Wringing Water From the Rocks
 Coyote Gulch was on hand last night for the second installment of Wringing Water from the Rocks at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
Mayor Hickenlooper spoke about the need to do the basic science around water. He lauded the museum's role in the current understanding of the hydrology, geology and business associated with the Denver Basin Aquifer. He 'deputized' those of us in attendance to get the word out while mentioning that change often comes after ideas reach a 'Tipping Point.' The mayor made sure to thank Ken Wright for his sponsorship of the series and added that Mr. Wright is now on his, "most cherished persons list."
Ken Wright introduced the first speaker' Frank Jaeger from the Parker Water and Sanitation District. Mr. Wright praised Jaeger by saying, "They don't go dry out there." High praise indeed.
Mr. Jaeger described the condition of the Denver Basin Aquifer and said that parts will likely be 'unconfined' within 10 years. Like all western suburbs and urban areas with shaky water resources for the future Parker is preaching the 'sharing' of water.
Jaeger is promoting the use of 'fallowing' as a means of moving water from agriculture (80% of water use in Colorado) to urban uses. His program on the South Platte in Logan County seeks to keep farmland in production while securing long term water supplies for Parker.
He maintains that the utility must become a member of the farming community to be successful. The utility must be a responsible water user, a good steward of the land, a caretaker of history and make payments in lieu of taxes when taking land off the rural county tax roles.
One example of the fallowing program is to pay farmers today for water that will not be used for 10 years. In 10 years the farmer will take a percentage of land out of production and transfer the water savings to the utility. This enables the farmer to stay in business and recognize some income from their water rights today. Parker Water and Sanitation hopes to keep the farms they buy in production by leasing at competitive market rates.
Mr. Jaeger cited San Diego as an example where fallowing has worked and provided tons of water to the urban area. Don't miss the nifty webcam shot on the Parker Water and Sanition home page showing the construction of Rueter-Hess Reservoir.
Next up was Chuck Clarke the director of Seattle Public Utilities. Mr. Clarke highlighted some of the measures and strategies his utility is using to provide water to their customers.
The strategy message included identifying and reducing risk, knowing the service level expected by customers, understanding the politics in your context, and the importance of good science. He mentioned that his utility uses a concept called the Triple Bottom Line. From Wikipedia: "The triple bottom line captures an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organizational (and societal) success - economic, environmental and social. In practical terms, 'triple bottom line accounting' usually means expanding the traditional company reporting framework to take into account not just financial outcomes but also environmental and social performance."
Mr. Clarke mentioned Seattle's partnerships with other utilities in Australia and New Zealand. He stressed the importance of finding the best examples of water delivery and management in order to evolve your organization. Clarke said, "I think you can learn from anyone."
If you've been wondering if the series would be worth your time Coyote Gulch recommends that you attend the next session on August 16th. Here's the post about the first lecture in the series.
Here's an article about the 30th Annual Colorado Water Workshop, from the Rocky Mountain News [July 28, 2005, "Conservation touted at water workshop"]. From the article, "Colorado's water czars should stop spending millions on futile lawsuits to take water from other users and instead invest in conservation incentives, Rick Cables, the U.S. Forest Service's regional director, said Wednesday."
Maybe they should buy farms and start a fallowing program.
Water conservation is the subject of this article from the Rocky [July 28, 2005, "Denver urged to conserve its water"].
Category: Colorado Water
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