Skip to main content
Colorado Water Plan

            Following the 2002-03 drought, Colorado got serious about water. It tried some top down water planning no one felt comfortable with. However, in 2006 Colorado adopted a bottom up approach, which utilized stream basin roundtables to start planning for both consumptive and non-consumptive projects and processes. Outcomes of this process have been significant, but the drought that started again in 2011 brought with it horrendous wildfires and costly damage to watersheds that most recently had a secondary impact – flooding. On top of what was happening in the State, a report released in December 2012, concluded the Colorado River Basin has a water supply shortfall in meeting demand that will only get worse in coming years.

            Governor Hickenlooper took unprecedented action to address a critical problem before it becomes a crisis. On May 14, 2013 the Governor issued an Executive Order directing the Colorado Water Conservation Board to formulate a Colorado Water Plan. The various basin roundtables are on the frontlines of this effort. Here in the Southwest part of the State, the Roundtable has hired staff for the first time, gone from quarterly meetings to bi-montly meetings, and charged its members to solicit input from residents to assure this process is inclusive. This is a full court press, and a great deal hangs in the balance as this process moves forward.

            The Southwest Roundtable consists of nine drainages that all leave the State of Colorado to eventually link up with the Colorado River. Our very own San Juan River is a major contributor to the Colorado River, and those flows are supplemented by flows from the Blanco, the Pine, the Piedra, the Animas, the Mancos, and the La Plata. Throughout the coming year, the Roundtables will be developing Basin Implementation Plans (BIPs) to identify specific challenges to a secure water future, the strategies it will pursue to address those challenges, and the project and processes the basin needs to meet those needs. The BIPs from each basin will be a large part of the Colorado Water Plan.

            Water is a precious finite resourc. Studies show there will be significant gaps between water supply and demand of more than half a million acre-feet of water in coming decades. The entire State is threatened by this scenario, and it is particularly threatening to rural communities. Unless something is done now to manage and plan for water needs, agricultural water rights will be bought up for burgeoning urban populations. This will dry up even more productive farm land than we have already loss – hundreds of thousands of acres. Although there appears to be consensus on a variety of actions to this “buy & dry” scenerio, far more needs to be done, including new storage, conservation and better management of water.

            The work is well under way. The Southwest Roundtable hopes to complete it’s BIP late next summer, ahead of a deadline for completion of the draft plan by December 14, 2014. Once the draft goes to the Governor, further work will be done to complete the final plan by December 2015.


            The San Juan Water Conservancy District sincerely hopes you make your opinion on water known. The Southwest Water Roundtable meets next on January 8, 2014 in Durango. These meetings are open to the public. You can also make your opinion known to the State directly by e-mailing cowaterplan@state.co.us. To learn more, please go to www.coloradowaterplan.com. If you want to see the process in action, feel free to attend the Southwest Colorado Water Roundtable for its next meeting in Durango – the location has not been finalized as of the date of this writing, but you can find that information soon at www.cwcb.state.co.us.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sychohants

“All organizations are merely conceptual embodiments of a very old, very basic idea – the idea of community. They can be no more or less than the sum of the beliefs of the people drawn to them; of their character, judgments, acts and effort.” Dee Hock from The New Transitional HR Model About twenty-five days out from the 2008 national elections I wrote an article for the Daily Post endorsing Ron Chacey. I lamented over concerns I had for the direction the County might take under a majority consisting of John Ranson and Bob Moomaw. After the election, and as a result of the ambush and assault on the County’s planning commission, I wrote another article lamenting concerns that Archuleta County continued to disregard good process, policies and predictability. Since then, I have pelted Bill Hudson and Glenn Walsh with information, but refrained and even refused to write anything myself. A couple of weeks ago, I re-introduced myself to Terri House at a Rot...
Post a Comment
Read more
Rodney B. Proffitt announces he will seek the nomination of the Archuleta Democratic Party for County Commissioner.   Rod has a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science degrees from Kansas State Teachers College (now Emporia State University), and holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Kansas School of Law.   He studied for a Ph.D in public administration at the University of Colorado – Denver, completing coursework and all but the dissertation. Rod sits on several boards, including Rotary District 5470 (Membership Chair), San Juan Water Conservancy District (President), Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association (Treasurer), Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation (Advisory), the coordinating committee for Relay for Life, and the Archuleta County Democratic Party (Secretary). In addition, Rod has previously been active locally by holding several offices in the Pagosa Moutain Morning Rotary Club, appointed to a seat on the Governor’s Southwest Regional Wat...
Post a Comment
Read more
Editorial to the Pagosa Daily Post Re: You don’t get to Have Your Own Facts The San Juan River Headwaters Project (“the Project”) is the official name given what was the Dry Gulch Project. San Juan Water Conservancy District (‘the District”) has made no secret of the reason for the name change so why Mike Church think it is disingenuous is odd. First, “Dry Gulch” was never an official name of the Project, but rather simply referenced what the project area was referred to on topographical maps. Second, Dry Gulch referenced a project led by Pagosa Area Water & Sanitation District (“PAWSD”), which is no longer the case so it has no say in the project name, the name of the road into the project area, the reservoir, the islands in the reservoir, the ridge above the reservoir, or anything else. PAWSD gave up whatever rights it had as part of the 3 Way Agreement that PAWSD and the District entered into with Colorado Water Conservation Board (“the CWCB”). Finally, the Project ...
Post a Comment
Read more