Taking Big Red: The Colorado River - Grand Canyon Water War

"whiskey's fer drinking and water's fer fightin' for."

That slangy Old West battle cry was never more true than it is now. The Colorado River has been intercepted, altered, and allocated, and its users are engaged in a quiet but desperate conflict. It's a war, but (with a couple of exceptions) not in the destructive sense. It's a series of battles between and within user constituencies to protect their takings. Whitewater boaters (and other recreational river and lake users) are among those constituents.

About 20,000 people pay to take a Grand Canyon river trip each year, and they now total upwards of one million. But in this water war, even though whitewater boating is not a consumptive use, river runners are overmatched. Unlike basins, states, and cities, recreational users have no water allocations but are affected by those who have them.

Taking Big Red is a personal account of the battles inside and outside the river outfitter, guide, and passenger communities during the past fifty years, a situation one Washington official of the time termed "permanent political whitewater."