On May 14, 2014, the Colorado River flowed all the way to the sea for the first time since 1998. It was a historic reunion that was decades overdue. And it was made possible by the pulse flow.
Set in motion by a 2012 U.S.-Mexico agreement, this “pulse flow” was designed to mimic, at a reduced scale, the kind of periodic floods that inundated the Colorado River Delta for eons, keeping the river corridor healthy by spreading seeds of native vegetation and creating conditions in which those native seedlings could thrive. Plans for the pulse flow were confirmed on January 31, 2014, when U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and her Mexican counterpart – Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT) Secretary Juan Jose Guerra Abud – announced the one-time release of 105,392 acre-feet (130 million cubic meters) of water down the Colorado River into the Delta channel, where water has not flowed regularly since 1960.
Running from March 23 – May 18, 2014, the pulse flow brought much-needed relief to Delta ecosystems and communities.
Since that time, ecologists and restoration workers have been gathering valuable information on the impacts of both the pulse flow and subsequent smaller releases of water, known as base flows. The first official report was issued on October 21, 2016, by the International Boundary Water Commission (IBWC). This “Minute 319 Colorado River Limitrophe and Delta Environmental Flows Monitoring Interim Report“, detailed the increase in birds, plants, and groundwater in the delta since the pulse flow, which signifies that these water flows in the Colorado River Basin are helping to restore the native environment and bring back native flora and fauna to the arid Colorado River delta.
The ongoing water flows represent a sign of hope for the people, birds, and other wildlife that depend on a healthy river. It is an unprecedented and unique initiative in the global context, that we hope will become a model for future trans-national river restoration efforts throughout the world.