MISSION: To lead in the protection, conservation, use and development of the water resources of the Colorado River basin for the welfare of the District, and to safeguard for Colorado all waters of the Colorado River to which the state is entitled.
Colorado River District Annual Water Seminar
Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010 TwoRiversConvention Center, Grand Junction, CO. "Minding the Gap" West Slope and Denver Water Talk Through a Water Supply Agreement The Western Water Rights Market How They Do It in Australia A Corporate Viewpoint on Water Supply
Water supply gap and Denver Water mediation to highlight Colorado River District's Annual Water Seminar on Sept. 16
"Minding the Gap" is the title of the 2010 Colorado River District Annual Water Seminar set for Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Two Rivers Convention Center in Grand Junction.
Highlighting the seminar is an in‐depth look at a water supply negotiation between the West Slope and Denver Water that is expected to produce benefits for both sides of the Continental Divide.
For the past four years, Denver Water and West Slope entities from Grand County to Mesa County on the mainstem of the Colorado River have been working through a mediation of numerous water supply challenges. Denver Water aspires to increase its water diversions from the West Slope for Front Range use and the West Slope is asking that, in return, it gets streamflow enhancements in the headwaters, more water supplies in the headwaters and certainty on Shoshone Hydropower Plant operations.
Shoshone is important to the West Slope because its senior 1902 water right, which is nonconsumptive, acts like minimum streamflow for the mainstem of the river. The Shoshone flows are vital for the rafting industry, agricultural producers in the Grand Valley, endangered fish and municipal drinking water providers. The mediation is still developing and like many water issues, is complex.
Eric Kuhn, General Manager of the Colorado River District, calls the current status of the negotiations "roadmap to an agreement." He predicts details will require several more years to work out but the framework is a major accomplishment. Kuhn and his Denver Water counterpart, Jim Lochhead, will lead the panel that explores the roadmap.
Other seminar speakers include Jennifer Gimbel, Director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board. She will offer observations about a recent fact‐finding trip she took to Australia, a nation dealing with extreme drought and how officials there deal with low water supply and high demand. The Australia example offers potential lessons for the American Southwest.
Additional seminar sessions will explore the water rights market in the American West, including Colorado, and how the corporate world, exemplified by MolsonCoors, is dealing proactively with its water footprint. Doug Kemper, Executive Director of the Colorado Water Congress, will be the lunchtime keynote speaker.
For additional event information, please contact Jim Pokrandt at 970.945.8522, x236 or email edinfo@crwcd.org.
It follows on the heels of the Colorado Water Conservation Board meeting in Grand Junction on Sept. 14-15. Once again, our event coincides with the very popular Colorado Mountain Winefest in the Grand Junction area Sept. 16-19. This makes lodging challenging in the GrandValley. Hotels near Convention Center: HamptonInn, (970-243-3222) and Main Street Suites (970-242-2525)
Rafters, endangered fish and municipalities are benefiting from an agreement among reservoir owners and water users that maintains flows in the Colorado River even when the Shoshone Hydropower Plant is not calling for its senior water right.
In addition to producing green power for owner Xcel Energy, the Shoshone Plant's nonconsumptive water right creates an unofficial minimum streamflow in the Colorado River. The rafting industry, individual recreationists, endangered fish and agricultural producers in the Grand Valley depend on the benefits of the Shoshone call. The water also helps communities that draw drinking water from the river.
Candidates for governor spout water remedies Two candidates for governor shared their views on how Colorado's water future should look at the Colorado Water Congress summer conference. Republican Dan Maes and Democrat John Hickenlooper, the Denver mayor, spoke a day apart at the conference, addressing water conservation and storage as solutions to the state water woes. Hickenlooper said he is committed to urban water conservation, saying Denver has cut per capita use by 20 percent. -Coverage in The Pueblo Chieftain-
Mexico, U.S. talk water deal: Damage by quake spurs neighbor to look at storage in Lake Mead The powerful earthquake that rattled Mexicali, Mexico, on Easter Sunday also has stirred serious international talks over the future of the Colorado River, the Las Vegas Valley's primary water source .... The talks have been ongoing since early 2008, but the 7.2 magnitude quake on April 4 seemed to create more urgency on the Mexican side because widespread infrastructure damage might prevent that nation from using its full Colorado River allocation. -Coverage in Las Vegas Review-Journal
Why this is important: The Colorado River serves 30 million people in the U.S. and Mexico. Compacts and treaties govern how the river is allocated to seven state, including Colorado, and Mexico. A number of outstanding issues remain to be worked out, and this is a start.
Blue Mesa storage could protect water imports The Arkansas Basin and Gunnison Basin Roundtables are looking at a way the state could use Blue Mesa Reservoir storage on the Gunnison River to protect transmountain imports into the Arkansas Valley. Discussions started in June after the two groups met in Salida to look at common interests that also would meet a statewide goal to provide 200,000 acre-feet of water from the Aspinall Unit - Blue Mesa, Morrow Point and Crystal reservoirs - for use in Colorado. -Coverage in The Pueblo Chieftain-
Conservation, local supplies key to water future San Diego County residents have conserved water over the past year, something water agencies said must continue for decades. San Diego County residents must rely more on their own resources for water in the future, according to the 25-year-plan being crafted by the drought-wracked Metropolitan Water District. (http://www.mwdh2o.com/irp). -From the San Diego Union-
If the West wants to hang onto water for agriculture and for growing populations, it must give serious effort to integrating more wind, solar and other renewable energies into production of electricity, according to a new report, "Protecting the Lifeline of the West: How Climate and Clean Energy Policies Can Safeguard Water." Produced by Western Resource Advocates and the Environmental Defense Fund, the report also calls for water conservation, re-use and efficiency measures.
Colorado River water consumed yearly for agriculture and by the 30 million Westerners who rely on it now exceeds the total annual flow. A growing awareness of that limited flow is leading to increased scrutiny of urban development -- especially projects that require diverting more water to the east side of the Continental Divide. "We're no longer in a surplus situation," said Bill McDonald, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's deputy commissioner for policy and budget. "The teeter-totter has tipped."
Whether it's roads, schools, prisons, colleges, hospitals or airports, you don't have to look far to find something built with money borrowed by state and local governments. Amendment 61, which Colorado voters will consider in November, could dramatically change that financing method. The proposal -- one of three tax-slashing and government-limiting measures on the ballot -- would prohibit the state from borrowing and would limit local governments to borrowing for only 10 years and only with voter approval.
The Shoshone hydroelectric power plant in Glenwood Canyon is the Holy Grail of water politics in the Colorado River Basin, one that Western Slope water interests have a sliver of hope of getting in their grasp. Shoshone generates 14 megawatts of electricity from water that is diverted from the Colorado River to spin its turbines. It then is returned to the main channel. Its 1902 water right ensures that the Colorado flows to -- and through -- Glenwood Canyon, so its value to Western Slope water users hardly can be overstated.Shoshone "is the primary controlling senior right on the Colorado River," Colorado River Water Conservation District spokesman Chris Treese said.
Lake Mead's water level plunges as 11-year drought lingers Lake Mead, the enormous reservoir of Colorado River water that hydrates Arizona, Nevada, California and northern Mexico, is receding to a level not seen since it was first being filled in the 1930s, stoking existential fears about water supply in the parched Southwest. Heightening those concerns are recent signs that the region's record-breaking, 11-year drought could wear on for another year or longer. July not only saw the lake drop to 1956 levels but also brought cooling temperatures in the Pacific Ocean that signaled a developing La Nina system, historically a harbinger of more hot and dry weather. -Coverage in The New York Times-
Lake Mead at 54-year low, stirring rationing fear Drought-stricken Lake Mead has dropped an additional 10 feet since last summer, and now, Arizona and other Colorado River users are scrambling to keep the reservoir full enough to avoid water rationing. Before year's end, the lake will likely sink to within 9 feet of the level that would trigger the first round of restrictions - and the first such restrictions ever on the river. They begin with a reduction in water deliveries to Nevada and Arizona, where farmers would be affected first. -Coverage in The Arizona Republic-
The Colorado River flows from the Rocky Mountains in Colorado through the southwestern United States. Along its route, the river passes through an elaborate water-management system designed to tame the yearly floods from spring snowmelt and to provide a reliable supply of water for residents as far away as California. The system is appreciated for the water it supplies, but criticized for the environmental problems and cultural losses that have resulted from its creation. Among the dams on the Colorado is Arizona's Glen Canyon Dam, which creates Lake Powell. The deep, narrow, meandering reservoir extends upstream into southern Utah. In the early twenty-first century, this modern marvel of engineering faced an ancient enemy: severe, prolonged drought in the American Southwest. Combined with water withdrawals that many believe are not sustainable, the drought has caused a dramatic drop in Lake Powell's water level over the past decade. The changes are documented in this series of natural-color images from the Landsat 5 satellite between 1999 and 2010. -Full NASA Landsat report-
The Colorado River District Board of Directors has released its 2009 annual report. Published copies are available by calling 970-945-8522 or by e-mailing edinfo@crwcd.org.
The question that keeps water managers up at night - How much water is left in the Colorado River? - now has an answer, courtesy of a state study that went public last week. Its answer: It depends. But it's probably less water than the state needs.
The Colorado River District and the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments have teamed up in a campaign to promote awareness of the connection between the water Colorado plays on and the water it uses. It's the same water. These images are appearing on billboards and bus stop benches on the Front Range.
West Slope and East Slope water users of the Colorado River are obligated to provide enhanced flows of 10,825 acre feet for fish habitat under a pro-active and successful Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program. West Slope water is proposed to come from Ruedi Reservoir. Legislation has been submitted to Congress. Testimony by the Colorado River District
Joint Water Supply Study by East and West Slope entities to provide summer flows to support the Upper Colorado Endangered Fish Recovery Program. click here
Use this link for the latest information about the Colorado Water for the 21st Century Act that created Basin Roundtables to discuss water supply issues and solutions. http://ibcc.state.co.us/
The Future is Drying Up
The New York Times Magazine has published a comprehensive story on the Big River Issues facing the Colorado River and the 30 million citizens in seven states. The Future is Drying Up
Oil shale may finally have its moment. In a dusty corner of northwestern Colorado, an energy of the future is beginning to look like the real thing. read news coverage
Colorado River's Uncertain Future
Whether it's climate change, drought or unresolved legal and political issues, the future of the Colorado River offers a flood of uncertainties that must be considered for this hard-working water supply. Presentations by Eric Kuhn
COLORADO RIVER WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT
P.O. Box 1120 - Glenwood Springs, CO 81602 - 201 Centennial, Suite 200 - Glenwood Springs, CO 81601
(970) 945-8522 FAX (970) 945-8799
The Colorado River District Board of Directors has released its 2009 annual report.
