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  Home Page » News » Officials Frustrated About Advancement Of Water Projects

Officials frustrated about advancement of water projects

by Joe Hanel
Herald Denver Bureau STEAMBOAT SPRINGS - A Republican candidate for governor chided Colorado leaders for moving too slow on building new water projects Friday.

"There is a real need in the here and now to address these issues. There is an urgency," said Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction.

Penry's remarks to the Colorado Water Congress come at a time when many of the organization's Front Range members are voicing their frustration at the slow progress toward an agreement to get more Western Slope water.

Penry's message puts the Grand Junction senator at odds with some Western Slope water managers, who want to delay major new projects until they know they will have enough water for their own population as well as recreation and the environment.

Penry's rivals for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis and businessman Don Maes, did not speak at the conference.

During a question-and-answer period, one audience member asked how Penry's support for building dams squared with his backing last year of Amendment 52, which would have capped the money in Colorado's water savings accounts and redirected extra money to highways.

Penry responded that the state doesn't spend the money it has effectively.

"We study too much. We analyze too much," he said.

Harris Sherman, head of the state Department of Natural Resources, disputed Penry's charge that Colorado does too many studies at the expense of physical projects.

In 2007, the state made $146 million in project loans, $87 million in 2008 and $45 million this year.

"To imply that the state has not funded water projects in recent years is simply inaccurate," Sherman said.

In any case, the Legislature drained $107 million from those accounts the last two years to help cover the state budget gap.

Water experts from both sides of the Continental Divide say there's been little progress toward a major new project.

Any project that takes a large "new" supply of water will have to rely on the Western Slope, because every drop in Eastern Colorado is already spoken for. A recent state study about water options for the future considered a number of projects, including pumpbacks from the Yampa River, a 400-mile pipeline across Wyoming and a "Big Straw" from Grand Junction to Denver.

A related study predicted the population will double to 10 million by 2050, with most of the growth landing on the Front Range.

The population pressure has Front Range utilities clamoring for more water, and their frustration bubbled to the surface after Penry's speech Friday, during a panel on the Interbasin Compact Committee - the group that is supposed to reach a statewide agreement about splitting up Colorado's remaining water.

Rod Kuharich is director of the South Metro Water Supply Authority, which serves fast-growing suburbs that have an unreliable water supply. Kuharich sits on the IBCC, but he called it "dysfunctional" and said it spends too much time on studies.

Kuharich complained that IBCC members have become even more entrenched in their regional perspectives. He wants the Gunnison basin to entertain the idea of a pipeline from Blue Mesa Reservoir to the Front Range.

But IBCC member Peter Nichols said it's not surprising no agreement is in sight, four years after the IBCC began its work. The engineering of a big water project is much easier than the politics, he said.

"Give this time to work," Nichols said. "It took us 150 years to get here. If it takes us 15 years to get out of here, I don't think that's absurd."

Along with former Sen. Jim Isgar, Penry sponsored the bill that created the IBCC and local roundtables for each major river basin.

He blamed a lack of political force at the top for the seemingly stalled IBCC, although he never mentioned Gov. Bill Ritter by name.

"I think the statewide framework needs a renewed urgency and a renewed push to develop storage," Penry said during his speech.

Sherman, chairman of the IBCC, said, "I think the IBCC has been a very helpful forum. I think the trust level, at least from my perspective, has increased among the basins."

The committee will be talking about the difficult problems at its next meeting Sept. 14 in Steamboat Springs.

"We're at a point now where there will be some difficult discussions, but I think the issue has been framed thoughtfully, and hopefully there will be some progress on this in the coming months," Sherman said.

jhanel@durangoherald.com