School of Public Policy

A Water Seminar by Zachary Frankel and Nick Halberg

Abstract:

The headwater snowpacks of the Colorado River in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming have shrunk 20% in the last two decades in the face of climate change, with the region’s aridification likely to get even worse in years to come. Home to 40 million people, the Colorado River Basin’s water problems have attracted global attention, which has created constituent pressure on decision makers to address longstanding policy paradigms conceived with inherent problems that were never intended to function in a drier world.

Newspaper headlines over the last year have heralded multiple new agreements which claim to dramatically reduce water use in the Colorado River Basin to grapple with historic low water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell, America’s two largest reservoirs. Are these announcements really enough to weather our drier world and what other challenges and potential opportunities wait upstream for the millions of people who live near the terminus of the Colorado River and rely on its flows?

Join us for a conversation about the challenges that aridification and entrenched governance pose to future generations of the Colorado River Basin, and the opportunities that have thus far been largely left out of the public dialogue.

Bios:

Zachary Frankel received his B.S. in Biology at the University of Utah and is the Executive Director of the Utah Rivers Council, which he founded in 1994. Zach completed additional coursework at the University of Washington in River Ecology and Water Law before working for both Idaho Rivers United and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Zach has led many exciting campaigns to protect Utah’s rivers and is an expert on Utah water policy. Zach lives with his family and their horses in the Salt Lake Valley and enjoys writing, whitewater canoeing and all manner of outdoor sports.

Nick Halberg received an honors B.S. in economics with an emphasis in statistical analysis and a B.S. in philosophy of science from the University of Utah. He is a Research and Policy Analyst at the Utah Rivers Council, where he works on issues in the Colorado River Basin and Great Basin. His focus is on researching various scientific topics associated with water policy—from hydrology to climate science to economics – and translating those findings into understandable and implementable policy actions. During non-work hours, Nick can be found kayaking, climbing, and exploring new and wild places throughout the American West.