By Martin Stiles, senior public affairs analyst
Editor’s note: Each year, the Water Education Foundation (WEF) hosts a Lower Colorado River Tour, sponsored by CAP, where participants experience a three-day trip along the mainstem of the Colorado River from Las Vegas to Yuma. Martin, one of three CAP attendees, shares his experience.
Day 1
I boarded the brand-new coach bus at 7 a.m. Wednesday in Las Vegas with 50 other water professionals, all caffeinated and prepared for a long bus trip packed with information. Each section of the drive had an expert guest speaker on board who was prepared to share details about their area’s water rights and use. We also had speakers at every tour stop, as well as one at each breakfast, lunch and dinner – a functional 12 hours of presentations and Q&A with subject matter experts.
Our first stop was Hoover Dam, where we donned hardhats and went down the elevator to view the enormous hydroelectric generators that can power 1.3 million homes in the Lower Basin. At the base of the dam, the river flows through the penstocks and turns the turbines to produce electricity. Outside of the powerhouse, we walked between the Nevada and Arizona sides of the dam, which is delineated with a line in the center.
After a lunch overlooking Lake Mead and learning about the 2007 Interim Shortage Sharing Guidelines and the Drought Contingency Plan, we drove down through southern Nevada to the next dam on the Lower Colorado River.
We spent the evening in Lake Havasu City, where CAP’s Deanna Ikeya and Josh Randall presented, sharing information about the Lower Basin State’s Alternative to the 2026 Guidelines.
Day 2
The next morning, we stopped at the Mark Wilmer Pumping Plant. We also had a quick peek at the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) plant located on the other side of the river and then Next,our tour continued with a drive through Palo Verde Irrigation District and the Quechan Tribe’s farms.
Day 3
The next day was all about Imperial Irrigation District and Coachella Valley Irrigation District. We drove on top of the Brock Reservoir retention wall and learned about this important storage-facilities role in managing the Colorado River. After a few hours of driving along irrigation roads, we arrived at the Salton Sea, where the Audubon Society shared their work in regional habitat conservation.
Finally, we toured a lemon tree orchard in Coachella Valley. Our WEF hosts surprised us with date shakes back at the bus — grown with 100% Colorado River water, of course — before driving to Ontario Airport for the trip home.
The tour was a whirlwind of information about infrastructure, agriculture, water rights and history. Something that will always stay with me is that there is a great diversity of perspectives about what the water should be used for. The unique thing about the WEF tour is that you get to hear from almost every user’s perspective, and the mosaic is beautiful. You learn about the struggles and the successes of those Lower Colorado River Basin water users who share the river, but more importantly, the collaboration and the consensus.
