Transcript Negotiating our Water Future in Colorado & the Gunnison River Basin Gunnison Basin Roundtable in cooperation with the Water 2012.org Celebrate WATER FLUENCY.

Negotiating our Water Future
in Colorado & the Gunnison River Basin
Gunnison Basin
Roundtable
in cooperation with the
Water 2012.org
Celebrate
WATER FLUENCY
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Overview
 Colorado Water Overview (Water 2012 Speakers Bureau – statewide education effort)
 Water Supply and Demand
 Constraints on use
 The West Slope’s predicament
 Statewide water planning:
•Key Players
•The “gap”
•Basin Roundtable role
 How you can participate
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•Trade-offs
•Next Steps
Celebrate…because water is important
for all that we do
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Celebrate…because Colorado is
a headwaters state
Snow falls in the mountains
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Builds as snowpack
And drains in the spring and summer.
Nourishing 13 states and Mexico
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Celebrate… because water has shaped
Colorado’s history
© Western History/Genealogy Dept.,
Denver Public Library.
Since the beginnings of settlement, mining and agriculture
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Then what’s the
problem?
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Population is
increasing but there’s
no “new” water
Municipal &
Industrial
9%
Environment
Agriculture
86%
Recreation
Many uses
compete for a
scarce and limited
water supply
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Colorado: Growth expected to lead to “the gap”
•Gap is for municipal and industrial water needs vs. supplies as the population is projected to double.
•“IPP’s” are “Identified Projects and Processes:” water supply projects that are already planned.
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 Population increase by 2030
projected to be 82% above
2000 – to 161,500.
 Projected increase in gross
water demand by 2030 is
14,900 acre-feet
(underestimates municipal
requirements in North Fork
Region)
 Virtually the entire Gunnison
Basin is already overappropriated (due to historic
shortages at Redlands Power
Canal near Grand Junction)
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Imbalance between supply and demand appear to be increasing
throughout the entire Colorado River Basin (Bureau of Reclamation Study)
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Constraints on water use:
 Colorado Water Law
 Colorado River Compact
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Basics of Colorado Water Law:
 First in time, first in right
 Water rights are property rights.
Significant Gunnison Basin Water Rights
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1922 Compact:
Upper Basin states must “not cause the flow of the
River at Lee Ferry to be depleted below an aggregate of
75,000,000 acre feet in any 10 consecutive years.”
Western Colorado’s Predicament
•The 80/20 problem
•Growth – in-basin as well as statewide
•Imbalance between supply and demand Colorado Basin-wide
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- 80% of Colorado’s population is on the Front Range.
- 80% of Colorado’s precipitation falls on the Western Slope.
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Tunnels and ditches:
•About 500,00 acre-feet/ year flow from West to East across the Continental Divide
•Colorado headwaters most heavily impacted (flows at Kremmling are about 1/3 of natural flows)
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CO Water Planning - Key Players
Interest Groups
 Water utilities
 Farmers and Ranchers
 Industry
 Environmental Advocates
 Recreation Advocates
 Local governments
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Institutions
 CO Water Conservation
Board (CWCB): State policy,
studies & funding
 Basin Roundtables:
Stakeholder groups
established by the legislature
for “bottom-up” planning
 Inter-basin Compact
Committee (IBCC):
Roundtable of Roundtables
Gunnison Basin Roundtable:
Seeking Solutions
 Assessing Needs
 Consumptive
 Non-consumptive
 Funding Projects
 Fixing infrastructure
 Studies
 Non-consumptive needs
 Planning and Negotiating
 Analyzing the Gap
 Weighing Trade-offs
 Negotiating with other Basin Roundtables
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IBCC called for a “4-legged stool” to fill the gap:
Already planned projects (Windy Gap firming, Moffat Collection System, others) plus:
New Projects
(trans-basin
diversions)
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Ag to Urban
Transfers
Conservation
Roundtables developed preferred portfolios of these elements to fill the gap.
Process is aimed at developing a Statewide Water Plan by 2016.
How You Can Participate:
 Monitor developments via e-newsletter; sign up at
to subscribe.
 Attend Gunnison Basin Roundtable meetings: 1stth Monday most
months, 4-7pm, Holiday Inn Express, Montrose.
 Talk to your Basin Roundtable Representatives. Find the info and list
at: http://www.coloradomesa.edu/watercenter/RoundtableEducationProject.html
www.coloradomesa.edu/watercenter
www.ColoradoMesa.Edu/WaterCenter
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