Featured mission: Native communities and water-use disparities on the Colorado River

Lake Havasu City Development. Photo by Steven Escobar.

On April 26, volunteer pilot Chuck Schroll flew award-winning native photographer Russel Albert Daniels as part of a project between HCN and ProPublica to document visible water-use disparities between the California Chemeheuvi Tribe, located on the Colorado River, and Lake Havasu City, which sits directly across the river. Lake Havasu, now a popular boating and recreation destination, was created with the construction of Parker Dam in 1938, which impacted the tribe's access to water. Chemehuevi tribal administrator, Steven Escobar, joined the flight to get an aerial perspective of the impacts to his community and to view some of the tribe's habitat restoration efforts.  

Two days later, Chuck Schroll flew Daniels and HCN Visuals Editor/Photographer Roberto "Bear" Guerra over southern Arizona Tohono O'odham lands, the ASARCO copper mine and nearby water-intensive pecan farms to show stark disparities between tribal and industrial/agricultural water uses. 

These two flights were aimed at highlighting water disparity issues for tribal communities in the west.

Chemehuevi Agriculture Fields.. Photo by Steven Escobar.

Most people are well aware of the issues water scarcity has brought to cities along the Colorado River, but little has been told about the issues that drought and water-use disparities have brought to Native American communities along the basin.  

In the area around Sahuarita, AZ (south of Tucson), for example, priority water use has been given to extractive companies (including copper mines) and large agricultural enterprises, which use large amounts of water. Water agreements are sometimes given to these corporations despite the harm to communities downriver, such as the Tohono O'odham's San Xavier District of their reservation.

Due to the size of these commercial operations, they're best viewed from the air. This also allows them to be seen in the overall desert landscape to show how much water is used to grow water-hungry nuts or operate a massive copper mine.

Steven Escobar of the Chemehuevi Tribe expressed his appreciation for the flight and how it accomplished their goals, "This was my first time flying in a small aircraft and the first time flying over my Reservation. So having this opportunity was awesome! As well as being able to see the difference in infrastructure between all locations." 

Take Off with volunteer pilot Chuck Schroll and High Country News passengers. Photo by Steven Escobar.

He further noted, "Based on the Chemehuevi location, we were able to see how the lack of access to infrastructure shows in the level of development on the agricultural fields. But when we reached Parker, we were able to see the level of development that has taken place with the availability of infrastructure resources."

In other cases, water reservoirs have been built for recreational purposes, impacting water access to tribes. This is the case with Lake Havasu City, a popular destination for boating and recreation that was constructed when the nearby Parker Dam was built. But this recreational area is impacting the Chemehuevi Tribe's reservation and their efforts to restore native riparian habitats.

These missions remind us of the purpose and the creation of our organization, to provide a new perspective to those environmental issues that are usually not evident in other ways.  The volunteer work of our pilots is crucial as conservation organizations often cannot afford aviation resources. Our assistance helps them make the most of their conservation efforts, emphasizing the value of our work.