It is no wonder that Colorado’s Water Plan is the first of its kind in the state. The comprehensive document, currently in its second draft out for public comment, identifies the state’s water-related values, supplies, needs and the money required to meet those needs. Each of those plan elements is complex; many of them are conflicting – or at least competing.
And were it not for a number of gaps, either realized or pending, in water supply or the resources needed to meet it, the plan would be irrelevant. But as growth in the state – largely along the Front Range – commands ever more of Colorado’s limited water resources for municipal and industrial uses, all while agriculture, environmental and recreation demand grows, and Colorado’s obligations to deliver water to states throughout the West as part of the Colorado River Compact remain, the water plan is an essential effort. The extent to which it provides concrete answers to the challenging questions endemic to the state’s water climate will determine the Colorado Water Plan’s ultimate efficacy. Now is the time to help inform that process.
Sept. 17 is the deadline for comments on the second draft, and participation in this critical effort will help to guide the state toward its goal of closing the gaps – water and funding – that have emerged with competing demands as Colorado has grown. The plan, as with all things water-related in Colorado, is grounded in a commitment to prior appropriation: the legal framework that says once a water right is secured, it takes priority over all that come after it – so long as the water is put to “beneficial use.” As water use and culture have evolved in the state, that term has expanded – legally, if not across all cultural boundaries – to include flows for environmental and recreational needs as well as traditional uses such as drinking water and irrigation.
Therein lies the challenge: Beneficial use is too often in the eyes of its beholder, and with 70 percent of the state’s water resources located on the Western Slope, while more than 70 percent of its population is concentrated along the Front Range, Coloradans’ definitions of the term vary broadly. The water plan aims to find the common ground, and chart a possible path forward, and does an excellent job of describing the tools available toward that end. But the crux of the matter remains knotted: How to create a comprehensive action plan for water projects needed to address the state’s growing water gap.
The water plan is built on the work of Colorado’s eight river basin roundtables, which have each created a basin implementation plan for meeting their respective needs. Stakeholder input and support have been critical to these local efforts – and it has not come easily. Integrating the plans toward a common state map, with concrete steps that close the gap is the next crucial step. The water plan does not yet take it. Throughout, the plan recognizes the need for stakeholder input and support for articulating a list of projects that meet various needs throughout Colorado. That was the premise for the basin roundtables; taking it to the statewide arena will be exponentially more challenging. To be successful, the effort will require compromises from various water interests. Colorado’s Water Plan should insist upon that now, rather than leave the most difficult work for later.
Submit comments on the plan by Sept. 17, and help shape a workable document essential to the state’s future.
