The Colorado's Future 2006 conference on Oct. 6 brought together nearly 100 water stakeholders from around the state. Approximately half of the attendees were elected members of their local Colorado water basins; other participants included ranchers, engineers, municipal water providers, watershed representatives, researchers, and federal agencies.
Water researchers predict that Colorado's population growth and the concentration of that growth along the Front Range corridor means that more water diversions from agricultural use, and from Colorado's Western Slope, are likely. Water community members needed a place to discuss their common ground, as well as their differences, and decide how to manage changes in water allocations.
Recognizing this need, in 2005 the Colorado Legislature passed legislation known as "The Colorado Water for the 21st Century Act" that created nine geographically defined state water basins, and mandated that specific interests, such as agriculture and recreation, be represented at each basin roundtable.
The Act also created an Interbasin Compact Committee to address statewide water issues. As the Interbasin Compact Process Overview explains, the act is intended to "change the dialogue on water throughout Colorado, broaden the range of stakeholders that will actively participate in the state's water decisions, and create a locally driven process where the decision-making power is in the hands of those living throughout the state's river basins."
Additional funding gives these water basins the opportunity to conduct their own basin needs assessments. The results of these needs assessments will frame discussions about future water diversions and allocations within Colorado. The needs assessment must address both water needs and availability issues, including
• Consumptive and nonconsumptive water needs
• Available and unappropriated waters in the basin
• Projects or non-structural methods for meeting water supply needs
“A meeting was the natural next step to help water basin members prepare for the needs assessment,” says Lyn Kathlene. Dr. Kathlene is the director of the Colorado Institute of Public Policy at Colorado State University. “Our basin survey results, published in our 2006 report on water in Colorado, indicated that basin members had an array of values and perspectives that would define their needs assessment priorities. We decided that the 2006 Colorado’s Future conference would provide a useful first venue for a cross-basin dialog.”
Professor Dan Smith, Colorado State University, and Eric Kuhn, General Manager, Colorado River Water Conservation District. Courtesy Bridjet Julian.
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The Oct. 6 conference focused on the next step of the Colorado Interbasin Compact Process, the upcoming basin needs assessments, and what kinds of research might answer questions raised by water providers and users. The needs assessments will be conducted by CDM and begin in 2007.
The meeting was produced by the Colorado Institute of Public Policy at Colorado State University, the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, and the Center for Policy Studies at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Additional conference sponsors included the Colorado Water Resources Research Institute, Parker Water & Sanitation, Aqua Engineering, Aurora Water, Colorado Water Conservancy District, The Nature Conservancy, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, Pueblo Board of Water Works, and the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. Conference speakers included Eric Kuhn, Colorado River Water Conservation District; Dr. Dan Smith, Colorado State University; Tom Iseman, The Nature Conservancy; and Jim Westkott, Colorado Demography Office.
The conference featured key basin assessment participants, including Eric Hecox, the manager of the Office of Interbasin Compact Negotiations, and Susan Morea, a vice president of CDM and the contractor selected by the Colorado Department of Natural Resources to conduct the basin needs assessments.
As basin members discussed their preparations and research efforts, it became clear that every basin in Colorado is geographically and demographically unique, and each has its own perspective on how to approach a water needs assessment.
For some basins, pending federal decisions about endangered species protection and minimum water flows may greatly affect the use of basin water, and therefore possible water availability. Other basins, particularly those on the western slope of Colorado, face
increased demand from non-consumptive uses such as recreation and
tourism but lack a consistent framework for the incorporation of these
water interests.
The eastern plains basins face their own challenges. Their agricultural water comes in part from well water. Wells are a junior right in Colorado water law, which means that they only receive their allotted water if all senior water rights are filled. Colorado’s losses in recent court cases has resulted in sending more water downstream and this, combined with a recent drought cycle, has shut off wells in the plains.
All of the basins, however, have an overriding common interest: how to predict and meet the needs of all their various water stakeholders, including agricultural, municipal, industrial, environmental, and recreational users.
As basins struggle with questions of how to predict basin needs and meet anticipated water shortfalls, consumer behavior becomes an important factor.
Dr. Christopher Goemans from the Western Water Assessment presented results of a study of water demand and conservation done by Bobbie Klein and Christina Alvord of Western Water Assessment.
Their data highlight the complexities facing municipal water managers as they try to make predictions. For example, low-water landscaping reduces water usage. But precisely because the water demand is always lower, increasing the number of low-water landscapes reduces the amount of water that managers can count on saving when lawn-watering restrictions go into effect. And sometimes, consumer behavior is less predictable: given a gauge to ascertain exact household water usage, consumers in one Colorado area were careful not to consume enough water to put them into a higher fee bracket—but they consumed their full amount of water at the lower fee, which resulted in an overall increase in household water use. As these examples suggest, while policy and information can create or reinforce changes in consumer behavior, it is far from a simple, linear relationship.
Conference participants agreed that more conversations and information-sharing among water basins will be necessary as they prioritize their water concerns, and several participants offered to share research materials and templates with other basins. Regular basin meetings, sponsored by the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, will be one means of facilitating this effort to address statewide water needs collaboratively.
The majority of the materials used at this conference, as well as conference proceedings, can be found at the Colorado Institute of Public Policy web site.
Other Sources:
Interbasin Compact Process Overview. Office of Interbasin Compact Negotiations.
Klein, B., & Alvord, C. Municipal Water Demand and Conservation: Western Water Assessment Studies. July, 2006: Intermountain West Climate Summary.
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