sleepystork.com

It’s time to set the record straight regarding the negotiations among Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico and Colorado regarding the post-2026 Colorado River operations.

Amid the backdrop of prolonged drought and declining flows of the Colorado River, the seven states have the unenviable task of balancing the amount of water Mother Nature provides and the stressors related to the use of that water for 40 million people and millions of acres of farmland.

Discussions among the seven basin states continue, but finding common ground has been extremely challenging.  The United States has told the seven basin states that if an agreement is not reached by November 11, 2025, they will move forward with an alternative. The terms and conditions of that alternative have not been disclosed. There is still an opportunity to avoid the path of federally imposed operating guidelines and the legal entanglements that would likely follow.  But the clock is ticking.

However, Arizona, California, Nevada, and our partners in Mexico have not been idle. Over the last decade, we have reduced our water use so that the elevation of Lake Mead, the primary storage reservoir supplying water to our three states and Mexico, is over 100 feet higher because of those water-use reductions. That is over two trillion gallons of water. Arizona’s contribution to that success story? Nearly a trillion gallons of that total entirely on our own.

Those reductions have been painful, but they have not been enough to sustain the river. Moving forward, all seven states must do more.

That outcome requires bold thinking, sacrifice, and a willingness to share in protecting the Colorado River by all seven states that benefit from its bounty.  The tool to achieve that goal is simple: reduce water use.

Arizona, California, and Nevada have put forth a Post 2026 operational proposal that requires mandatory, certai,n and verifiable water-use reductions of additional billions of gallons of water by the three Lower Basin states.

To the contrary, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico have not agreed, nor have they proposed, any mandatory, certain and verifiable reductions in their water use. Not. One. Single. Gallon. Instead, they propose that water-use reductions needed to save the Colorado River come solely from Arizona, California and Nevada.

Such an outcome could bring Arizona’s people to their knees. But that will not happen. The State of Arizona shall not perish from this earth.

I implore the citizens of the Colorado River Basin to rise up and demand that the negotiators for Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico partner with Arizona, California, and Nevada and put mandatory, certain, and verifiable water-use reductions on the table for their four states. That is the only outcome that can result in a seven-state agreement.

In the alternative, the path we are on can be best captured by a quote from William Shakespear’s “Julius Ceasar,” “Cry Havoc and let slip the dogs of war.”

Tom Buschatzke is the Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources and is the chief Colorado River negotiator for Arizona. He has over 43 years of public service ensuring that Arizonans have a sustainable water future.

Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns, editorials and more.

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.

Had President Donald Trump actually read the U.S. Constitution he would have seen that Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 says state legislatures determine the “Times, Places, and Manner of holding Elections” and only Congress can alter such laws, not the president. Would it have mattered to someone who views such clauses as mere suggestions? Maybe not.

In a recent social media post, Trump declared he intends to issue an executive order to prohibit state laws from using mail-in voting in the 2026 election. This is a clear defiance of the Constitution’s delegation of power to the states. Trump also lambasted mail-in voting as inaccurate, said no other country allowed it, and claimed Democrats used mail-in voting to cheat and could not be elected without it. He also assailed voting machines as less accurate than hand counting. If Trump was striving for 100% inaccuracy in a single post, he nailed it.

A few days earlier, Trump told Sean Hannity that Russian Dictator Vladimir Putin told him the 2020 election was rigged because of mail-in voting. Whether such flattery will get Putin ownership of Donetsk, Ukraine, time will tell.  A master of fraud who stays in power by putting competitors and critics behind bars and in the grave isn’t exactly credible on elections.

Study after study shows that instances of election fraud in the U.S. are exceedingly rare. Certified ballot-counting machines are actually more accurate when counting large volumes of ballots than hand counts, which are more susceptible to human error. Mail-in voting combines the best of voting methods. Every voter gets a trackable paper ballot that can be recounted if necessary. Certified machines do the counting, reducing instances of error, intentional or accidental. Unlike in the less-than-golden olden days, people cannot stuff ballot boxes or toss them into the river because ballots are tracked and voters are notified when their vote is cast.

Voting by mail is also far more inclusive. Before mail-in ballots, in order to vote absentee, one had to request such a ballot in advance. That meant on election day voters who were unexpectedly called out of town, too sick to leave the house, stuck at work, or held up in a crisis situation did not get to vote.

While I miss the days of in-person voting, serving as an election judge, and meeting members of my community in what felt like a patriotic, community effort, giving more Americans greater access to the polls is more important than my nostalgia.

Where mail-in voting is permitted, it is preferred. Colorado adopted mail-in voting in 2013. While Colorado voters can still vote in-person on election day, mail-in voting has become by far the more popular method. In the 2024 election, 92.2% of voters voted by mail.

The superiority of mail-in voting is why an increasing number of nations — 34 mostly western countries or territories at this time — allow some or all of their citizens to vote by mail.

In the U.S., eight states — Colorado, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington — vote predominantly by mail. If Democrats rely on mail-in voting to cheat, how did Utah manage to send only Republicans to Congress?

Still other states allow mail voting under certain circumstances. Nebraska and North Dakota enable counties to opt for mail-in elections. Twelve states allow mail-in voting for small jurisdictions like rural towns or small elections like for school boards or both (Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and Wyoming) according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. All states allow absentee voting for those under certain conditions such as being away from their precinct on election day, having a disability or illness, and being in the military and working abroad.

It is unclear whether Trump will attempt to stop just mail-in voting or will also target absentee voting and voting machines. One wonders if the planned executive order is just a prop in his stolen 2020 election farce or an actual attempt to reduce voting. Either way it’s going down in the courts.

Krista Kafer is a Sunday Denver Post columnist.

Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns, editorials and more.

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.

Walk any mountain trail, city park, or downtown street this Labor Day weekend and you’ll likely spot plastic bottles or aluminum cans left behind. We call it “litter.” But let’s be honest — this isn’t consumer waste. It’s corporate trash.

For decades, packaging and beverage companies have pulled off one of the most cunning blame-shifts in modern American life. They convinced us that the garbage problem is about our bad habits, our laziness, or our failure to recycle.

Who can remember the famous “Crying Indian” ad from the 1970s? That wasn’t made by environmentalists. It was created and paid for by the beverage and packaging industry. The message was simple: if bottles are floating in creeks or scattered across trails, blame yourself — not the companies churning out billions of single-use containers.

And the ploy worked. For fifty years, we’ve dutifully sorted bottles into blue bins, internalizing guilt, while corporations kept cashing in. The result? They pocket profits, and taxpayers get stuck with the cleanup bill.

At least some institutions are beginning to push back. The University of Colorado recently announced it will eliminate single-use plastic bottles at all home football games and Pepsi has agreed to only sell aluminium and glass products on campus. That’s a small but powerful step–showing leadership while the corporate giants keep dragging their feet

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: recycling alone cannot fix this problem. Fewer than 10% of plastics ever get recycled. Aluminum cans fare better, but even then, U.S. cans contain only about 40% to 50% recycled content. Millions still wind up in Colorado landfills each year — proof that the system is more illusion than solution. It’s like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Meanwhile, cities like Boulder, Denver, Fort Collins, Pueblo, and Colorado Springs spend millions every year on waste collection and recycling. Who pays? Not Coca-Cola. Not Pepsi. You do — through taxes, garbage fees, and sometimes bottle deposits. We pay once at the store, again when municipalities clean up, and sometimes a third time through bottle deposits.

Imagine allowing a chemical plant to dump sludge in a river and then telling residents to organize Saturday morning cleanups. Absurd? Yes. But that’s exactly how the packaging industry operates — leaving the public to mop up after their mess.

To their credit, Colorado lawmakers recognized this reality in 2022 by passing House Bill 1355, the state’s Producer Responsibility for Recycling Packaging law. Once fully implemented, companies selling packaging and paper products will be required to pay into a statewide system that funds collection and recycling. It’s a forward-thinking step that puts responsibility where it belongs — on the producers, not the public.

But let’s not kid ourselves. Passing the law was the easy part. The real challenge lies ahead: resisting the inevitable push by corporations to water it down. Lobbyists are already circling, looking for loopholes, delays, and exemptions. If Colorado is serious about cleaner trails, reduced landfill waste, and fairer costs for taxpayers, it will need to enforce this law with real teeth.

And remember — fewer than 20% of U.S. states have adopted anything like it. Colorado is ahead of the curve, but national action is lagging badly.

Let’s call the current system what it really is: a subsidy. Every bottle or can that ends up in a landfill represents a hidden taxpayer handout to multinational corporations that choose the cheapest packaging possible and offload the costs onto the public.

Why should Colorado families pay higher waste fees so that beverage giants can shave pennies off production? Why should local governments spend countless hours hauling trash off trails instead of investing in habitat restoration or recreation access?

This is backward economics. The people least responsible for creating the waste are the ones paying the price.

And this issue isn’t only about dollars and cents. Plastics are fossil fuels in disguise — petrochemicals molded into bottles, bags, and straws. Their production fuels greenhouse gas emissions. Their breakdown releases microplastics into rivers, lakes, wildlife, and, yes, even human bloodstreams.

If producers were forced to shoulder cleanup costs, they’d finally have an incentive to use recycled content, eliminate unnecessary packaging, and invest in reusable alternatives. Colorado’s environment would reap the benefits–from the Arkansas and Colorado rivers to alpine lakes in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Industry lobbyists warn that producer-responsibility laws will raise prices. But let’s be clear: consumers already pay. We just do it through hidden taxes, fees, and cleanups. A few pennies more per bottle, openly dedicated to recycling and waste reduction, is far fairer than the billions we silently shell out today.

And if those higher costs spur companies to redesign packaging so it’s reusable or genuinely recyclable? Even better. That’s how a free market is supposed to operate–rewarding innovation while discouraging waste.

Ultimately, this debate is about more than bottles and cans. It’s about what kind of values we want to live by. Do we keep letting corporations profit while offloading cleanup costs onto taxpayers? Or do we demand accountability–aligning responsibility with the mess that’s made?

It’s time to stop blaming the public. Stop subsidizing corporate waste. And start applying the most basic rule every parent teaches their kids:

If you make the mess, you clean it up.

Jim Martin is a former University of Colorado regent. He can be reached at jimmartinesq@gmail.com.

Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns, editorials and more.

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.

The Wyoming man who deliberately ran down a wolf with his snowmobile in 2024 didn’t face any consequences, unless you count a $250 fine for “possessing a live animal.” But as the terrible story and graphic photos of the wolf’s suffering spread across the nation, public reaction could be summed up as “horrified.”

Still, the Wyoming state Legislature failed to make illegal what Cody Roberts did. After running over the young female wolf with his snowmobile, Roberts paraded the dazed animal — its mouth taped shut — through a bar in Daniel, Wyoming. Then he shot the wolf dead.

In reaction, Wyoming’s governor and legislature passed a bill with no substance, House Bill 275, blandly labeled “The treatment of animals.” In passing it, Wyoming lawmakers sanctioned killing wildlife with vehicles.

At a hearing before the vote, representatives of Wyoming’s agricultural community defended the practice. One argued that without access to M-44 sodium-cyanide bombs that are now virtually prohibited, they needed to run over wolves and other wildlife with vehicles to protect their livestock.

For a while it seemed that the old ways of the Cowboy State would persist without question. That is, until the attorney for Sublette County convened a grand jury to examine Cody Roberts’ actions.

The closed-door grand jury acted on August 21, indicting Roberts on “felony animal cruelty,” an offense punishable by up to 2 years in prison, a fine of $5,000, or both. Roberts must appear in court to enter a plea of “guilty” or “not guilty” at arraignment. He could accept a plea deal or take a gamble and face trial.

Wyoming’s decision leaders may not realize it, but they now face a new landscape that increasingly demands responsible, nuanced responses, as well as humane policies involving animals. This ethic has already emerged in the West. For the most part, Wyoming leaders seem to be taking bad advice from the wrong people and find themselves badly out of step with the rest of the nation.

In a better world, those who work with animals–whether wild or domestic—would use ingenuity to prevent negative interactions with wildlife. Using the blunt force of a snowmobile to “manage” wildlife isn’t wildlife management at all: It is state-sanctioned cruelty.

Roberts needs to be punished. But what’s really at stake is achieving a changed relationship with wildlife in Wyoming. Ethics, not indifference, and a responsible attitude should prevail. And the state’s politicians and leaders need to be at the head of the parade on passing and enforcing laws that reflect the values of their fellow citizens.

In two separate polls, an overwhelming majority of Wyoming residents–including 74% of sportsmen—agreed that running over animals with vehicles is neither ethical nor “fair chase.” Our poll showed 71% of Wyoming residents do not approve of animal cruelty.

The coming years could pose a rare opportunity for sportsmen, conservationists–and also the agricultural community— to find common ground, building a future where humane wildlife stewardship is the norm.

I believe this can happen because precedents exist. Simultaneously with the passage of its HB275 wolf bill this year, another nightmare had been brewing: Two legislators proposed a bill to allow year-round hunting and trapping of mountain lions. But hunters and wildlife advocates stood together and shouted a collective “No!”

The Legislature listened. That moment proved something important. When we rise above division and focus on fairness and respect for wildlife, we can protect what makes Wyoming wild and wonderful, and we can do it together.

By dragging that muzzled wolf into a bar, Roberts also dragged Wyoming’s outdated treatment of wildlife into broader public view. In the harsh glare of what became a global spotlight, he may end up having done Wyoming a strange kind of favor. His grotesque actions exposed to the world what many here already knew–that cruelty to wildlife is not tolerated by most Wyoming residents, even if it happens to be protected by law. Those who might think the state should ignore such cruelty grow ever fewer in number.

If there’s any justice to be found in the matter, it rests with the prospect that Roberts’ brutality could spark real change for the better for wolves and other wildlife, for ethics and for Wyoming’s future.

Wendy Keefover is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. She works as an advocate for native carnivores for Humane World for Animals.

Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns, editorials and more.

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.