Wringing Water From the Rocks
Coyote Gulch was howling at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science last night. The occasion was the third lecture in the series Wringing Water from the Rocks.
Dr. Bob Raynolds kicked things off introducing Mayor Hickenlooper. The mayor mentioned the importance, complexity and legal aspects of water issues in Colorado. He told us that attendance at the lecture series has increased approximately 40% from lecture to lecture. (He did not thank Coyote Gulch for the publicity.  )
Ken Wright was next and introduced the first speaker, Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hobbs. Justice Hobbs detailed some of the history behind Colorado's water law. The first law passed in the Colorado Territory was a water law. The first law allowed water to be moved over private property from the streams to irrigate fields. Other early events included the Spanish land grants in Southern Colorado that included water rights.
Water law from the start was an irrigation law. Land west of the 100th meridian generally requires irrigation. Laws were crafted to reflect this reality.
He praised the Colorado legislature for becoming innovative in solving the State's water problems, calling the 21st century the, "Era of Water Limits."
Justice Hobbs pointed us to the Colorado Foundation for Water Education website. You can subscribe to their newsletter and buy all sorts of cool stuff, including Hobb's book of poetry Colorado: Mother of Rivers. Coyote Gulch thought he died and went to heaven listening to poetry about water.
Next up was Eric Kuhn General Manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District. Mr. Kuhn described the Prior Appropriation Doctrine or Colorado doctrine.
According to Mr. Kuhn water rights are a way of maintaining order. Water courts are the independent and impartial arbiters of water use. A problem that is receiving a great deal of attention today is that ground water rights are different than surface water rights but we now know that the alluvial aquifers are an integral part of the stream systems.
Mr. Kuhn went on to say the the Colorado River Compact (1922) was a way to avoid prior allocation. The upper basin and lower basin states agreed to allocate water from the river based on average annual flow.
The Upper Colorado River Basin Compact (1948) allocated water between the upper basin states. The upper basin water compact gives Colorado 51% of the water allowed under the Colorado River Compact although Colorado generates 67% of the water in the river. The lower basin states have failed to create a compact.
Recent studies including studies of paleo-hydrology data indicate that the Colorado River may be over-appropriated.
Again, if you're interested in water issues the lecture series is a great forum. Where else can you rub elbows with the Mayor, Denver Water employees, Denver Parks water conservation personnel, water engineers, environmental activists and Coyote Gulch?
The next lecture will be next Tuesday, August 23rd.
Here's the Coyote Gulch coverage of lecture 1 and lecture 2.
Category: Colorado Water
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