The current tug-of-war over water will only get more severe over the next few years. Colorado's unbridled growth is fueling much of the supply problem. Harris Sherman, Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, was in Pueblo yesterday issuing a call to arms of sorts, for the state to get serious about water supply for the future, according to a report from Chris Woodka writing in the Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:
While competing water needs are on a collision course in Colorado, land-use decision-makers and water providers have barely begun to talk about how to deal with shortfalls. That was the assessment of Harris Sherman, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, at a meeting of Action 22 Thursday at Colorado State University-Pueblo. About 50 people attended the meeting, hosted by a group that represents common political interests in 22 Southeastern Colorado counties. "How we develop our land-use patterns will have a huge influence on the use of water," Sherman told the group. "There is a direct relationship of how we grow and the use of water."
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By 2050, as much as 70 percent of agriculture on the Front Range, and 60 percent on the Western Slope, could disappear if nothing is changed about the way the state is developing, Sherman said. The old model, moving water from the western to eastern side of the Continental Divide, is no longer sufficient, because Colorado has not completed a major water project in 30 years and Western Slope users have resisted any proposal for new diversions. "No one wants to see this scenario. It concerns everyone," Sherman said. "We need to spend time on the basin of origin. If they provide water or share it, how do we make sure they are protected?"
Sherman praised efforts in the Arkansas River basin to look at new ways to share water that will avoid the "buy-and-dry" model under which cities traditionally have acquired water. The Super Ditch, a marketing group formed by farmers on seven ditches under the leadership of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, allows farmers to retain water rights while leasing water in exchange for fallowing some of their land. The Arkansas Basin Roundtable has developed a water transfer model that tries to take into account how to make sure transfers do minimal damage to communities where water is leaving. "The Arkansas basin is the leader in this area," Sherman said. "The traditional buy-and-dry has a devastating effect on rural economies."
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The shortfall for future growth in municipalities is projected to require an additional 660,000 acre-feet of water annually by the year 2030, Sherman said. With conservation measures, which cities are finding easier to achieve since the 2002 drought, the shortfall shrinks to 450,000 acre-feet per year. Better planning, such as zoning more densely for housing and better landscaping, could bring the number down to 430,000 acre-feet per year.
"colorado water"
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