The state water agency that is creating a statewide water plan met Wednesday at Sky Ute Casino and approved a "conceptual framework" to guide future proposals for diversion of Western Slope water to Front Range urban areas.
Trans-mountain diversions (TMDs) are the hot button issue in the Colorado Water Plan for West Slope water interests. The Colorado Water Plan is being drafted to address water supply gaps with state population projected to reach 10 million by 2050.
The Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) is drafting the plan. Meeting at the casino Wednesday, the board voted unanimously to include the conceptual framework in the water plan. They were scheduled to continue meeting on Thursday.
CWCB member John Stulp called the conceptual framework "a guidance document for future negotiations," including that future TMDs will avoid increasing the risk of a compact deficit, the amount of water Upper Colorado River Basin states are obligated to deliver to Lower Basin states as measured at Lee's Ferry in the Grand Canyon. Declaration of a compact deficit could have serious impacts to West Slope water users.
Board member John McClow added, "On the West Slope, TMD is the number one issue in the water plan. I think this framework addresses that very well. It's a concern on the Front Range as well."
Several CWCB members and other speakers commended the conceptual framework and the state plan as a big step forward.
Durango water engineer Steve Harris agreed, but he objected that the plan doesn't include a cost versus water yield comparison of TMDs with alternative water sources. "We think it's very important that that be included," he said. "I understand it's not included, and it should be."
Southwest Water Conservation District Director Bruce Whitehead called the framework "an elegant balance that was achieved. If it strays too far in any direction, we may lose that delicate balance."
The water plan includes Basin Implementation Plans (BIPs) created by nine water basin roundtables around the state. Whitehead noted that the Southwest Basin Roundtable "supports first the development of resources (such as storage projects) in the basins that have the biggest supply gaps."
He agreed with Harris that alternative supplies versus TMDs should be considered in the water plan, not just the Southwest Basin Implementation Plan.
CWCB member Patricia Wells presented a more urban view.
"I noted the disparity of how we treat agriculture and how we treat people," she said of her reading of the water plan. "Eighty-six percent of people (in Colorado) live in urban areas. We tell them they should use less water indoors and outdoors, give up their green-scape, huddle together in dense units... All the mandates are about people. That's how it reads to me."
She continued, "Conservation and re-use are vital, but we should recognize the quaity of life that people in cities deserve. Residential outdoor use is two percent of the outdoor use in Colorado, but it contributes greatly to quality of life. ... We use the phrase 'vibrant and sustainable cities,' but the only thing we say is they should use less water."
Harris said municipal conservation is an important part of the plan "because of dry-up of several hundred thousand acres on the South Platte. This deals with it."
Harris initiated a bill in the legislature in 2014, sponsored by State Sen. Ellen Roberts, that would have limited the size of lawns in new subdivisions that used water transferred from agriculture. The bill drew a lot of opposition from Front Range water interests and ended up as a legislative interim committee that held meetings around the state last summer and again this summer.
That committee will meet Monday at the Holiday Inn in Durango from 2 to 5 p.m., with more presentations at 6 p.m.
Work on the Colorado Water Plan was initiated in 2013 by executive order of Gov. John Hickenlooper. The first draft of the plan was released in December 2014. The second draft was released this month. Comments submitted through Sept. 17 will be considered for the final plan, which is supposed to be submitted to the governor by Dec. 10 this year.
The plan is at www.coloradowaterplan.com. CWCB staffer Kate McIntire said the conceptual framework will be posted there in chapter 8 next week.
