OGDEN — The Great Salt Lake Collaborative will resume its Weber County book club series next week with a discussion about the American West’s water supply and, more specifically, the situation on the Colorado River.

On Wednesday, July 17, from 7 to 8 p.m., the book “Science Be Dammed: How Ignoring Inconvenient Science Drained the Colorado River” by Eric Kuhn and John Fleck will be the subject of the latest discussion, which will take place at the Weber County Library System’s Main Library, 2464 Jefferson Ave., Ogden (Main Classroom A).

Speaking at Wednesday’s event will be Lily Bosworth, a staff engineer at the Colorado River Authority of Utah. Weber County Library System librarian and event organizer Josh Clemens will moderate the discussion.

Craig Wallentine, who volunteers for the collaborative and also helped organize the event, said that interested parties are encouraged to attend regardless of whether they have read the book or not.

“The fun part is the discussion,” Wallentine told the Standard-Examiner. “Each book is a little bit different. But I think the people that come — it doesn’t really matter if they’ve read the whole book.”

Wallentine added that water issues on the Colorado River are pertinent to people who live and work in Northern Utah and throughout the region.

“There are a number of these trans-mountain exchanges where they actually send water from the Colorado River to the front range, to Denver, and they send it to the Wasatch Front,” he said. “So, it definitely impacts the Wasatch Front. … The hydrological basins are connected because of the plumbing that’s been done.”

Water distribution from the river is largely regulated by the Colorado River Compact of 1922, an agreement between the seven U.S. states along the Colorado River Basin: the Upper Basin division states (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) and the Lower Basin division states (Nevada, Arizona and California).

The compact allocated water rights based on period hydrological data, which was gathered during a time of abnormally high river flow (and subsequent study found that overestimations also were made). Due to these deficits, growing populations in the region, the impact of global warming and persistent drought conditions throughout the Southwestern U.S., the river and water supply are in a state of crisis.

“Science Be Dammed” examines these and related issues state by state, as well as in Mexico, where ecosystems have collapsed along the Colorado River Delta due to upstream damming/diversion and usage.

Said Clemens of the event: “The library is one of the main spaces where members of the community can come and discuss without any agenda being put forward. Really, it’s a place to share ideas and discuss in a civil manner. … So, the library is always interested in having any kind of topic, especially something as important as what is going to be the future of water in our state.”

The book club series’ next event — during which Terry Tempest Williams’ “Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place” will be discussed — is slated for Sept. 18. Event details will be announced at a later date.