A park for 277 luxury RVs and small cabins has been proposed near the intersection of Trimble Road and County Road 250. As a nearby neighbor, I am concerned about the additional noise and traffic, the impact on wildlife, the elimination of CR 250 as a great road for bicyclists, the encouragement of “luxury emissions” that add to climate change, light pollution, and on and on. But as a hydrologist I am concerned with the simple question – where are they going to get the water?
The plan for this RV park says it will use 27,000 gallons per day or about 10 million gallons a year. Beyond that, it is starting with a barren gravel pit, where the developer has said that a very large, but undefined amount of water will be used in establishing and maintaining vegetation.
Asked where this water will come from, the developer’s representative at the county said there is nothing to worry about as a local water company has agreed to provide the water.
And still I wondered, where will the water come from?
It turns out the answer should concern us all. As a reader of The Durango Herald, you news story after news story concerning the maintenance of our water supply, he effects of drought, possible reduction in water use to meet downstream demands, and the ever-present need to conserve water, all in the face of climate change. An issue looming over us mutes all of these concerns. That issue is conditional water rights – existing water rights that are not currently being used. You see, the water company is proposing to provide 10 million gallons a year to the RV park from the water company’s never-before-used water rights.
And where will the water company get this new water? From the rivers and creeks that flow into our valley. And where would this water go if the water company did not pump it out of the ground? Back into the Animas River.
The water company wants to contest this, but in this valley we have a simple system. Water flows downstream into the valley, is channeled along the east and west edges of the valley in irrigation ditches, and applied to farmers’ fields. Water leaking from these, rivers, streams, irrigation ditches and fields, provides our aquifer with water, making one completely interconnected system of surface and ground-water.
So why is this a concern beyond the issue of a massive RV park? According to records provided by the local office of the Colorado Division of Water Resources, there are more unused groundwater rights than water rights currently being used.
DWR staff also said that potential impacts of these rights being exercised has not been analyzed. Essentially, groundwater pumping could more than double and no one can do anything about it. These rights have already been granted.
As a critical first step, I suggest a moratorium on the exercise of conditional water rights until DWR analyzes the impacts of this potential increase in water use.
Paul Davis is a groundwater hydrologist who lives north of Durango.
