9367 ‎(2)‎

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9367
• Author: Colorado Water Workshop.
• Title: Proceedings
• USFW Year: 1992.
• USFW - Doc Type: Colorado Water Workshop July 22-24, 1992.
• Copyright Material: NO

Renegotiating Compacts Under the Endangered Species Act

Patrick Parenteau
Head of Environmental Resources Practice Group, Perkins Cole

Someone might want to tell those folks out there that I have the
solution to the Endangered Species Act problems with the Colorado
River and I am only going to say it once!
I bring you Greetings from the great Pacific Northwest. I
practice law in Portland, Oregon. As you know, we have solved all of
our endangered species problems in the forests and rivers of the
Northwest. I am here today to tell you how to do it. If you will all
just take your seats and take some notes we can probably wrap this
little problem up in fifteen minutes or so.
Seriously folks, I know nothing about Colorado water law. I do
not know anything about these projects you are discussing. I do not
know anything about the Compact or the Law of the River. I know very
little, if anything, about Native American Treaty Rights. So, why am
I here?
Well, I have spent eighteen years or so with the Endangered
Species Act. The Act is only about twenty years old. It was passed
in 1973. I have practiced law in, under and around the Act for many
years, on behalf of different clients. Therefore, I might have a few
things to share that might conceivably be of some interest or some
help in dealing with the problems of allocating, and managing the
water and related resources of the Colorado river; but, I do not
promise anything.
Just to let you know, when I started out in this field, I had
much more hair and many more answers. In fact, for a long time, I
felt I had perfect vision. I had the insight. I could see the way
the world was supposed to work. I knew what the values we should all
agree upon were. I knew how natural resources should be managed. I
knew how to build economic systems that respected the natural world
with all of its wonderful diversity without, in any way, compromising
social, or environmental, or economic interest whatsoever. It was all
pretty simple and straight forward. Then a damnable thing happened
to me facts started intruding upon this wonderful vision and
intruding upon the world that I had created in my entirely
intellectual 25-30-35 year old mind. Now, as I track through all of
the different careers I think an environmental lawyer could have, [I
was Vice President for the National Wildlife Federation for a number
of years, Senior official with the Environmental Protection Agency for
a few years, ran a state agency in Vermont for a few years, and now
I represent big, bad, polluting, black hat, Darth Vadar corporations,.
out to despoil the world] I realize that I do not know who I am. What
do I think now about these issues? I am terribly confused. I have
a terrible heart-mind conflict. My heart says let's protect this
wonderful, beautiful, natural system we have all been so lucky,
fortunate and blessed to inherit. Let's leave it alone, let's enjoy
it, walk in it, and just savor the wonder and the beauty of the world
that we are so fortunate to live in. Then my mind says, how are you
going to make a living? Somehow we are going to have to learn to move

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