U.S. Water News Online
DENVER -- The Colorado Water Conservation Board plans to spend up to $500,000 next year to launch phase two of a far-reaching, closely watched study examining how the state will quench its thirst in the face of a relentless population boom.
In a draft of the study circulated recently, the board recommended several key steps the state should take. They include:
¥ Facilitating talks among officials in the state's eight river basins to ensure rural areas, where much of the state's water originates, and the thirsty urban Front Range can share water supplies equitably.
¥ Finding funds to preserve water for the environment and recreation.
¥ Requiring water utilities to report annual water use to ensure adequate data for planning.
¥ Monitoring water utilities' progress in meeting local water needs.
The Statewide Water Supply Initiative, as the study is known, was launched 16 months ago in response to the drought. The idea was to help lawmakers understand the state's water needs and what role policymakers could play in managing the state's water supplies.
The final report is due Dec. 1. To date, the study has shown that even as the drought eases, Colorado's water needs will soar 53 percent by 2030 as 2.8 million more people arrive.
The state will need an additional 630,000 acre feet of water &emdash; enough to serve another 1.26 million households. An acre foot of water equals about 326,000 gallons.
How that water is supplied - whether through additional transmountain diversions, the drying up of farms, aggressive conservation or water recycling - is a critical question Colorado has yet to answer.
"Our challenge now is to put the data in front of people and see what the solutions should be," said Rick Brown, project manager for the $2.7 million study.
Cities have said they can meet most of their future water demands by drying up agricultural lands, expanding existing reservoirs and recycling water.
But Western Slope officials and environmentalists remain deeply worried that the state will back a large-scale effort to move vast quantities of water - again - from the Western Slope to the Front Range.
"That suspicion will always be there, but that is not what this study is about," Brown said.
Still others worry that Colorado's rural farm economies will be crippled as cities move to convert more farm water to municipal use.
"I think it's good to have a statewide picture," said Rep. Diane Hoppe, a Republican from Sterling who chairs the legislature's Water Resources Committee.
"The drought has raised everyone's awareness. It's always nice when we have enough water here. But when we don't, we have to say, 'Could we be managing the resource better?' "
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