Regional de Estudios Ambientales y Socioecónomicas (CREAS), Centro de Derecho Ambiental e Integración Económica del Sur A.C (DASSUR), and Consejo Coordinador Empresarial de Mexicali.

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