Sunday March 23, 2014, at a little after 8 am, the gates at Morelos Dam on the Mexico-Arizona border were opened for the first time in history for the purpose of allowing the Colorado River to flow downstream into its delta to water the plants and animals that live there. A crowd of more than 100, many from the local community, plus a handful of reporters and water workers from afar, waited just downstream.
A cheer went up when the water began to pour down, first in a trickle, and then a steady gushing flow. It took a long time for the institutions that manage the Colorado River to make this happen. Now we have the chance to see how long it takes the river to move downstream, and how far it goes.
Jennifer Pitt, Environmental Defense Fund