Link between growth and water
becomes painfully apparent

By Greg Lakes, editor
Headwaters News
Dec. 4, 2002

The West's explosive growth has strained most resources, and evidence is mounting that water supplies in some areas may be stretched about as far as they can go.

In northern Colorado, the Front Range, and around Reno and Santa Fe, experts say even if water doesn't prove to be the limit on growth that has eluded planners and politicians, communities will sacrifice something to cope.

Along northern Colorado's South Platte River, cities and some farmers are fighting in a legal battle with farmers who draw water from wells. About 4,000 of those wells draw enough ground water to supply Denver for a year, and they also siphon off the subterranean supplies of the South Platte.

Irrigators who draw their supplies from the river, and fast-growing cities such as Denver, Boulder, Highlands Ranch, Thornton and Englewood, say the well pumps must be cut back or stopped. But entire agricultural communities depend on those well-irrigated farms and would suffer if water and production dropped.

The drought brought the situation to a crisis, but it's been building for a decade. Since 1980, more than 1.4 million additional people moved into Front Range cities, and the growing demand for water erased the surplus along the South Platte that had allowed competing interests to coexist.

The area's population is expected to grow another 1.2 million by 2020, not necessarily from in-migration as much as from reproduction: Most of the new residents will be the children of the current residents.

Some experts say a lack of water won't stop growth.

"Across the country, you can't find a case where water - or the lack of water - has played into a decision on growth," said Bill Travis, a University of Colorado geographer who studies development, quoted in a Denver Post article. "I see growth continuing, and I don't see water as a limit."

Others say if growth doesn't adapt to increasingly scarce water, something else will have to go.

Former Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm said it will be suburban lifestyles: "The price we're going to pay for this is a brown, sprawling metro area where we're not going to water our lawns."

Curren Gov. Bill Owens said it will be agriculture that suffers: "What we're going to get instead of the big, brown sprawl are wide-open brown spaces."

Most observers, including water attorney David Robbins, conclude something must yield:

"The entire metropolitan Front Range is competing for water now. Cities are paying top dollar for any water they can find. How could these farmers go out and compete against Thornton and Aurora for new water? It's not possible. There isn't enough money. And even if there were money, there isn't enough water."

Outside Reno, about 20,000 new homes will eventually be built in Truckee Meadows, although local officials debate whether the area first will run out of room or water. While some county officials called for a moratorium on new taps until water plans are finished, the main local water supply company says it can feed demand through 2025.

But those plans require cutting into supplies that had been reserved for drought. The current plan requires a buffer that would provide enough water for a 10-year-long drought. But water officials say the longest drought in recent memory has only been seven years, and by saving enough for eight years, they can free up another 14,000 acre feet to supply more growth until those long-range plans are done.

Across Nevada, wells went dry last summer and farmers were cut off from their irrigation supplies, and while drought was the primary cause, development and greater demand for waning resources made situations worse, and left some officials wondering whether the state had literally run out of water.

Greater Santa Fe's population will likely increase from 96,336 this year to 131,300 by the year 2020, according to state projections, but water supplies will fall 4,100 acre-feet short within the city limits and 1,484 acre-feet in the surrounding county.

Elise Jones, executive director of the Colorado Environmental Coalition, quoted in the Denver Post, could have been speaking about the region as a whole: "What the current drought is emphasizing, she said, "is a critical link between land-use planning and planning for water supplies. We're not doing much of either."

Have an opinion? Join the discussion in this week's forum.

Or click here to view all our forums.