Owen Lammers, Glen Canyon Action Network

Owen Lammers is the executive director of Glen Canyon Action Network, a one-year-old Colorado River advocacy organization based in Moab, Utah. In the 12 years before he co-founded GCAN, Owen was the executive director and vice president of International Rivers Network, based in Berkeley, Calif.

Yesterday we pulled out of the Colorado River town of Moab, Utah, our home base for building the people's movement for the Colorado River watershed. Two trucks are carrying us this time, as opposed to the two school buses we took last year to Glen Canyon Dam. It's March, and for those connected to the global river activist community, that means the International Day of Action Against Dams, and for Rivers, Water, and Life, on 14 Mar. We're getting an early start, because we have five rallies scheduled in five states as we work our way toward the finale in Los Angeles.

This is the "Sustainable Water Project Tour," co-sponsored by 116 environmental and social justice groups from the U.S. and Mexico. Combined, these groups represent the most broad-based coalition ever assembled to promote Colorado River restoration. Our mission is to draw public awareness to the plight of the Colorado River delta. This internationally acclaimed wetland and biosphere reserve has been reduced to less than 10 percent of its original size, largely because it no longer receives regular flows from the river. Every drop of the Colorado is diverted before it reaches the delta. Much of this water is wasted on flood irrigation for industrial hay fields, desert fountains, and private water-ski parks.

The Colorado watershed is the most developed river system in the U.S. More than 40 dams and reservoirs have transformed this sublime and diverse river system into nothing more than a series of regulated canals. As far as native species are concerned, the river is sick from its headwaters in New Mexico, Wyoming, and Colorado all the way to the Gulf of California. But its malady can easily be cured, as long as water users are willing to take the medicine prescribed -- conservation.

"It's an Ecosystem, Not a Plumbing System," reads the message emblazoned on the side of our 4,000-gallon water tanker truck, which will be collecting donations from the water agencies we visit throughout the tour. In letters signed by all 116 groups, the agencies are being asked to give back 1 percent of their Colorado River allocations to aid in delta restoration. That's equivalent to one fewer toilet flush per day for each of the 30 million people connected to the Colorado for their water supply. Similar savings could also be achieved by merely shifting 38,000 acres of alfalfa fields to less water-intensive vegetable or citrus crops. That would mean a crop change in only 1 percent of the total acreage irrigated by Colorado River water.

So today is our kickoff rally at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Upper Colorado regional headquarters in Salt Lake City. The Bureau is a fitting starting point, as they are the agency responsible for building many of the dams and diversions that have made this devastation possible. We will be calling on them to work with the basin's water users to ensure that water will again flow to the delta. We will also be calling on the Bureau to stop a major pipeline they are proposing to build across Utah wilderness to take yet more water out of the Colorado River system to fuel sprawl in the town of St. George.

Many of Utah's environmental groups have assisted with organizing and are taking part in the event, including the Utah Environmental Congress, Utah Animal Rights Coalition, Utah Rivers Council, Utah Green Party, Public Interest Research Group, Sierra Club Glen Canyon Group, and Sustainable Salt Lake. Similar support is being provided by local groups along our tour stops in Albuquerque on Wednesday, Phoenix on Friday, and Las Vegas, Blythe, and Los Angeles next week. For a complete rundown on the tour, visit our website.

Check in tomorrow as I report on today's events and head toward the San Juan River for a meeting with the Dine Medicinemen at Navajo Dam.