Letters to the Editor: Save the Colorado River. Desalinate water from the Pacific Ocean for use in Colorado, Texas and California. It would make a lot of sense to use it as water for irrigation and other human uses. How much water does it take? A gram of water. How many people do we have to desalinate one gallon of water? 20,000 people. How many cars do we need to fill with water in a year? 5,000 cars. We make no sense to use water from the Colorado River for the irrigation of Texas and California. We make no sense to use it for human use. If everyone voted, we might get a few more votes and not have to use it.
John S. Ruggiero, Boulder
Let’s save the Colorado, not the Rio Grande! For the last seven years, the U.S. secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsack, has been trying to sell us on a deal to move the Colorado River from its natural boundaries to the Rio Grande Valley at El Paso, Texas. Mr. Vilsack is a very wealthy man and owns the Los Angeles Times, which has been publishing negative articles on how badly water needs water from the river for its inhabitants. As long as the river remains in the Colorado Basin, the U.S. will be unable to control flood damage caused by extreme precipitation. A better plan would be to move the river across the state’s border into Texas or California.
The Colorado River does not belong to our state. It belongs to the people of Mexico and the countries of Central America and, by right, should be used to irrigate farming communities throughout Mexico and Central America. We should give it back to the people that have been using it for thousands of years.
Paul Smith, Denver
