Colorado Water
The state needs to find enough dough to run the Water Quality Control Division, according to the Rocky Mountain News [September 6, 2004, "Water watchdogs running low on staff"]. From the article, "The state's 115-person Water Quality Control Division, charged with keeping streams clean and drinking water safe, falls 80 staffers short from what a program of its size and responsibilities typically employs, according to the report written by division officials. Compounding the problem, there's no clear source of money for the water quality division to make up for even some of the staffing shortfall." Couldn't Denver Water just add another surcharge or raise rates? Somehow this problem must be due to conservation. 
Should the feds stop draining Lake Powell, asks the Denver Post [September 6, 2004, "Reservoir worries spill over"]? From the article, "Lake Mead and Lake Powell have already lost a combined 25 million acre-feet during the five-year drought, which is among the worst in centuries. That volume is equal to a full Lake Mead. The 1,450-mile Colorado River rises in Rocky Mountain National Park and supplies water to one of every 10 U.S. residents. But demand for the river's water is so great that it rarely reaches its mouth in the Gulf of California. Powell acts like a water bank for the Upper Basin states of Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah, releasing water to Lake Mead for distribution to the Lower Basin as required under the 1922 Colorado River Compact. If Powell's level falls low enough, Colorado and the other headwaters states would have to drain their reservoirs to meet the needs of the their Lower Basin neighbors - California, Nevada and Arizona. That could force Colorado to curtail water users on the Western Slope or even curb the transmountain diversions that supply the Front Range, George said."
7:48:54 AM 
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