Investors Snap Up Colorado River Water Rights…

…Bet On An Increasingly Scarce Resource

With the federal government poised to force Western states to change how they manage the alarming shortfall in Colorado River water, there is one constituency with a growing interest in the river’s fate that’s little known to some: Wall Street investors.

Private investment firms are showing a growing interest in an increasingly scarce natural resource in the American West: water in the Colorado River, a joint investigation by CBS News and The Weather Channel has found. For some of the farmers and cities that depend on the river as a lifeline, that interest is concerning.

“Our only source of water is the Colorado,” says Joe Bernal, who raises cattle and grows crops on land across Colorado’s Grand Valley, relying on water from the drought-depleted Colorado River.

“That’s all we’ve got is that river,” he says.
—Joe Bernal

Bernal’s family came to the Grand Valley nearly 100 years ago, and he has lived there his whole life.

But now, he has a new neighbor: a New York-based investment firm called Water Asset Management, which he says bought a farm in the valley around 2017 that Bernal now rents and helps operate.

According to public records, the hedge […]

Full article: Investors Snap Up Colorado River Water Rights, Bet On An Increasingly Scarce Resource

Also see: New “Water Barons”: Wall Street Mega-Banks Buying the World’s Water