When the state released the first draft of Colorado’s Water Plan, a comprehensive vision for how to meet growing and disparate demand for an essential and limited resource, the document was long on goals and values but short on action. With the new draft completed last month, that gap has closed somewhat with a clearly articulated action plan for meeting the goals of providing effective and efficient water infrastructure, protecting the state’s rivers, streams, watersheds and wildlife, and supporting Colorado’s diverse economy.
The state is now taking input on the plan and providing it is crucial to the enduring conversation about how to meet water demand across a geographically, culturally and economically diverse state.
The Colorado Water Resources Review Committee, with state Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, as its chairman will hold a meeting Monday at the Holiday Inn in Durango to discuss the updated draft of the plan. This is an important opportunity to hear about the revised water plan from Colorado Water Conservation Board Director James Eklund, and provide input on the draft. The CWCB, tasked with overseeing water policy and planning in the state, crafted the plan in partnership with local input from Colorado’s nine river basins, by way of their own implementation plans that went into effect in April after years of crafting the localized documents.
The statewide document, meant to address critical challenges such as a growing water supply gap, a changing climate that is hampering water resources, the transfer of water from agricultural to municipal use, an inefficient regulatory framework and limited funding to address these concerns, has digested the basin-level plans and established a lengthy list of steps the state can take in response. First among them is to develop a funding plan for what follows.
From there, the actions become more specific to the issue at hand, and while the steps are clearly articulated, some of them are somewhat vague. Nevertheless, they tier appropriately to the plan’s values and goals of addressing water supply challenges in Colorado.
It is a multifaceted approach to a growing issue, with emphasis on conservation – with the goal of conserving 400,000 acre feet of water by 2050 through improved efficiency in municipal systems. This is an important ethos for the state to adopt in an environment where demand outpaces water supply. It is not the whole solution, though, and water-storage projects are part of the mix as well.
The draft water plan outlines a framework for transmountain diversions that would bring water from the Western Slope to the Front Range, but does so with sufficient caution as to make any such project a formidable endeavor. That is wholly appropriate given the ramifications of moving water out of its basin of origin – where it could and would be put to beneficial use – to meet the demands of Colorado’s growing cities.
These are challenging discussions with varied viewpoints, all of them valid. Crafting a statewide plan that honors the divergent needs and shared values of Colorado’s water users is both an essential and challenging task. The plan’s ultimate value will derive from its actionable findings and the meaningful input of Colorado’s water users.
Attend the discussion at 2 p.m. Monday at the Holiday Inn and offer feedback on a document that will bring much to bear on the state’s future.
