Colorado River Basin Governance, Decision Making, and Alternative
Approaches
Topic: Colorado River Basin Governance, Decision
Making, and Alternative Approaches
Speakers: Rich Juricich, MS, PE , Principal Water
Resources Engineer Colorado River Board of California
When: Friday, March 17th, 2023, 12 pm to 1pm
Where: Virtual (via Zoom)—Link to virtual
seminar to be sent upon RSVP
The recording of the webinar is available here.
Topic Overview
The Colorado River Basin stretches across seven states and Mexico, plays
a critical role in the social and economic well-being for millions of
people, and provides extensive environmental benefits. Over 40 million
people in the US rely on the Colorado River and its tributaries to
provide agricultural and municipal water supplies. Approximately 5.5
million acres within the US and nearly 500,000 acres within Mexico are
irrigated using Colorado River water. As one of the most overallocated
and highly managed rivers in the US, the Colorado River faces
significant challenges from a growing population and a changing climate.
This presentation will summarize current hydrologic conditions and
challenges facing the basin today and the programs and institutions in
place to manage these challenges.
About the Speaker
Rich Juricich is a Principal Engineer with the
Colorado River Board of California where he plans, leads,
organizes, and directs the work of the Research and Technical
Support Unit in the study and evaluation of Colorado River water
and power resources as they pertain to California's interests as
well as the evaluation and/or development of Colorado River
water resources projects. Rich also serves as the work group
chair for the Colorado River Salinity Control Forum, where he
leads technical activities for this seven-state organization
with guidance from the forum and the forum executive director.
Previously, Rich worked for the California Department of Water
Resources (DWR) for over 20 years, and his assignments included
implementation support for California's historic Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act, the California Water Plan, DWR's
initial CALSIM water management system planning model
development, and work with local agencies to develop conjunctive
management programs. Rich is a registered Professional Civil
Engineer in California with a Master of Science Degree from the
University of California, Davis, in Hydrologic Sciences, and a
Bachelor of Science Degree from Cal Poly Humboldt (formerly
Humboldt State University) in Environmental Resources
Engineering.
