Podcast
So what’s the big deal about the Colorado River 2026 Negotiations? In this 8-part series, Ken Ransford, Esq., CPA, connects the dots across states and timelines to explain how dozens of major decisions over the past century have led to the opportunity – and need – for comprehensive Colorado River usage reform. For over 20 years, Ken has been serving on a volunteer citizen's board that Colorado state officials organized as a grassroots-level advisory board for Colorado River policy, regulation and legislation. As secretary of the board, Ken has gained – and now shares – his unique insight, myriad research, and some of the alternatives being discussed to address the procrastination crisis that has forced what amounts to a national deadline in 2026.
Episode 1: A Generational Opportunity to Repair the Colorado
A century of political procrastination sets up 2026 as a generational opportunity to repair the Colorado River and improve how it serves tens of millions of Americans. Unless we screw it up. In the first of eight episodes of Whose Law of the River podcast, Ken Ransford sits down with Curtis Robinson to explain the crisis.
Episode 3: Politics, Economics, Conservation, Tribal Rights... What 's Driving the 2026 Colorado River Negotiations?
Upper Basin, Lower Basin, and Native Americans... What has everyone has been saying so far as we head into the 2026 Colorado River Negotiations. Ken and Curtis break it down, and also discuss The 1922 Compact, which is political, but has worked; how Native Americans are key to negotiations; and that vexing Arizona water rights question.
Episode 5: Nostalgia for the Way Life Along the Colorado River Used to Be
'The Story it Told' makes us sad for the way life along the Colorado River used to be, but the centuries old 'River People' still exist – just without a river. Ken and Curtis talk about the history of the Colorado River, remembering a film's dancing horse, and discuss the tricky problem of California's once-huge, now shrinking Salton Sea. Yes, the Colorado River is complicated.
Episode 7: Why Regulations Are Good for the Colorado River
Ken makes a case for how regulations are not only good, but the only way to address the Colorado River. Other topics discussed: creating a true market for water in the American West; let's pay farmers for their water; and satellites are watching the plants – no, really.
Episode 2: Climate Change is the Real Challenge for the Colorado River
In this episode Ken and Curtis discuss why climate change is the real challenge for maintaining water levels in the Colorado River. Other topics: Why "deadpool" is not just a movie character; wet water vs. paper water; and the Klamath River as an example of how quickly nature can restore itself. And yes, the river is alive!
Episode 4: The Colorado River is Being Worked to Death
Ken and Curtis provide data on how the hard-working Colorado is being used to the point of drying up, as seen in the delta which no longer reaches the Pacific. While there is no one reason for declining water levels, the Colorado is a very dammed river and this podcast takes you on a tour of the dams and their effects on the river.
Episode 6: A 12-Step Program to Fix the Colorado River
In this episode Ken and Curtis make the case for why the Colorado River laws should reflect policy, not the other way around. Ken outlines a realistic, 12-step program to fix the Colorado and we know not everybody's going to like it. And, we also understand not everybody wants to admit the truth about what crops are grown in Colorado and why... can you say "use it or lose it"?
Episode 8: Native American Rights to the Colorado River
A federal deadline passes with little notice and less fallout; The Gila River Indian Community shows water rights vs. water delivery quandary; and noting that several studies indicate that from 20 to 25 percent of the Colorado River rights belong to Native American Tribes.