History
Colorado River District History
Early History
The Colorado River District was born out of a period of conflict between the two halves of Colorado separated by the Continental Divide: the drier and more population-dense East Slope and the West Slope with its more substantial water resources. In the 1930's, Colorado was wracked by the economic woes of the Great Depression and the drought of the Dustbowl years that hung over the entire decade. At this time, a coalition of East Slope interests pressed the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to construct a massive transmountain diversion called the Grand Lake Project (later renamed the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, or C-BT) to drain the headwaters of the Colorado River in Grand County and divert it through a 13.1 mile long tunnel bored underneath Rocky Mountain National Park to northeastern Colorado. The C-BT project would provide farmers in northeast Colorado with supplemental "finishing" water to bring crops in this fertile area of the state to fruition. Naturally occurring water in the South Platte River basin was insufficient in volume to meet the demands of all farmers, except in wet years, resulting in fields of withered crops not worth much at
market.
In Western Colorado, the C-BT brought considerable fear, since diverting such a large volume as proposed, 310,000 acre-feet, would diminish the flow of the Colorado River to the point where West Slope farmers would soon be suffering the same fate that their East Slope counterparts were trying to avoid. Without any of the large reservoirs that exist today to regulate the flow of the Colorado River, Western Colorado relied only upon the natural flow of the river, and the high-altitude diversions proposed by the C-BT would particularly reduce the flow during the latter half of the summer irrigation season.
To combat the C-BT and look after West Slope interests, the Western Colorado Protective Association (WCPA) was formed. The WCPA, sometimes also referred to as the "Western Slope Protective Association," argued that the C-BT project would be unfair without just compensation to Western Colorado for its loss of water. The WCPA urged that a compensatory storage reservoir should be constructed to insulate and protect present and future West Slope needs for water from the large diversion of water at the Colorado's headwaters. Initially, the West Slope argued for "acre-foot for acre-foot" compensation: for each acre-foot of water diverted out of the basin, one acre-foot of storage water should be provided in return. A West Slope Congressman Rep. Edward Taylor (D) of Glenwood Springs, was chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee at the time and threatened to withhold funding for the C-BT until a satisfactory compromise could be reached.
Compromise was reached between the two disputing sides and that compromise was embodied in Senate Document 80, which dictated the construction and operation of the C-BT project, and included direction to construct the 152,000 acre-foot Green Mountain Reservoir as the "basin of origin protection" portion of the project. Green Mountain Reservoir was the first part of the C-BT to be built.
Glenwood Springs lawyer, Frank Delaney (1889-1978), was one of the visionary founders of the Western Colorado Protective Association (WCPA), which became the Colorado River Water Conservation District in 1937. Mr. Delaney authored the text of the legislation founding the District, was its first General Counsel and served the District for 27 years.
The members of the Western Colorado Protective Association saw that conflicts such as construction of big transmountain diversions would be a persistent problem for Western Colorado. Mr. Delaney drafted legislation for the formation of a taxpayer-funded public entity that would have the power to develop Colorado River Basin water for in-basin use and "act as a bulwark against attempted future infringements of our rights." The measure passed in the Colorado General Assembly in 1937 and the Colorado River Water Conservation District was formed.
The Colorado River District's mission continues to include:
• pursuit of compensation for transmountain diversions resulting in basin of origin
protection measures such as Green Mountain and Ruedi Reservoirs,
• construction of water development projects beneficial to the West Slope including the Paonia and Silt projects and Wolford Mountain Reservoir,
• filing and holding water rights for beneficial water projects,
• marketing of water,
• lobbying of state and federal officials and agencies to the benefit of the West
Slope,
• litigation when the interests of the West Slope would otherwise be compromised
and other avenues of resolution are unproductive,
• and continued vigilance on interstate and federal actions that have impacts on
water use in Western Colorado.
Water issues on the West Slope of Colorado are becoming more complex over time, with new laws, values, problems and conflicts arising. The Endangered Species Act (ESA), federal reserved water rights, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Recreational In-Channel Diversions (RICD), agricultural to urban water transfers and unforeseen patterns of growth, development and water use require that the Colorado River District be aggressive in anticipating conflicts and resolving disputes
to allow Western Colorado to continue to use its water resources as a necessity for life, an economic resource, a recreational amenity and an aesthetic attribute.
Governance
The Colorado River District is governed by a Board of Directors composed of one representative from each of the 15 counties in the district. Directors are appointed by their respective county's Board of County Commissioners for three-year terms. The Colorado River Water Conservation District is headquartered in Glenwood Springs and has employees also stationed at Wolford Mountain Reservoir near Kremmling to operate the reservoir.
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