Here's a great article (the first of four parts) from the Denver Post dealing with water brokers [November 20, 2005, "Turning water into gold"]. From the article, "Everyone who buys a house in Denver's growing suburbs pays a hidden price for water. That first twist of the faucet in a new suburban home costs as much as $24,424 - more than twice the amount charged in any U.S. city outside metro Denver surveyed last year by the American Water Works Association. In semi-arid Colorado, there are well-known reasons for the high cost of water service. Among them: scant reservoir space and an immense mountain range separating water from people. A less-discussed reason is that in Colorado, water is property, and in much of the state, somebody already owns a right to use every gallon. Getting that water requires entering a volatile market where prices can double in an instant - as Broomfield and its neighbors have learned." Read the whole thing before it scrolls behind the Post paywall.
Here's an article from the Mohave Daily Times about distributing water from the Colorado River down south. From the article, "The first order of business, Fulp said, is to understand how much water is available in the river and how much of it is due to be delivered over the next month and year. The schedulers' job is to translate such long-range planning into the daily and even hourly operation of the lower Colorado's dams and reservoirs, he said. The goal is to meet water orders and maximize storage on the river so no excess water is allowed to flow across the international boundary. Any river water that flows into Mexico outside of scheduled deliveries does not count against Mexico's 1.5 million acre-foot allocation. The schedulers also are expected to hit target levels for the water elevation in lakes Mohave and Havasu and for the hydroelectric power output at Hoover, Davis and Parker dams. And to make sure the water arrives at its destination on time, they must adjust their deliveries for the time it takes water to move through the system: six hours from Hoover Dam to Davis Dam, three days from Parker Dam to the canals that funnel river water to farms just north of the U.S.-Mexico border. Adjustments made to the schedule are sent by computer to the Hoover Dam control center, a secure facility where the actual changes to water and power plant operations are made."
Category: Colorado Water
8:20:57 AM 
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