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001037 2002] THE lAST GREEN lAGOON 963 B. Using the Market to Secure Water for the Delta: The Sonoran Institute and Clinton Engineering Proposals Following the apparent failure of the Pacific Institute proposal in BOR's EIS process, some of the members of the Pacific Institute coalition began. exploring alternative approaches to securing a source of water for Delta restoration. Given the political pressures on the Colorado River, this exploration focused on identifying a source of water that would be more politically palatable to the gridlock of water interests on the Lower Colorado. The fIrst proposal to emerge came from the Sonoran Institute in the fall of 1999. 1. The Sonoran Institute Proposal The Sonoran Institute proposal developed out of the efforts of a coalition of environmental organizations, Delta communities, and scientists who have been studying and working to restore the Delta region.359 The Sonoran Institute, a non-profit conservation organization, had been working with other groups in the Delta for several years through its Borderlands Initiative, which uses international cooperation between border communities to improve environmental values in the international border region.360 The Institute sought to use a multifaceted, community-based, internationally. cooperative approach in order to help the communities of the Delta (consisting in large part of the Cucupa Indian Tribe) by restoring used to block logging operations, road construction, irrigation diversions, and other projects _ doubtless to some environmental benefit. The result of the ruling, however. has been the removal of the legitimately endangered coho salmon from listing, a widespread and deliberate assault on coho habitat, and a serious threat to the protection of salmon stocks throughout North America. See Rebecca Claren, Ruling Ripples Through SalnwnCountry, HIGH COUNTRY NEWS, Dec. 3, 2001. at 33. We do not mean to suggest that the ESA should not be used to protect salmon or other species -we merely suggest that if it is used too aggressively or disingenuously, environmental interests risk losing not just their own case, but creating damaging pnOlGedents that will hamper future litigation efforts and potentially endanger the very species that the statute is designed to protect. Because of the enormous economic and political pressures on the Lower Colorado, we suggest that the use of the ESA to benefit the Delta could pose just such a risk. 359. Participants in these efforts have included many of the groups supporting the Pacific Institute proposal, noted scientists and advocates like Jennifer Pitt, Daniel Luecke, Michael Cohen, Edward Glenn, Mark Briggs. and Carlos Valdes-Casillas (among many others), as well. as representatives of the Cucupa Indian n-ibe in Mexico, the Mexican government, and local communities (personal knowledge of the authors; Mr. Culp has been .involved with these efforts). 360. For more information, contact the Sonotan Institute at 7650 E. Broadway, Suite 203, Tucson, AZ 85710, phone: (520) 290-0828, e-mail: sonoran@sonoran.org.