Colorado River Basin 2.0 Webinar

​The Colorado River Basin was engineered for a different hydrological reality. It's time for Basin 2.0.

​The basin's operating rules expire at the end of 2026, but the new framework will deliver incremental fixes. The redesign to a durable operating system, what we're calling Basin 2.0, is what has to come next.

​This webinar is about what Basin 2.0 could look like and what it will take to get there. The basin's assets and the toolkit already exist. What's missing is leadership, capital, and the political will to use them.

​Stabilizing the basin might require only $1-2B/yr, against a $1.5T annual basin economy: an "insurance premium" of only about 0.1% to create a durable operating system for one of the most important watersheds in North America. A hard problem, but a solvable one.

​What we'll cover

• ​The Situation: What the current reality is and why a full reset is needed

• ​Upgrading to Basin 2.0: The real toolkit, from agriculture to urban reuse and the water-energy nexus

• ​Who Pays? The cost of stabilization and the mechanisms to fund it

​The Panelists

• ​Anne Castle: Upper Basin policy, federal Interior background, and tribal water access

• ​Nicole Neeman Brady: California and Lower Basin; urban utility, agriculture, and investor lens

• ​Terry Fulp: Retired U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; Lower Basin operations and basin negotiation

• ​Upmanu (Manu) Lall: Academic and structural critique; water-energy systems

​Moderated by Steve Kloos, Burnt Island Ventures