Water makes Colorado green, not only through irrigation provided by farmers, ranchers and others, but also as the primary economic driver of tourism, agriculture, recreation and – if you think about it – every other industry in the state.
Colorado’s water resources are limited, and we must plan for future growth.
About 80 percent of the people in Colorado live on the Front Range between Fort Collins and Pueblo. Over the years, they have depended on transmountain diversions of Western Slope water. About 500,000 acre feet of water are diverted every year to the Front Range. Additionally, up to 500,000 acre feet of Western Slope water is diverted to the Rio Grande River Basin through the San Juan/Chama Project. Also, there are about 160,000 acre feet of Colorado River Basin water that has been purchased but not diverted to the Front Range.
Water in the Colorado River Basin is shared between the upper basin states and the lower basin states through a compact that was agreed on in the 1920s and that has served the basin well.
Lake Powell and Lake Mead were built to store mountain spring runoff and floodwater to guarantee water to California, Arizona and Nevada. Presently, both Powell and Mead are dangerously low, primarily because of the drought of the past 14 years.
The Front Range is depending on more Western Slope water diversions to sustain its growth, and the Western Slope simply does not have the water to share. There is a solution. The governor’s water plan points out that we will need an extra 400,000 acre feet of water to sustain anticipated growth.
I have been watching the South Platte River for several years. This May and June, it was estimated that 2 million acre feet of water left the state on the South Platte that could have been stored and used in Colorado. One million acre feet in each of two recent floods left the state that could have been stored. Every year, there is runoff that leaves the state that could be stored.
We need water storage on the main stem of the South Platte! This would provide many benefits to all of Colorado. Storage water rights would be established for Front Range municipalities, relieving the need for transmountain diversions. The demand for agricultural water would be reduced. Senior water rights downstream on the South Platte would be guaranteed so that there would be no need to oppose rain barrels and agricultural pumping of wells that would lower the water table in the La Sal area. The Denver aquifer could be recharged. The list of benefits goes on and on.
Where could this storage be? I believe that we need to take another look at the proposed “Narrows Project.” This project was vetoed by the Carter administration many years ago supposedly because it was not financially feasible. The demand for water and the price of water is much greater today. Water storage on the main stem of the South Platte must be a No. 1 priority in the governor’s water plan.
J. Paul Brown represents House District 59 in Colorado’s General Assembly. The district encompasses La Plata, Archuleta, San Juan, Ouray and Hinsdale counties and part of Gunnison County. Reach him at jpaul.brown.house@state.co.us.
