Headwaters Winter 2012: Water 101 Take the Plunge

H e a d w a t e r s | W i n t e r 2 0 1 2 1

Colorado Foundation For Water eduCation | Winter 2012

Water = Life(and Energy, and Recreation, and…)

T a k e T h e

PlungeGet the lowdown on

Colorado’s liquid assets

How Precious isOur Water?Why Colorado’s Farmers

Need Water

GlobalWaterScarc ity

how Big is Your

Water Footprint?Colorado’s Year of Water

C o l o r a d o F o u n d a t i o n f o r W a t e r E d u c a t i o n | y o u r w a t e r c o l o r a d o . o r g

Are you interested in Colorado water issues but don’t know where to start? Then the Colorado Foundation for Water Education is the organization you need. CFWE was created in 2002 to provide accurate and balanced water education and information to the citizens of Colorado. Our vision is that, by understanding water’s complexi-ties and trade-offs, all Coloradans will make informed water decisions. Put simply, we want to help Colorado speak fluent water.

Headwaters is CFWE’s triannual magazine focused on Colorado water. Through sto-ry-telling, CFWE will raise your awareness of water issues, engage you in thoughtful debate, and propel you to become an active participant in determining our water future.

Are you ready to take the next step? CFWE’s website provides resources for any knowledge level. Use our Water 101 Fact Sheets to get an overview of water issues. Read our Citizen’s Guide series for a more in-depth learning experience. Explore our online archive of all past issues of Headwaters magazine. Join others interested in the same topic and meet the experts by attending one of our many workshops, tours or conferences.

CFWE is the leading provider of water ed-ucation in Colorado. Join us and learn how to speak fluent water. Visit www.yourwater-colorado.org to learn more.

“Your Water Colorado” Blog LaunchesWhat’s better than getting Headwaters in the mail three times per year? Receiving weekly water news and stories directly to your email, of course! To celebrate Water 2012, CFWE staff and a group of volunteers will host the “Your Water Colorado” blog. The blog will reach new audiences with ac-cessible content, provide a forum for pas-sionate discussion, and share information about Water 2012 news and events. It will

contain at least weekly posts on water his-tory, current news, organizational profiles and much more. We’re excited about this new tool because it lets us hear from you, too! Through comments and guest blog-ging, CFWE supporters and Water 2012 partners will share their opinions on all things water. Visit the blog at blog.yourwa-tercolorado.org today, and sign up for the RSS feed so you don’t miss a word!

Colorado’s Year of Water: What to Look For in 2012CFWE is a proud partner in the Water 2012 campaign, a statewide effort to con-nect Coloradans with their water, and has a lot planned to help celebrate Colorado’s water. In 2012, look for:

• Bike tours along the South Platte Riv-er in Denver, agricultural water tours across the state, a look at groundwa-ter resources in Douglas County and much more;

• Launching of the Water Fluency project for the Water 2012 Speakers Bureau;

• Three full issues of Headwaters maga-zine, including the expanded issue in your hands;

• Development of an interactive water quiz for the CFWE website;

• An updated edition of the 2003 Citi-zen’s Guide to Colorado Water Quality;

• “A Day Without Water” video contest;• A 10th anniversary party to honor the

founders of CFWE;• A water-themed lunch for legislators at

the capitol;• Solicitation of applicants for the next

class of Water Leaders;• Continued leadership for Water 2012

through involvement in its manage-ment, fundraising and marketing.

We are so excited for the possibilities this year. Our goal for 2012 is to reach new audiences with our water education pro-grams and set the stage for another 10 successful years! Go to www.water2012.org to register and learn more about what’s in store for the state of Colorado.

Scan this code withyour smart phone or other device to access CFWE’s educational material on the Web.

Scan this code withyour smart phone or other device to visit the website for Water 2012.

CFWE staff include (from left to right) David Harper, Nicole Seltzer, Caitlin Coleman, Kristin Maharg and Nona Shipman (not pictured).


CFWE Celebrates10 Years byHonoring Founders2012 marks the Colorado Foundation for Water Education’s tenth year providing balanced and accurate water education to Colorado, and we plan to celebrate! Mark your calendars for April 20th, 2012, when we will honor CFWE’s legislative founders, Sen. Lew Entz and Rep. Diane Hoppe, with our annual President’s Award. They’ll join other CFWE supporters for a grand eve-ning at the Governor’s Mansion in Denver to reflect on our success and help launch us into another 10 years. Tickets will be available in early March. Sponsorship op-portunities are also available to support this event. Contact the CFWE office at (303) 377-4433 for more information.

2011 Accomplishments Made Possible by CFWE Members & SupportersCFWE had a fantastic year in 2011, and we have our members and supporters to thank for it! With your help, we provided water education to thousands of Colora-dans, from teachers in Cortez to legisla-tors in Sterling. In addition to our many individual contributors, some CFWE pro-grams are financed by the Colorado Wa-ter Conservation Board, who throughout its 75-year history has been committed to water education. CFWE honors our many supporters, including the CWCB board and staff, for their ongoing and invaluable support. If you are not a member, become one today at www.cfwe.org/join!

To help develop CFWE’s new Water Fluency program, our supporters gave over $8,000 in donations and memberships in December 2011. Thank you to all who gave gifts from $25 to $1,000. We couldn’t do it without you! Your generosity will fund the videos, presentations, training materials and web content of Water Fluency and the 2012 Speakers Bureau. All components will be finalized by early 2012, and you can watch the Water Fluency video online now at http://water2012.org/activities/water-speakers/presentation-resources.html.

To spread basic water education to civic and community groups this year, more than 20 water professionals have signed up to be a part of the 2012 Speakers Bureau. This diverse array of speakers includes notable individuals located across Colorado so that even the most remote corners of our state will benefit. Are you interested in spread-ing your water knowledge? Go to water2012.org/celebrate/water-speakers.html to learn how to become involved. Do you want to host a speaker at your community event? The same site will give you contact information for all speakers plus their areas of expertise.

CFWE provides water education to over 7,000 Coloradans annually with its publications and programs. Ninety-eight percent of CFWE members read headwaters magazine to improve their water knowledge, while 92 percent would like more opportunities to share their knowledge with others through CFWE. Join our community by becoming a member!

CFWE Supporters Help ColoradoSpeak Fluent Water

Gov. John Hickenlooper invites you to join him in celebrating Colorado’s Year of Water in CFWE’s Water Fluency video.

Read CFWE’s Citizen’s Guides and past issues of headwaters magazine to shore up your knowledge of water issues. Find them online at yourwatercolorado.org.

Take the

Step

Colorado Foundation for Water Education Citizen’s Guides and Headwaters Magazine Archive

Thirsty for more information about Colorado water? All CFWE publications, including the Citizen’s Guide series and past issues of Headwaters are available at yourwatercolorado.org. Membership information can also be found there, or by calling (303) 377-4433.

The Colorado: Our Namesake Working River | The Role of the Roundtable | Phoning for Flows

East-West Peace Pact | Keeping It Clean | The Coveted Colorado | The Larger Basin

Watered-Down River | Joy Ride | How much water for the streams?

Colorado Foundation For Water eduCation | Summer 2011

T h e M i g h t y

ColoradoLifeline of the West

2 C o l o r a d o F o u n d a t i o n f o r W a t e r E d u c a t i o n | y o u r w a t e r c o l o r a d o . o r g

Welcome to 2012, dear Headwaters readers!If you are a longtime reader, you’ll notice this issue of Headwaters has a different

feel than usual. It all started in 2010, when the Colorado Foundation for Water Educa-tion was planning its activities for 2012, Colorado’s Year of Water celebrations and our 10th anniversary. One of our goals for 2012 includes increasing interest in CFWE by improving the accessibility of our programs to individuals with relatively low water literacy. Redesigning Headwaters to appeal to a wider audience is just one change we are making at CFWE.

In addition to our historical readers, we want this issue of the magazine to reach Coloradans who have an interest in water issues, but don’t know where to start. We hope the changes we’ve made will draw you deeper into Colorado water and give you some tools and resources to begin your journey. Among the many things we are excited about are:

• The “Water is…” section at the front of the magazine that explores current issues in several areas of interest;

• The inclusion of shorter, more focused pieces plus the longer feature articles you are used to seeing;

• An increase in the number and quality of illustrations and info-graphics;• More attention to defining water “lingo” for readers of all knowledge levels;• Outlining suggested next steps for readers so they can further explore and con-

nect with featured water topics; and• A “DIY” section to help Coloradans take action in their day-to-day lives.

We hope our historical supporters will let us know their thoughts on these changes, both positive and negative. How Headwaters evolves in the future will be guided by your input. Send us an email at [email protected] to tell us what you think!

For those new to learning about Colorado water, we welcome you and hope that CFWE is a resource to help your interest grow. Immersing yourself in learning about water will lead to discoveries and experiences that shape your views about our beautiful state, and may spur you to become a proactive participant in Colorado’s water future.

Here’s to joining in the celebration of water in 2012!

Executive Director

Nicole Seltzer, CFWE Executive Director


Contents

Bailey Stenson, an owner of the the Happy Heart Farm (see Water for Food, page 37) in Fort Collins, laughs with a member as the community picks up its final share of the year. Photo by Kevin Moloney

Winter 2012

Page 27 How Precious is Our Water? By Josh McDaniel Colorado’s arid climate makes water resources that much more valuable. Where do we get our water, how much do we have, and how much more will we need as the state grows? Why we expect to make trade-offs between the various uses of water in order to make this limited resource go around.

Page 36 Water for Food By Joshua Zaffos Farmers and ranchers divert the lion’s share of water in Colorado. It’s water they need to succeed, but as cities need more water, the heat is on. Is there any win-win?

Page 40 Changing Values, Changing Landscapes By Jerd Smith Water in Colorado is no longer valued purely for its utilitarian use. Now, it’s also a resource to be rationed so that more remains, not only to use, but also to leave in rivers. Plus, meet five Coloradans who are looking at water in new ways. By Emily Palm


“Colorado is My Place...”

“ Growing up with Colorado’s wild rivers and mountains was a major influence on who I am. When things get intense, I draw on my experiences in nature to recharge, get inspired and reconnect with my roots. I applaud The Nature Conservancy for its work to ensure that my children will also be able to experience our state’s awesome natural legacy.”

-Johnny Spillane, triple Olympic medalist and World Champion Nordic skier

© Jim Steinberg Photography

What if everyone took responsibility for one small piece of the planet? Now you can. Join Johnny and others in supporting The Nature Conservancy’s Colorado River Project by visiting nature.org/mycolorado. Together we can make a difference.

Vranesh and Raisch, llpVranesh and Raisch specializes in Colorado water, environmental and natural

resources law. Our goal is to concentrate on bottom line resultswhich meet the needs of our clients.

Attorneys at Law

1720 14th Street, Suite 200 | Boulder, CO 80302 | 303.443.6151 | www.vrlaw.com

We are pleased to welcome…

Alexandra “Alex” Davis, former Assistant Director for Water for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, and

Gabe Raczto our team of experienced attorneys.

Water Law: Mike Shimmin, Paul Zilis, Stuart Corbridge, Alex Davis, Áine Durkin

Environmental/Natural Resources: Jerry Raisch, Gene Riordan, and Gabe Racz

Outstanding Cost-Effective Services

4 C o l o r a d o F o u n d a t i o n f o r W a t e r E d u c a t i o n | y o u r w a t e r c o l o r a d o . o r g

13 Water is life

14 Recreation who knew water world recycles its water?; the arkansas river wins the popularity contest in Colorado and the nation; numbers for Colorado’s ski industry speak for themselves.

15 energy Producing energy consumes water, but some energy sources use more than others; natural gas and oil are booming in Colorado, but what is the state doing to protect water resources?; tapping existing structures to produce hydroelectricity.

16 Health how safe is Colorado’s drinking water? water treatment offers protection from dozens of contaminants, but what would happen to our bodies if something slipped through the cracks? new contaminants lack standards and require further study; why our bodies need water.

18 environment a high-meadow stream gets a facelift, setting the tone for broad-coalition river restoration work; Climate change and the fate of Colorado’s state fish; a new way to look at environmental conservation.

19 Infrastructure Colorado is fortunate to have been well set up by water supply planners of the past; now, how much will it cost to replace aging infrastructure?; where storm sewers go and why we should pay attention; a day in the life of a beer, from source to tap.

22 Art: Current Reading strengthen your connection to Colorado water through these highlighted written works. six of the Coloradans behind titles on the water 2012 book club list, introduced by Justice Greg hobbs.

25 language: Waterspeak 101 an exercise in decoding the language of water professionals.

47 How Big Is Your Water Footprint? taking stock of home water use, and the organizations that are teaching us to think beyond the tap. By rebecca l. olgeirson.

50 Water for All Communities worldwide are without modern water treatment, delivery and sanitation technology and suffer greatly as a result. several Colorado organizations are working to change this. By erin Mcintyre.

53 go. See. Do. Act. Five destinations for experiencing magnificent aspects of Colorado’s water resources. For the lover of wildlife, infrastructure, wilderness, archaeology or agriculture, there’s a trip that is sure to please—and enlighten.

58 Do-It-Yourself: Xeriscape shore up outdoor water savings by planting a xeriscape garden. landscape architect Jim Knopf shows us how.

Contents

© iStock.com

Winter 2012


Colorado Foundation for Water Education1580 Logan St., Suite 410 • Denver, CO 80203303-377-4433 • www.yourwatercolorado.org

Board MembersRita Crumpton

President

Justice Gregory J. Hobbs, Jr.1st Vice President

Taylor Hawes 2nd Vice President

Callie HendricksonSecretary

Reagan WaskomAssistant Secretary

Alan HamelTreasurer

Chris RoweAssistant Treasurer

Becky BrooksSteve Fearn

Jennifer GimbelAlan Matlosz

Trina McGuire-CollierRebecca Mitchell

Reed MorrisChris Piper

Sen. Gail Schwartz Travis Smith

Rep. Jerry SonnenbergChris Treese

Steve Vandiver

StaffNicole Seltzer

Executive Director

David HarperOffice Manager

Kristin MahargProgram Manager

Caitlin ColemanOSM/VISTA Communications Coordinator

Nona ShipmanOSM/VISTA Water 2012

Mission statEMEnt The mission of the Colorado Foundation for Water Education is to promote better understanding of water resources through education and information. The Foundation does not take an advocacy position on any water issue.

acknowledgments The Colorado Foundation for Water Education thanks the people and organizations who provided review, comment and assistance in the development of this issue.

Headwaters is a magazine designed to provide Colorado citizens with balanced and accurate information on a variety of subjects related to water resources. Copyright 2011 by the Colorado Foundation for Water Education. ISSN: 1546-0584 Edited by Jayla Poppleton.

ContributorsFirst-time Headwaters contributor Josh McDaniel moved away from recent work covering wildfire in the West to tackle this issue’s sweeping overview of Colorado water (“How Precious is Our Wa-ter,” page 27). Originally from Florida, McDaniel now lives on a bluff not far from the confluence of the Gunnison and Colorado rivers in Grand Junction. He has gradually adapted to life in the desert. “Growing up on a bayou in Florida it was easy to take water for granted,” says McDaniel. “Now, I see water as the scarce and valuable resource it is.”

Ever since his first peach from the North Fork of the Gunnison Valley a decade ago, Fort Collins-based writer Joshua Zaffos has keenly appreciated Colorado farmers. For this issue (“Water for Food,” page 36), Zaffos visited Bob Sakata at his vegetable farm, one of the state’s largest. “Hearing about his family’s history really brought home Colorado’s farming legacy,” says Zaffos. “It’s very special that so much food comes from this place we live.” Zaffos’ work has also ap-peared in High Country News, Miller-McCune, Wired and Orion.

Writer and editor Jerd Smith, based in Boulder, has been around the block when it comes to water here and throughout the West. In 2003, a series she wrote about mountain water diver-sions generated a flood of emails from readers who were “alarmed that their beautiful, snow-flushed mountain streams were being so heavily used by the Front Range,” she says. Writing for this issue (“Changing Values, Changing Landscapes,” page 40), Smith notes a striking change from 2003: “Recent surveys show a majority of Front Range waters users now know their water comes—not from the tap—but from high country rivers and streams.”

When researching the relatively new concept of a water footprint (“How Big Is Your Water Foot-print,” page 47), Rebecca Olgeirson couldn’t help but examine water use around her own home. “The stats on water use for lawns are really discouraging,” says Olgeirson. “I’d come out of my office and start talking to my husband about re-landscaping our front lawn for higher water ef-ficiency. This spring we hope to put those changes into place.” Olgeirson, a Denver-based writer, has spent time on staff at The Denver Business Journal and 5280.

Erin McIntyre is an educator, journalist, farmer’s daughter and Colorado native who proudly calls Fruita her hometown—“You know, the city with the Mike the Headless Chicken Festival,” she prompts. When she’s not writing, McIntyre operates her own gourmet pickle business and enjoys world travel. After researching global water scarcity (“Water for All,” page 50) for this issue, she felt more prepared for her recent visit to a remote location in Uruguay, and different views about water in South America.

While interviewing five people who represent Colorado’s value shift toward water (Profiles in “Changing Attitudes, Changing Landscapes,” page 40), freelance writer Emily Palm couldn’t help but notice the interconnectedness of water users. “The educator spoke of opening the first LEED platinum educational facility in Colorado, the LEED professional spoke of wanting to help the agricultural community by reducing water use, and so on,” she says. Palm lives in Dillon, where she specializes in writing profile and outdoor articles.

Photographer Kevin Moloney, based in Denver, jokes that he drives for a living and takes pictures on the side, given the vast stretches of road between assignments around the Rocky Mountain West. Photo shoots for this issue (“Water for Food,” page 36, “Changing Values, Changing Land-scapes,” page 40) took him to Fort Collins, Salida, Avon and down the block in Denver. Moloney, a 24-year veteran photojournalist, is descended from holders of Colorado’s oldest water right—The San Luis People’s Ditch. His work has regularly appeared in Headwaters, as well as the New York Times, publications of the National Geographic Society, and many others.

6

I can’t look at snow-capped peaks anymore without thinking of the coming melt, the beau-tiful, swollen rivers of spring. All that potential sparkling under the sun, resting awhile, but awaiting warmer days when it will be transformed into laughing, dancing rivulets of runoff. Runoff that is as important in Colorado as the air we breathe.

Really, there’s not much you can do without water. Not for long anyway. Such a simple compound, H20, and yet, so crucial to everything we know. We use it to water crops, generate energy, grow flowers and vegetable gardens, play on, wash things, and first and foremost, to put in our own bodies so we can live. How can we possibly cover the gamut of everything water is used to sustain, plus all the challenges we face for using it wisely, in one magazine?

We won’t pretend it’s possible, but we believe we’ve gone a long way toward introduc-ing readers, and re-engaging existing ones, to the beauty and fragility of our limited water resources in this expanded issue. We’ve also added a few new features to the design. You’ll find fluent water facts scattered through these pages; they tie in with the Water Fluency

project, through which we’re helping Coloradans gain a working knowl-edge of Colorado’s water resources. Plus, in this issue we’re providing numerous outlets for readers to get involved, learn more and join the conversations taking place in the world of Colorado water. You’ll find these wherever you see the Take the Next Step icon.

Come along, and be prepared to feel deep gratitude for those classic Colorado mountain peaks and rivers you already love to play in and look upon as author Josh McDaniel walks us through the extent of our reliance on these precious water resources. Find out why water is essential to productive agriculture in our arid climate with writer Josh Zaffos, who intro-duces several growers speaking to the industry’s challenges and opportunities. Trace the changing attitudes Coloradans have toward water with Jerd Smith. Meet with interviewer Emily Palm some of the folks who are continuing that transition. Find out what goes into calculating a water footprint, and how to be aware of your own with Rebecca Olgeirson, who talks with experts in water conservation. Gain perspective on the relative luxury of our water supply with Erin McIntyre, who covers global water scarcity and several organizations working to help people abroad.

You’ll find much more within these pages. We can’t wait to inspire you. Next time you look to the snowy peaks, we hope you’ll see water glowing white.

Jayla Poppleton

Take the

Step

TenT h i n g s To D o

I n T h i s I s s u e :

1 Pick up a copy of your utility’s water quality report (page 16).

2 Connect with a local watershed group (page 19).

3 Trace the path of water from source to tap (page 21).

4 Join the Water 2012 book club and meet Colorado water authors (page 22).

5 Get a quick primer on Colorado water law (page 31).

6 Go to a regional basin roundtable meeting to learn about local wa-ter issues (page 34).

7 Attend a Water 2012 event (pull-out guide).

8 Calculate your water footprint (page 49).

9 Go on a trip to explore Colorado water firsthand (page 53).

10 Conserve water by planting your own xeriscape garden (page 58).


Editor

Jayla Poppleton, Editor

Water is Colorado

Water’s All About

Water’s all about our work and play,how we’re formed and look,

from brow to toe, brain and heart,mountain front and plains afoot,

snow white caps on winter heads,rolled up sleeves in August bake,

lakes and streams that swell and shrinkthat fall and spring our equinox,

gnarly hands and gnarled-up knuckles,buckled plates and chisel grooves,

from north to south the hogback hues,the reds, the greens, our faults, our hopes,

from east to west the morning peeps, she plants her feet in columbine,

she spreads her mantle on the Utes,the canyon rims, the furrow rows,

she sets our route, our journey onher waves and pools, her “Come Along!”

—Greg Hobbs

Mt. Blanca’s Snowy BlanketIn south-central Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the state’s fourth-highest peak serves as landmark, sacred site and harborer of frozen water that will flush down the Rio Grande River come the warmth of spring. Here the river flows through the Gilmore Ranch in Alamosa County, conserved by The Nature Conservancy through the Rio Grande Initia-tive. www.riograndelandtrust.org Photo by Rio de la Vista

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1 0 C o l o r a d o F o u n d a t i o n f o r W a t e r E d u c a t i o n | y o u r w a t e r c o l o r a d o . o r g

Water is Colorado

Stormy SkiesHeavy clouds give way over Medano Zapata Ranch in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, lavishing welcome rain over the state’s driest region. Photo by Kevin Moloney

H e a d w a t e r s | W i n t e r 2 0 1 2 1 1


Water is Life

PATRICK | MILLER | KROPF

WATERthe world’s most precious resource

www.waterlaw.com • 800.282.5458 telASPEN • DENVER • PHOENIX • TULSA

The Colorado River Basin:Agenda for Use, Restoration, and Sustainability for

the Next Generation

Monthly Speakers Series and Annual Rockies Conference

Rockies Project Source to Sea Journey

The 2012 Rockies Project Report Card

The 2011-12 State of the Rockies Project has included our tradition of student-faculty collaborative research, a monthly Speakers Series, a Source to Sea Journey by two Rockies Project Field Researchers, and will culminate in the unveiling of the 2012 State of the Rockies Report Card at our annual Conference from April 8th-11th, which will include a lineup of officials speaking on the

future management of the Colorado River Basin. Find out more at: www.stateoftherockies.com

Human Blood >> 83% water

Adult Brain >> 75% water

Muscle Tissue >> 75% water

Heart >> 85% water

Bone >> 22% water

Our lives depend on the most

precious of resources, water.


Water is Life

Recreation > Energy > Health > Environment > Infrastructure > Art > Language©

iSto

ck Im

ages

Raftingon the

Hundreds of thousands of people flock to recreate in and around the Arkansas River’s upper reach-es each year. They follow the rol-licking river from its headwaters

near Leadville down to Pueblo, where the river’s downward course flattens out. According to the Ar-kansas Headwaters Recreation Area, which oversees management of that 150-mile stretch, the upper Arkansas is the most popular whitewater boating river in the nation. Hot spots for catching whitewa-ter along the river include Browns Canyon and the Royal Gorge. Even in Pueblo, boaters can play in the last of the Arkansas’ fast-moving rapids at an urban kayaking course.

“It’s an ideal river,” says John Cantamessa, chair-man of the Colorado River Outfitters Association, a nonprofit devoted to promoting rafting in Colo-rado. It also has the most history, he says. The an-nual First in Boating on the Arkansas festival, FI-BArk, began in 1949 and continues today, making it America’s oldest whitewater festival. FIBArk draws 35,000 spectators and 1,100 competitors to the riv-erside hamlet of Salida each year for a series of boat-ing contests, including, at 25.7 miles, the longest whitewater race in the United States.

Additional stats collected by the Arkansas Head-waters Recreation Area confirm the river’s popular-ity. In 2010, at least 750,800 visitors spent time along the Arkansas River; more than 285,000 got out on the river in a boat. Of those trips, 75 percent were with a commercial outfitter, a number that generated a significant economic impact: $62.5 mil-lion in 2010, according to the Colorado River Out-fitters Association. That’s three times greater than on any other river in Colorado. —Caitlin Coleman

Behind the scenes of the state’s largest water park

Conservation is probably not the f irst thing that comes to mind when you think of Water World, the 32-year-old, 64-acre wa-

ter park just north of Denver. On any given day, its 46 sl ides, pools, plunges and rivers require 3.5 mil l ion gal lons of water to stay wet and wild. Figure in evaporation and splash out, and Water World consumes upwards of 50 mil l ion gal lons of water during its Memorial Day to Labor Day season.

This may sound like a lot—especially in a state wary of drought and water shortages. But it’s less than what it could be, says the park’s general manager Steve Loose. To conserve, Water World has imple-mented engineering systems that recycle each gallon of water. What appears to be going down a drain is actually being refiltered, reheated and reused. Additional safeguards allow the park to capture water that would be lost during the filtration process to use instead for irrigation on the property.

Still, splash guards can’t contain every wayward drop, and heating that much water requires significant energy. And although the amusement industry is starting to address water conservation concerns, the fact that Water World is just one of 1,000 such attractions in the United States is a good reminder that the issue is larger than just one waterpark. —Katy Neusteter

3 billion Dollars spent by skiers and snowboarders in Colorado each year, according to Colorado Ski Country USA.

12 million User days by skiers and snowboarders in Colorado during the 2010-2011 season, equivalent to the total estimated number of individuals nationwide who ski or ride, according to the National Ski Areas Association.

254 Days Colorado ski resorts operated during the 2010-2011 season, with the first resort, Loveland, opening Oct. 24, 2010, and the last, Arapahoe Basin, closing July 4, 2011.

4 Colorado Ski Country USA resorts, out of 22, not reliant on snowmaking. The four resorts that don’t make snow are Wolf Creek, Ski Cooper, Monarch and Silverton.

200 Million gallons of water used for snowmaking on the four Aspen Ski Company mountains—Aspen, Snowmass, Buttermilk, Aspen Highlands—in the 2009-2010 season.

4 Million gallons of water saved each year at Buttermilk Mountain, home of the ESPN Winter X Games for 11 consecutive years, by constructing its superpipe with a dirt base.

In 2010, commercial raft companies launched boats containing more than half a million passengers down 29 rivers in Colorado. That generated $150 million in economic activity.

Source: Colorado River Outfitters Association.

Arkansas

BY

TH

E N

UM

BE

RS

Colorado Ski Industry

Water World at a Glance 2 Number of attractions operating in 1979, Water World’s first season

77 Degrees to which Water World water is heated in accordance with health department regulations

1995 Year in which Water World became the first waterpark in the nation to implement “backwash” capturing

500,000 Annual number of visitors to Water World

1.1 million Size in gallons of Water World’s largest attraction, Thunder Bay, which is drained into a holding pond

at the end of the season to be used for on-site irrigation

13 billion Gallons of water held by Standley Lake, the Clear Creek–fed reservoir that serves as the

main water supply for Water World and 200,000 people living in and around Westminster,

Northglenn and Thornton


Water is Recreation

iSto

ck.c

om


Water is Energy

The Water/Energy Connection

When it comes to oil and gas production, Coloradans have mixed emotions. Some are excited about new jobs and profit. The industry already contributes more than 135,000 jobs and $18 billion a year to Colorado’s economy. But concerns surrounding the potential for water contamination are rising along with the growing number of active oil and gas wells—now 46,700 in Colorado.

It’s the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, that has garnered the most recent scrutiny nationwide. Most oil and gas wells now use this technique, in which chemicals, sand and up to 5 million gallons of water per well are injected at high pressures to create fractures that allow oil and gas to escape. Until recently, companies were not required to disclose the chemicals used in the process, causing watchdog groups to cry foul.

The Environmental Protection Agency is currently investigating the relationship between fracking and drinking water resources across the country. In December 2011, the agency released preliminary findings from a three-year study in central Wyoming that reveal possible groundwater contamination from fracking fluids as well as increased seepage of natural gas around drilling sites. Ongoing study is still needed to validate these findings.

According to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which regulates the industry here, there are no known instances where fracking a well itself contaminated water supplies in Colorado. However, the organization Earthjustice says there have been accidents related to fracking across Colorado—from fracking fluid spills to leaks from poorly cemented wells. The commission confirms the occurrence of such incidences.

The commission overhauled drilling rules in 2008 to reflect current conditions and best practices, such as changing to closed loop or “pitless” drilling systems, which recirculate water and drilling fluids, reducing the risk of spills from traditional waste-holding pits. From the industry’s perspective, Colorado has some of the most comprehensive and rigorous rules in the country, says Doug Flanders with the Colorado Oil and Gas Association.

The state is also expanding a program to monitor groundwater conditions. Starting in 2012, double the num-ber of water wells will have to be sampled before and after every new gas well is drilled to ensure groundwater is not being affected. “We already have water quality data on more than 6,000 pits in the state,” says Dave Neslin, director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. So far, Neslin says data demonstrates no significant changes to groundwater.

Plus, companies are now required to disclose the fracking chemicals they use on a well-by-well basis via the public website www.fracfocus.org. Colorado’s new fracking-fluid disclosure rule, established in December 2011 and labeled the strictest in the country, will require companies to reveal only the chemical family for chemicals protected as trade secrets. —Caitlin Coleman

How many gallons of water does it take to turn on a light bulb? Sound like a joke? It’s not. Ac-cording to energy analyst Jordan Macknick, it’s a real concern being studied by the U.S. Department

of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden. “In many areas, the reliability and future development of our electricity sector could be com-promised by water scarcity or water temperature,” says Macknick. The power sector, which withdraws more fresh water than any other sector in the United States, primarily uses water for cooling. When water discharge temperatures are too high, or water levels available for cooling sink too low, thermal generators have to be shut down.

In Colorado, coal fuels more than 65 percent of

electricity, with natural gas and renewables on the rise. This transition in Colorado’s energy mix will continue as the state pushes to meet a Renewable Energy Standard (RES) requiring that 30 percent of Colorado’s power come from renewable sources by 2020. Colorado’s RES sets the bar high, second only to California’s goal for the same period. Not only is a clean energy future good for emissions, it can be great for reducing the impact of water use—a benefit noted when the state legislature updated the standard in 2010. Renewable energy like wind and solar PV—the photovoltaic panels often in-stalled on residential rooftops—requires virtually no water to produce. Other renewables, like concen-trating solar power, depending on the cooling sys-tem used, can require just as much water as coal. —Caitlin Coleman

Oil and Water Don’t MixHow Colorado is working to protect water resources

Hydropower tends to connote massive dams, tre-mendous turbines and loud rushing water, but it doesn’t have to. Coloradans have long been inter-ested in small hydropower, or micro-hydro, which is generated by placing turbines in existing irrigation and public conduit systems. But in the past, the sheer cost and time required to obtain necessary permits made it uneconomical to pursue such projects.

Recently there’s been an additional push for these

small systems, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the state of Colorado agreed in 2010 to simplify the permitting process. A bill intro-duced in Congress in September 2011 could similarly pave the way for small hydropower projects at conduit sites owned by the Bureau of Reclamation if passed. Reclamation believes its Colorado system could gen-erate up to 1,400 Megawatts—enough to serve as many as 1 million homes. —Caitlin Coleman

Micro-hydro—a new energy source

Water Consumed to Generate Electricityin Gallons per Megawatt hour (Gal/Mwh)

DRY

NO COOLING REQUIRED

COOLING TOWER

Gal/MWhCooling System

865525

CONCENTRATINGSOLAR POWER


0-26P H O T O V O LTA I C

S O L A R P O W E R

POND

ONCE-THROUGH

COOLING TOWER

N U C L E A R


672610269

ONCE-THROUGH


100POND 240

DRY 2NATURAL GAS

ONCE-THROUGH

COOLING TOWER


553

300POND 390

DRY 35BIOPOWER

POND

ONCE-THROUGH

COOLING TOWER

C O A L


687545250


0W I N D

COOLING TOWER 198

source: national renewable energy laboratory (nrel)

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Cooling tower: Uses the temperature-reducing properties of evaporation (like human sweat) to cool and condense steam.Pond systems: Can operate with cooling towers or once-through systems, but have a dedicated reservoir for cooling water.Once-through: A large amount of water is run through the system to cool and condense steam in a single pass, then discharged back to the original source at a higher temperature.Dry: Dry-cooled systems use forced air flow (like a fan) to cool and condense steam.Note: Power plants use water for many processes (e.g., steam cycle, cleaning) in addition to cooling. Even dry-cooled facilities, which need no water for cooling, will consume some amount of water.


The Environmental Protection Agency establishes a framework for safe drinking water standards across the nation under the Safe Drinking Water Act. On top of those federal standards, the Colorado Water Quality Control

Division ensures drinking water meets additional Colorado-specific standards adopted here.

In Colorado, most acute health risks stem from the presence of bacteria such as E. Coli or con-tamination by nitrates. Says Ron Falco, manager of Colorado’s Safe Drinking Water Program, “Bacteria, viruses and parasites such as giardia have been re-sponsible throughout human history for water-borne disease outbreaks that can be pretty devastating.”

Fortunately, in Colorado, unlike many other parts of the world, the prospect of experiencing an acute illness like diarrhea from drinking water is extremely unlikely. Through a combination of filtration and dis-infection techniques, water providers ensure their customers have water to drink that won’t make

them sick. Depending on the region, other contami-nants found in source water can be problematic to water providers. According to the Colorado Water Quality Control Division, in the northeast part of the state, nitrates stemming from animal wastes and fer-tilizers are an issue, especially in well water, and can cause serious illness in infants who are exposed to high concentrations.

The southeastern corner of Colorado tends to find naturally-occurring radionuclides such as uranium, and high concentrations of elements like selenium and fluoride in its source water. These contaminants pose chronic health risks—if high levels are con-sumed on a regular basis over decades, uranium could cause cancer or kidney disease and flouride could cause bone disease and brown staining or pit-ting in the developing teeth of young children before they erupt from the gums. These contaminants can also be very difficult and expensive to treat.

In still other parts of the state, high levels of total organic compounds in water can complicate the dis-infection process, causing chemical reactions with

chlorine that result in harmful disinfection byprod-ucts. These are also regulated by the state.

Water providers are required to publish Con-sumer Confidence Reports annually, where cus-tomers can read up on the quality of their water supply. Through these reports, which are mailed directly to customers and made available by utili-ties on request, customers will also gain a better understanding of the challenges faced by water providers working to stay on top of monitoring, meeting standards, protecting water sources and updating infrastructure when necessary.

According to Falco, mounting pressures on water providers working to meet the needs of a growing population means more water is going to be reused, at least where legally possible. “We need to keep using good conventional treatment and potentially advanced treatment [ultraviolet light disinfection, reverse osmosis] to ensure our water is safe,” says Falco, adding, “There’s an ongoing infrastructure in-vestment that needs to occur in Colorado.” —Jayla Poppleton

How Safe is Your Drinking Water?

The Role of Water Treatment

Forget the bottled water. Walk to the sink and fill up your glass. Get comfortable. You can feel good knowing you’re drinking Colorado’s water, fresh from our headwaters state. Ninety-six percent of the state’s population drinks water that meets all health-based standards, according to the Colo-rado Water Quality Control Division. Both rural and urban

water providers in Colorado have won national awards in the past couple of years—Denver Water and Aurora Water won American Water Works Associa-tion taste tests, while the Morgan County Quality Water District was voted to have the second best rural water in the nation at a National Rural Water As-sociation Rally in 2010.

Still, water in Colorado isn’t perfect, and different parts of the state face distinct water quality concerns related to geology, geography and econom-ics. Most Coloradans—91 percent—drink surface water drawn from reser-

voirs, lakes and rivers. This includes the large systems of Denver, Aurora, Grand Junction, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins. Larger systems like these typically have the customer base to support funding for needed main-tenance or technological updates to water treatment systems. But in rural locales, financial constraints often make such updates challenging, and unexpected water quality issues can throw an extra wrench in an already taxed system.

Many rural areas rely on wells to tap into groundwater supplies for drinking water. The state requires that water pumped from public wells is treated so contaminants are removed; however private wells aren’t subject to regulations and can contain concentrations of trace elements such as arsenic, uranium or manganese at levels of potential health concern. According to the U.S. Geolog-ical Survey, about 20 percent of untreated water samples from wells across the nation contain concentrations of at least one trace element. —Caitlin Coleman

Nonpoint Source Pollution: Water Quality's Number One Threat

A. Sediment from improperly managed construction sites, crop and forest lands, and eroding streambanks

B. Bacteria and nutrients from livestock, pet wastes and faulty septic systems

C. Excess fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides from agricultural lands and residential areas

D. Oil, grease and toxic chemicals from urban runoff

Nonpoint source pollution is caused by rainfall or snowmelt moving over and through the ground, picking up natural and man-made pollutants.

AB

CD

Water is Health

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Step

Obtain a consumer confidence report from the utility listed on your water bill to see water quality test results. Find out how to test your private well water (or municipal water) for certain substances at ww.cdphe.state.co.us/lr/water.htm. Testing is also a good idea if you are concerned about elevated levels of lead, which can leach from plumbing systems and is not monitored at consumers’ taps. For more information, call the EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at (800) 426-4791.

The Role of Water in the Body Water is personal. Our bodies depend on it. In fact, we are water—it makes up about 60 percent of our body weight. Living in an arid, high-altitude locale like Colorado, we need to be particularly aware of staying hydrated. Did you know that the average adult needs between 9 and 13 cups of liquid each day? If you notice dry mouth, lethargy, a headache, or dizziness, you could be dehydrated. Adults can typically treat mild dehydration by drinking more fluids, but require quick medical attention as symptoms get worse and they experience extreme thirst, confusion and lack of urination. When left untreated, dehydration can cause permanent brain damage, seizures or even death.

ContaminantHealth Effects

Standards for drinking water quality are in place to protect us from harmful levels of both naturally-occurring and man-made contaminants. MCLs are Maximum Contaminant Levels set by the state and EPA.

Selenium is an essential nutri-ent. However, some people who drink water containing selenium in excess of the MCL over many years could experience hair or fingernail losses, numbness in fin-gers or toes, or problems with their circulation.

Infants and children who drink water containing lead in excess of the action level could experience delays in their physical or mental development. Children could show slight deficits in attention span and learning abilities. Adults who drink this water over many years could develop kidney problems or high blood pressure.

Some people who drink water containing PCBs (polychlorinated byphenyls) in excess of the MCL over many years could experience changes in their skin, problems with their thymus gland, immune deficiencies, or reproductive or nervous system difficulties, and may have an increased risk of getting cancer.

Some people who drink water containing benzene in excess of the MCL over many years could experience anemia or a decrease in blood platelets, and may have an increased risk of getting cancer.

Some people who drink water containing styrene in excess of the MCL over many years could have problems with their liver, kidneys, or circulatory system.

By now, most of us have heard of Bisphenol-A, or BPA, leaching out of plastics and water bottles. But did you know that nu-merous other unregulated contaminants can be found in local waterways that may pose environmental or human health risks? Scientists are linking the presence of some compounds found in

household and personal care products and food packag-ing with sexual abnormalities in aquatic life. Some

studies have also shown that BPA exposure in humans increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, abnormal liver function and recurrent miscarriage.

From sunscreen used by outdoor enthu-siasts along high mountain streams to left-over medication, shampoo and laundry detergent being flushed down drains, contaminants of emerging concern are showing up in waterways and gaining

attention nationwide. Researchers are taking a hard look at the presence of

everything from pharmaceuticals such as Viagra and anti-depres-

sants, surfactants from house-hold cleaning products, artifi-

cial fragrances, parabens in personal care products, and

BPA from packaged and canned foods. While the

potential health impacts of these compounds at various concentrations is still not fully under-stood, there are no wa-ter quality standards in place requiring they be

tested for or removed from our water supply.

Eating fresh food instead of canned, avoiding chemical fragrances, mixing your own household cleaners from simple agents like vinegar and bak-ing soda, and using less laundry detergent are sim-ple ways to reduce your chemical footprint—and your own exposure to emerging contaminants, says Carol Lyons, director of the Institute for Envi-ronmental Solutions. —Caitlin Coleman

To learn more, contact the Institute for Environ-mental Solutions (www.i4es.org) or get involved

with the Consortium for Research and Education on Emerging Contaminants (www.creec.net). Find out how to safely dispose of unused medications at

www.smarxtdisposal.net.

Emerging Threats


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Scan this code with your smart phone or other device to link to Colorado’s Safe Drinking Water Program on the Web, or go to www.cdphe.state.co.us/wq/drinkingwater.

Take the

Step


Water is Environment

River Restoration High in the Pike National Forest, the South Platte River is find-ing new life. Welcome to Happy Meadows, a flat, 4-mile stretch of river that straddles public land and the private Sportsman’s Par-

adise fishing club just northwest of the town of Lake George. This is the site of an ambitious river reha-bilitation project that has seen private landowners join with the Forest Service, watershed protection groups and the state’s largest utility to restore this pretty but ailing waterway.

It all started back in the 1960s, when the Sport-man’s Paradise homeowners association (HOA) con-structed a slapdash dam to divert water to an irriga-tion pond and to keep fish within the club’s section of river. Over time, the dam had the opposite effect, cre-ating broad but shallow channels that reduced pocket water, nooks where fish love to hide out.

“The dam was a major problem for water qual-ity and fish passage,” says Carol Ekarius, executive director of the Coalition for the Upper South Platte (CUSP), the watershed group that spearheaded res-toration efforts.

What’s more, man-made diversions downstream dampened the river’s ability to perform one of its essential functions—flushing sediments that move down from naturally-eroding hillsides. When the Hay-man Fire—the largest wildfire in Colorado history—swept through the area in 2002, it sped erosion and compounded the amount of sediment flowing into the river. It was the perfect storm: Trout habitat con-tinued to decrease, and the river became wider and more clogged.

The Forest Service was the first to requisition CUSP’s help, asking for a plan to restore habitat in Happy Meadows. After years of negotiation, Ekarius convinced the Sportsman’s Paradise HOA that removing the dam and creating a better-functioning diversion would result in improved trout habitat and more fish.

During the summer of 2011, CUSP, the HOA and private habitat consultants worked tirelessly to do just that. They also excavated unnatural islands; blocked off select channels to narrow the river; and reinforced riverbanks with replanted willows, ponderosa and sedge. Denver Water also got involved, managing the South Platte’s flow during construction—a complex undertaking during a season when water is in high demand. Phase one of the project was completed in September 2011.

In the end, the project will be a decade-long undertaking. Yet the many stakeholders are already pleased with the visible improvements. Fish have started to return to Happy Meadows, and biomass and diversity is on the rise.

“It’s really an ‘If you build it, they will come’ situation,” Ekarius says. Importantly, the project also heralds a new era of more complex river rehabilitations that no one party could accomplish on its own. “All the parties need to come to the table so we can start designing projects that satisfy multiple goals,” says Ekarius. “This isn’t a Band-Aid approach.” —Katy Neusteter

Conservation’s New ToolLike any successful venture, the field of environmental conservation has had to adapt to changing political and social climates. Today’s version is like the pragmatic big sister to the more idealistic environmentalism of the past. Instead of promoting conservation for conservation’s sake, a growing trend is to identify the life-sustaining benefits we reap from the natural environment and call for their protection—for the sake of humanity. These benefits, termed “ecosystem services,” include everything from water filtration and climate

regulation by healthy forests and wetlands, to crop pollination by local populations of bees and bats. In some instances, a mechanism called “payments for ecosystem services” is being used to promote wise resource use and management strategies on private land. Landowners receive payments for taking care of the land—so that it can continue taking care of us. —Jayla Poppleton

The Fate of Colorado’s Cutthroats The kind of Colorado waterways that keep fly fisherman up at night tend to depress Colorado State University ecologist Dr. Kurt Fausch. “I just see a lot of streams full of non-native trout,” he says. And non-native trout spell disaster for Colo-rado’s indigenous cutthroats.

Known for the bright-red gashes under their gills, three types of cutthroat trout—greenback, Colorado River and Rio Grande—once thrived in Colorado. But in the late 1800s, habitat degrada-tion, as well as aggressive brown, rainbow and brook trout introduced from the West and East Coasts, started to force the smaller, meeker cut-throats upstream. By the time the Endangered Species Act passed in 1973, cutthroats were found only in high-elevation headwaters above dams and waterfalls—and greenbacks, the state fish, were in imminent danger of extinction.

Although cutthroats have since been downgrad-ed to a “threatened” status of protection, Fausch says efforts to repopulate the fish have been only marginally successful. For starters, because cut-throats eek out an existence in short stretches of mountain streams, winter water temperatures are often too cold for their tiny minnows to survive. And although Colorado’s high country is some-what buffered from climate change compared to the lower-elevation mountains of Montana and Idaho, rising temperatures are still expected to reduce snowpack here, meaning less runoff and fewer deep pockets for fish to hole up in over cold winters.

According to Fausch, half of all native trout habitat will be gone in 70 years. His team is at-tempting to pinpoint which specific cutthroat populations will die out and where, so that habitat restoration and non-native species man-agement can be done in the areas that will be cutthroat strongholds. “A lot of fishery biology is just trying to prevent the future from being worse than now,” he says. Depressing but true.

—Katy Neusteter

Building a new diversion for Happy Meadows

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From Storm Sewers Into Streams Drains, pipes, curbs, gutters and ditches—all this concrete and steel transports rain and snowmelt from our streets, roofs, parking lots and sidewalks away from our homes—and straight into our riv-ers. Stormwater is inevitable, but stormwater pol-lution is a real concern says Janice Lopitz with the Keep it Clean Partnership, based on Colorado’s Front Range. “Some people don’t realize that any-thing on an impervious surface is really ending up in our creek system,” she says. “Imagine wash-ing your car in the middle of the creek—this is basically what happens when you wash it on a paved surface, like your driveway.”

Already a leading source of water pollution in the country, according to the Environmental Pro-tection Agency, stormwater pollution is becom-ing increasingly significant. The more cities and towns develop, installing impervious surfaces such as parking lots, buildings and streets, the more pollutants such as leaking motor oil, paint, trash, pet waste, fertilizers, even dirt and leaves, are picked up as water rushes across them.

Regulations established by the EPA attempt to ensure municipalities are taking measures to curb stormwater pollution. Lopitz says cities are get-ting better at preventing urban runoff by build-ing with surfaces that absorb water during storm events, such as porous pavement and landscapes and green roofs that are planted with vegetation.

Individuals can also take steps to combat stormwater pollution. Picking up after pets, washing cars at a car wash, maintaining vehicles, disposing of hazardous waste properly or getting involved by joining a watershed group or stream team can all go a long way toward protecting wa-terways. —Caitlin Coleman

A Water Supply Legacy Throughout Colorado, the ability to obtain adequate water supplies for cities, industries, power and farmers hinges on water infrastructure. Much of that infrastructure was built at least a half century ago. Ninety-five percent of the water storage we have today, for example, was either built or well underway by 1960.

In northern Colorado, the half-century-old Colorado-Big Thompson Project anchors the water supply. The largest transmountain diversion system in the state, the Colorado-

Big Thompson annually moves 230,000 acre feet of water (an acre foot of water can cover a football field to a depth of one foot) on average from the Colorado River Basin to the northern Front Range, reaching 640,000 acres of farms and 850,000 people. Completed in 1957, the project took two decades to con-struct. More than 50 years later, Northern Water, which manages the project, continues to pursue supple-mental projects to serve a growing population that are only possible because of extra capacity built into the original design.

Eric Wilkinson, general manager of Northern Water and chair of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, commends the leaders who had the initiative, foresight and ingenuity to implement such well thought-out projects, without waiting for a crisis to strike. Now, he believes our generation likewise has a responsibility to look ahead and leave future generations better off. “We really need to put our shoulder to the wheel and figure out how we’re going to do what needs to be done in regard to water management,” says Wilkinson. “You don’t want to get to a point where you’re managing by crisis.” —Jayla Poppleton

$4.5 billion The estimated cost to outfit 492 drinking water and 535 wastewater facilities owned by municipalities in Colorado with necessary upgrades (Colorado Municipal League 2011)

$15 billion The price Colorado will have to pay to meet its growing municipal and industrial water supply needs by 2050 (estimated by the Statewide Water Supply Initiative 2010)

$100 million The amount of funding assistance sought from the Colorado Water Conservation Board over the last five years for water supply projects around the state

$1.6 billion The amount Denver Water plans to spend over the next 10 years to increase supply and replace aging infrastructure—including three dams that are more than 100 years old, canals that were built in the 1930s, pump stations and pipes that were installed post-WWII and treatment plants that are required to meet increasingly strict water quality standards

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Carter Lake, a reservoir built southwest of Loveland in 1952, is a critical component of the Colorado Big-Thompson Project.

By the numbers: Infrastructure Updates Needed

Water is Infrastructure

Find a watershed group near you at www.coloradowater.org.

Take the

Step

2 0 C o l o r a d o F o u n d a t i o n f o r W a t e r E d u c a t i o n | y o u r w a t e r c o l o r a d o . o r g2 0 C o l o r a d o F o u n d a t i o n f o r W a t e r E d u c a t i o n | y o u r w a t e r c o l o r a d o . o r g

From Source to “Tap”Tracing the path of water from Colorado’s High Country to a batch of its microbrew

Water is Infrastructure

Rivers like the Colorado are important for fish, wildlife and recreation-based economies, so state and federal agencies put protections in place to keep adequate water in streams.

Below Rocky Mountain National Park, a 13-mile tunnel moves water from the Colorado River underneath the Continental Divide. This is the Colorado-Big Thompson (C-BT) Project.

Northern Water monitors snowpack, stream conditions and reservoir levels and, in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation, controls the flow of water through the C-BT system remotely from Berthoud.

This transmountain diversion was originally built for farmers, to supplement their water supply for irrigation. Now that the area has grown, farmers own roughly one-third of the water shares from the project and cities own the rest.

Horsetooth Reservoir is a recreational hotspot for Ft. Collins’ boaters, hikers and climbers. It also stores water for Ft. Collins and Greeley.

It all starts here. Colorado’s rivers begin high in the mountains and are fueled by melting snow.

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Where does your water come from? It likely travelled no short dis-tance to arrive at your tap, or the tap at your favorite local brew-ery, weaving through a labyrinth of water storage and delivery in-frastructure and negotiating myriad water protection regulations. Here, we look at the state’s largest diversion of water from one river basin to another, the Colorado-Big Thompson Project (C-BT), which reverses some water from the westward-flowing Colorado River v through a complex system of reservoirs, including Granby Reservoir, to flow east beneath the Continental Divide. This Colo-rado River water powers five hydroelectric power plants during its descent to the northern Front Range area, before going out to 640,000 acres of farms and 850,000 people. Before it’s distrib-uted, the project’s water is held in one of three “terminal” storage reservoirs, including Horsetooth Reservoir, which can hold 51 bil-lion gallons of water, as much as roughly 400,000 households will use in a year. z Colorado River water stored in Horsetooth makes up 45 percent of Ft. Collins Utilities’ water supply on average. The other 55 percent comes from the Poudre River. Raw water is purified at Ft. Collins Utilities’ treatment plant, | then piped to customers throughout the city, including a handful of Colorado’s

numerous breweries. That includes the state’s second-oldest mi-crobrewery, Odell Brewing Company, which produces 4,750 gal-lons of beer each day; one of the state’s newest microbreweries, Pateros Creek Brewery, at about 1,240 gallons per day; as well as Colorado’s largest craft brewery, New Belgium Brewery, which makes 60,000 gallons each day. } Each beer itself is about 90 percent Colorado or Poudre river water, but the amount of water needed to produce the beer varies depending on each brewery’s processes. At New Belgium, each gallon of beer requires 4 gallons of water to produce, but the company intends to trim its water use by 10 percent by 2015 through water-efficiency adaptations. Odell’s, too, conserves water while boosting its yield through a new centerfuge method of filtering spent grains and hops. All three companies employ methods to capture and reuse water ei-ther for cleaning or making the next batch of brew. New Belgium also pre-treats its wastewater on-site before it goes to the city’s wastewater treatment plant. The water will be returned to the Pou-dre to continue its journey east, eventually flowing into the Mis-sissippi River. Each drop of water will be used and reused many times before reaching the Gulf of Mexico.

Many paddlers use the Poudre River, including five commercial raft companies. The Poudre is Colorado’s only river with special protections under the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

Water providers like Ft. Collins Utilities filter and disinfect raw water to comply with state water quality regulations before delivering it to customers.

Breweries and other end users can take steps to minimize their impact on water supplies. At New Belgium Brewery, a new packaging process saves millions of gallons of water a year.

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This illustration generously sponsored by New Belgium Brewery

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It’s also a topic that draws passionate and informed authors, who, through their work, both observe and participate in ongoing conversations related to water in the Southwest. As part of the statewide Water 2012 celebration, a virtual book club seeks to engage both adult and young adult readers in the fun and adventure of Colorado and western water. For a sample of the selected authors’ words and insights, take a look at the excerpts below from interviews with Colorado writers Craig Childs, Jon Waterman, George Sibley, Will Hobbs and Patty Limerick and photographer Pete McBride.

Read the full interviews, look up a periodically-revised schedule of book club events throughout the state, or participate in discussions online at: www.water2012.org/activities/water-book-club.html. —Greg Hobbs

Justice Greg HobbsJustice Greg Hobbs of the Colorado Supreme Court is the author of Living the Four Corners: Colorado, Centennial State at the Headwaters, a collection of stories and poems about living in and traveling through Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona, where water is life.

Colorado water is full of music, story, landscape, culture, people, creatures and community.

Craig Childs Craig Childs is the author of house of rain: tracking a Vanished Civilization across the southwest, a mix of highly personal journeys and hard-boiled archaeology, exploring the so-called disappearance of the Anasazi.

Q. Most powerful or harrowing experience you’ve had with water? Back in some dripping alcove in the Grand Canyon, I spent a long summer day with a stopwatch measuring the rate of seep-drips coming out of the ceiling. Far from harrowing, this was one of the more curious experiences I have had with water. I was stunned by the metronomic order of the drips, the very slight variations, and unerring accuracy down to half-seconds over the length of a day as the delicate spring kept up its cadence. I can still hear the tapping, plinking sounds of water emerging from stone. It was an orchestration, a set of interwoven rhythms.

Q. Attitude you had about water and people that changed in the course of researching and writing your book? I thought people were not part of water. I believed us to be purely special, different. I didn’t even think we were natural, but through this book, and through my own travels, I have learned that we are inseparable.

Q. Favorite image/passage in your book? “At the river I untied the canoe’s bowline, and swept the paddle into the water, setting a wake across a mirror of stars.”

Craig Childs

Water is Art

Pete McBridePete McBride, photographer, and Jon Waterman, writer, are the co-authors of the Colorado river: Flowing through Conflict, a photo essay chronicling the river’s entirety—from its headwaters high in the Colorado Rockies to its dried-up delta in Mexico at the Sea of Cortez.

Q. Property of water that most fascinates you and how this affected your book? Its connective, fluid force enchants me. In our book, I wanted to look at the water in the Colorado River as one long ribbon that connects the West—and then highlight how it is finally cut, or yanked, from its ending point in the Sea of Cortez.

Q. Greatest difficulty you encountered in writing your book? Since the book is a visual jour-ney down the Colorado, my challenge was to continually find fresh perspectives while focusing on the beauty within the tragedy of such an overtaxed system.

Q. Favorite image/passage in your book? The dry Colorado River delta seen from a plane, looking straight down on an abandoned fishing boat and the dry drainage channels surrounding it. The pattern and shapes the drainage tendrils form is artery-like, which is a powerful metaphor for rivers as a whole.

Jon WatermanQ. Property of water that most fascinates you and how this affected your book? I have always been intensely aware of the power of river rapids. This has naturally made me a timid boatman, perhaps happier to admire a rap-id than to run it. As a consequence, I wrote about the Colorado River with respect and awe, as a place that mere mortals need to revere, and where we go to find humility.

Q. Attitude you had about water and people that changed in the course of researching and writ-ing your book? As a neophyte to all things Colorado River several years ago, I had no idea of the complexities of its human management and diversions until I paddled its entire length and explored the use of its water throughout the basin. I was moved by the dedication of city planners, boat-men, engineers, and other varied water workers along the way. I was chagrinned to find, however, that most people involved in water tend to focus on their own locale or specific rights, rather than viewing the river as an ecologic whole or living body that needs water. I assumed people would not only know the river doesn’t reach the sea anymore (many don’t), but that they would care about how we could effect change.

Q. Your hope for Colorado and the world’s water future? For people to care about rivers and to know, when they drink a glass of water, precisely where it comes from.

Patty Limerick Patty Limerick is the author of a ditch in time: denver, the west, and water, a historical perspective on how a great and growing city on the eastern plains learns to cross many political, legal and cultural divides.

Q. Property of water that most fascinates you and how this affected your book? I wrote my dissertation and first book, “Desert Pas-sages,” on American attitudes toward deserts. Since the writing of “Desert Passages” had me constantly in the company of the written records of people

facing thirst and fearing that they would die if they could not relieve it, I am par-ticularly well set up to be knocked over, flabbergasted and astonished by the complacency of Westerners’ water use over the last century. Easy and reliable access to water seems to me nothing to take for granted. My principal hope for the book is that it will invite others to join me in being knocked over, flabbergasted and astonished by the circumstances we take to be normal.

Q. Attitude you had about water and people that changed in the course of researching and writ-ing your book? I had an instinctual sense that using water for cities was intrinsically less “right” than agricultural water use or the maintaining of water as instream flow in its basin of origin. I was surprised to find myself persuaded by the idea that urban water use—if practiced with conservation and with density rather than sprawl—can permit a lot of people to live with a much less significant environmen-tal impact, producing much less distur-bance, than if they all headed for the hills and lived “close to nature.”

Q. Favorite image/passage in your book? “Once upon a time, the area where Den-ver now sits was defined by water—in unmanageable and unimaginable abun-dance. The part of the planet we know as the Front Range of Colorado once sat 600 feet beneath the salty waves of a gi-ant sea. Seventy million years can make quite a difference.”

Pete McBride

Jon Waterman

Patty Limerick


Will Hobbs Will Hobbs is the author of river thunder, a novel for young adults that follows three young women and three young men as they learn about themselves and how to pull together through the crashing waves of the Grand Canyon.

Q. Most powerful or harrowing experience you’ve had with water? My wife Jean and I rowed the Grand Canyon at 70,000 cubic feet per second in 1983, the year Glen Canyon Dam almost gave way. We were cooking breakfast in a tiny camp below the walls of the inner gorge. A thunder-storm broke and sent waterfalls and rocks into our camp. We had to throw everything onto the rafts in about five minutes and get out on the river where we’d be safe.

Q. Greatest difficulty you encountered in writing your book? To imagine the world from a girl’s point of view. I thought that outdoor adventure novels needed to catch up to

real life. Outdoor adventure is every bit as appealing to girls as it is to boys. Just look around at who’s out there skiing, mountain biking, kayaking, river rafting, climbing—girls are active in every kind of sport.

Q. Favorite image/passage in your book? “I was leaving the river knowing myself better than ever before. Perhaps that was the river’s gift to each of us. How can rock and light and moving water do this? That’s a mystery I could take a lifetime to explore.”

George Sibley George Sibley is the author of water wranglers: the 75-Year history of the Colorado river district, which follows the district as it grows into its role as the west-ern Colorado steward of the state’s water treasure.

Q. Greatest difficulty you encountered in writing your book? Trying to convey the difference between the “conservation” of Gifford Pinchot and that of the environmental-era generations. Water conservation for the people who founded and developed the Colorado River Water Conservation District meant something very different from what it means to most Coloradans today. Negoti-ating this transition has been very difficult for Colorado’s water organizations. And writing through it is difficult without feeling like one is selling out either one’s own or one’s grandparents’ generational sense of “living conservatively” on earth.

Q. Favorite image/passage in your book? “The River of Color: Taking the words “color” and “colorado” back to their earliest com-mon root, we come to an old Latin verb for “conceal” or “camouflage”—in other words, a word for things that take on the

color of their surroundings. Which the Rio Colorado did, does, and will do again—for its evident aim was, is, and until it is fin-ished, will be, not just to take the colors of what it runs through, but in the patient way of water, to take it all: color, sound, smell, mass, biota, stone, mountains of origin and earth itself down to the level of the sea.”

Q. Your hope for Colorado and the world’s water fu-ture? That we learn some humility in the face of our appetites and habits, realizing that even a virtuous toilet uses more water per flush than the daily per capita water budget for a vast number of the world’s people.

Written in Water: The Life of Benjamin Harrison Eaton by Jane E. Norris and Lee G. Norris chronicles the journey of a Colorado homesteader, who came for gold in 1859, learns to work water in a New Mexico acequia, helps to write the water provisions of Colorado’s 1876 Constitution, and becomes a governor. The Colorado Water Conservation Board: A Brief and Preliminary History of its First 75 Years by Thomas V. Cech and J. William McDonald looks back at historical events that lead to the creation of the Colorado Wa-ter Conservation Board and the politics, personalities, and circum-stances shaping the agency’s first 75 years. The Water Mysteries of Mesa Verde by Kenneth R. Wright documents the pioneering efforts by the Native American peoples of southwestern Colorado in practicing smart water conservation, harvesting drink-ing water through cisterns and reservoirs.

Silver Fox of the Rockies: Delphus E. Carpenter and Western Water Compacts by Daniel Tyler follows the life of a first-generation descendant of 1870 Union Colony settlers who becomes the premier architect of the nation’s interstate water-sharing agreements. The Future of Water: A Startling Look Ahead by Steve Maxwell with Scott Yates cautions that careful preservation and use of our scarce fresh water resources is necessary to future survival.

Digging The Old West: How Dams and Ditches Sculpted an American Landscape by Karmen Lee Franklin is a feast for the eyes, chock full of pho-tography, art and prose centering on how water ditches in Colorado have created a contemporary cultural landscape founded on Native American, Hispanic, Moorish and Anglo immigrant roots.

For the complete extended list of recommended reading by Colorado authors for both youth and adults, visit the book club page of the Water 2012 website: www.water2012.org.

George Sibley

Will Hobbs

Additional titles recommended by the Water 2012 book club


Take the

Step

Changes in Timing of Existing Water Rights

Earlier runoff and lower flows later in the year

are potentially problematic to all types of water

rights. Some water rights are constrained by

decree to only divert during some pre-defined

time periods. In some cases, changes in flow

timing will affect junior rights, and in other

cases senior rights. For example, as previously

described, Boulder’s junior water storage rights

have frequently been called out by senior

downstream agricultural rights during the spring

runoff preventing their full use. One Boulder study

suggests, however, that in the future their storage

rights will be able to store water that previously

would have been released to meet downstream

demands. On the other hand, lower late-season

flows have the potential to harm relatively senior

water rights accustomed to diverting throughout

the irrigation season.

Attempting to digest the multitude of technical reports circulating in Colo-rado’s water community could cause a fair amount of heartburn. Here, we translate language found in the Colorado Climate Preparedness Project 2011 report. This project of the Western Water Assessment, an organiza-tion supported by the University of Colorado and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was conducted for the Colorado Water Con-servation Board. Its primary purpose is to assist Colorado in continuing to prepare itself for climate variability and change, focusing on five sectors: agriculture, electricity, forests/wildlife/ecosystems, tourism/recreation, and water. This excerpt is from the project’s water report.

When Colorado’s snow melts, the water, or runoff, collects in rivers and streams. Runoff is heaviest in spring and early summer, then drops significantly by late summer as the snowpack disappears. Warmer temperatures could mean snow will melt earlier in the season than usual, causing river levels to reach their peak sooner and drop even lower by the fall.

The right to use water in Colorado is

granted for many different purposes,

or beneficial uses. These include water

for domestic use, power generation,

irrigation, stock watering, snowmaking, dust

suppression, recreation and more.

People are allowed to take water out of a river or from the ground through water rights confirmed through division water courts, which often restrict a water user to taking water during certain months, weeks or days of the year.

In Colorado’s legal system of water management, those with the oldest rights to use water are guaranteed to get their water first at times when there is not enough for all. These senior rights have priority over newer, more junior water rights.

Many times there are more water rights on rivers and streams than there is water to fulfill them. Water users then start to call for their water—based on the priority system of “first in time, first in right.” The state’s Division of Water Resources enforces the system, and depending on river flows, some users may not get to take all, or any, water under their junior rights.

More runoff coming down earlier in the spring would boost flows so that Boulder’s junior water rights could access water that, under lower flow conditions, it cannot block from continuing down-river to more senior users.

Late in the summer and

early fall, river leve

ls drop

significantly, while crops still

need water. Usually, those

farmers and ranchers w

ho hold

senior water rights can stil

l

count on getting some water at

the end of the irrig

ation season.

But if late-season flows drop

further due to climate chang

e,

even those farmers and ra

nchers

would be out of luck.

Waterspeak 101


Water is Language

Gain more skills toward speaking fluent water at www.yourwatercolorado.org.

Take the

Step


City of Greeley WaterPromoting water efficiency, since 1907.

www.greeleygov.com/wcwww.facebook.com/greeleywaterwww.twitter.com/greeleywater

Check out how we’re celebrating water in 2012.

● In 1907, Greeley began a program requiring alternate day lawn watering and restricted mid-day lawn watering. That conservation ethic is still in place, 105 years later.

● Greeley’s Water Conservation Programs contributed to a 20% drop in community water use in the last 20 years.

● In 2009, it is estimated that Greeley’s Water Conservation Programs saved over 29 million gallons of water.

● Greeley offers free personalized water audits. The indoor, commercial and irrigation audit programs find areas where customers can increase water efficiency. The rebate program then helps customers purchase upgrades.

Join us for dinner and conversation to benefit the Water Resources Archive.

Water Tables 2012 celebrating organizations that shape western water

Saturday, February 18, 2012, 5-9 p.m.Morgan Library, Colorado State University, Fort Collins

Reservations: http://lib.colostate.edu/wt12 or call (970) 491-1833

Dinner & Conversation • Table Hosts • Archive Tour/Exhibit

Deep in western Colorado, the Grand Valley is an emerald oasis of irrigated land surrounded by the starkness of the high desert. Two major rivers, the Colorado and the Gunnison, meet in the valley’s heart, near downtown Grand Junction. The

network of irrigation canals that fan out from these rivers, distributing water to the valley’s farms and ranches, are what makes these fields unnaturally, welcomingly green.

In the midst of this lush desert lies the city of Grand Junction, one of western Colorado’s largest and fastest growing communities. There, Greg Trainor oversees the dirty jobs that keep his city running smoothly—sewage treatment, trash collection, road repair. For the most part mild-mannered and serious, his eyes light up when he talks about a fourth aspect of his job—providing the one thing that no one in town can live without. Water.

“There is nothing that defines the Grand Valley as much as the presence or absence of water,” says Trainor. “Irrigation has created our own fertile crescent.”

And fertile it is. From the peach orchards and vineyards of the town of Palisade to the cattle ranches of Loma out toward the Utah border, the Grand Valley is a marvel of desert agricultural production. Yet, there is concern for the future. “Water challenges your thinking. There is always uncertainty, and when [water] isn’t there, it is such a sharp-edged problem for the community,” says Trainor. For water, there really is no substitute.

The concerns of water users and managers in the Grand Valley represent a microcosm of every river basin in the state—a growing population, the ever-lingering threat of drought, the feasibility and wisdom of more transmountain diversions (taking water from the West Slope to the Front Range), the sustainability of agriculture, the role of water conservation, and the need to maintain water in streams for recreation and ecosystem health, explains Trainor. Tough decisions lie ahead.

How preciousis our

water?


By Josh McDaniel

iSto

ck.c

om

The Grand Valley is not alone in its reliance on irrigation to make agriculture successful. In fact, the need for irrigation is one of the funda-mental characteristics of life in the West.

It was the western explorer John Wesley Powell who, in 1879, identified the 100th Meridian, an arcing line of longitude that slices through the Great Plains just to the east of Colorado, as the dividing line be-tween East and West in the United States. On this side of the 100th Meridian, pre-cipitation averages less than 20 inches per year. Across the Meridian to the east, where precipitation is greater, agriculture is possible with little to no irrigation. To the west, irrigation is absolutely essential for agriculture to thrive on a large scale.

And irrigate we have. Here in the West, vast quantities of human ingenuity have transformed a scarce resource into seem-ing abundance. Water borne from Colora-do’s peaks and valleys now grows Palisade peaches, Olathe sweet corn, as well as South Texas citrus, Kansas wheat and Ne-braska corn. Snow falling on the Rockies fuels the growth of the high-tech industry on the Front Range, but also waters Phoe-nix’s golf courses, fills the fountains of Las Vegas, and arrives at faucets in California.

That is truly remarkable given that Colo-rado averages only 16 inches of precipita-tion per year. But averages can be mis-leading. While the Grand Valley receives only 12 inches annually, the mountains can collect up to 50 inches. Variability re-ally embodies the state’s climate, both in time and place, and prudent Coloradans throughout history learned early to store as much water as possible when it was available, to save it for later use.

“The difference between a warm and cold year is a couple of degrees Fahrenheit,” says Colorado State Climatologist Nolan Doesken, “but the difference between a wet and dry year can be up to 100 percent of av-erage. Precipitation is remarkably variable, and even more so when you consider loca-tion and time of year.”

Yes, location, and the mismatch be-tween Colorado’s demographics and topography have also created cruel re-alities in Colorado’s water story. Most of our precipitation, about 80 percent, falls on the mountain peaks and slopes to the

west of the Continental Divide, but most of our population, about 80 percent, lives to the east. As a result, water is captured in massive reservoirs and routed through concrete rivers and tunnels across the mountains to the cities, farms and ranch-es of the Front Range and Eastern Plains. These transmountain diversions have en-abled the state to thrive, but not without cost. The removal of water from one basin to benefit another can create enormous consequences for the health of headwater streams as well as mountain communi-ties that depend on flows for tourism and

recreation-based economies.In effect, Colorado’s biggest challenge

has not simply been scarcity of water, but managing to capture and store it when avail-able, move it around, and save it for when it’s needed. Water managers have a natu-ral assist from the state’s mountain ranges, which have an innate storage system—the yearly snowpack that accumulates in the high country.

While skiers, snowboarders, snowmobil-ers and other winter sports devotees track every winter storm with the hopes of scor-ing some of Colorado’s famous powder,

22

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950

Prec

ipita

tion

(inch

es)

1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Colorado Statewide Precipitation History: 1895 - 2007

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

23

1900

Actual Precipitation

Average Precipitation

Average Monthly Precipitation for Selected Stations Along Interstate 70

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep

Prec

ipita

tion

(inch

es)

Vail Pass

Vail

Glenwood Springs

Dillon

Eagle

Grand Junction

One acre foot of water equals 325,851 gallons, enough to serve two to three average Colorado households for one year.


Colorado’s climate is extremely variable. Precipitation ranges widely both from year-to-year (top graph) and from month-to-month and in different locations (bottom graph), affecting water avail-ability. Source: Colorado Climate Center

Trainor and other water managers follow the buildup of the snowpack, considering what it will mean for that year’s water supply.

The snowpack is essentially a giant fro-zen reservoir, albeit a temporary one, but crucial nonetheless. As temperatures rise in the spring, the snowpack begins to melt. Mountain streams and creeks swell and wa-

ter begins a wild and raucous journey down from the high country. Left alone, the water would quickly run off, heading eventually for the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, leaving many of the state’s rivers dry—or at least very low—by the end of the summer.

Now, much of the spring melt is captured in one of Colorado’s nearly 2,000 reservoirs,

which together can store almost 6.5 mil-lion acre feet of accessible water—enough to cover the entire state with 1.2 inches of water. For most Coloradans, the state’s res-ervoirs are a place to spend the day fish-ing, sailing, waterskiing, or just relaxing with friends and family on the shore. However, the reservoir system is vitally important. It allows water managers to control flows, holding back water to prevent floods during high flow years and releasing more water during droughts.

Water stored in reservoirs is available on an as-needed basis—providing water for ranches and farms when river flows are low, for city dwellers to use in their homes year-round, for boosting flows for recreation as well as riverine ecosystems, and for meeting the state’s obligations to deliver prescribed amounts of water to downstream states. Of course, water storage too is not without its drawbacks. Reservoirs and dams reduce the natural flow of streams and alter the tim-ing of high and low flows, impacting water quality as well as fisheries and wildlife that depend on the natural rhythms of stream-re-liant ecosystems. Reservoirs also result in a significant loss of water through evaporation. The Bureau of Reclamation, for example, estimates that 8,500 acre feet of water—as much as 85,000 Coloradans would use in a year—are lost to evaporation from the state’s largest reservoir, Blue Mesa, annually.

But as an insurance policy against drought, reservoirs are indispensable. Dur-ing the 2002 drought, the state essentially lived off its storage capacity, coming within half a million acre feet of a serious crisis. The reservoir system staved off disaster, but just barely.

the Geography of Water supply and Demand


Em

met

t Jor

dan

Colorado’s historical annual average streamflows, shown in acre feet at the state line, are distributed more heavily on the West Slope of the Continental Divide, while more of the demands for water, stemming from cities and towns plus irrigated agriculture, come from the East Slope of the Divide. These disparate streamflows exist despite the 630,100 acre feet of water transferred on average from West Slope to East Slope through transmountain diversions every year.Source: Statewide Water Supply Initiative 2010, population figures from 2008, irrigated acreage from 2005

Groundwater: An Important SourceAccording to the Colorado Division of Water Resources, groundwater resources supply about 18 percent of Colorado’s water needs.

Some areas, such as the Eastern Plains and the San Luis Valley, are almost entirely dependent on groundwater, but that is changing as the resource has been depleted. There, land that once grew crops is being left unplanted—in some cases permanently—while aquifers recover. In the south metro area near Denver, the water table of the Denver Basin aquifers is also dropping. Well owners, who have found themselves continually drilling deeper, face the prospect of reaching the point when drilling will be economi-cally, if not physically, infeasible. Water utilities and cooperatives there are searching for surface water supplies.

In Colorado, groundwater is not in great underground lakes or flowing rivers, but in saturated pore spaces in vast layers of alluvial or sedimentary rocks. Groundwater has often taken thousands of years to accumulate, and natural recharge is extremely slow, making nontributary groundwater—water in aquifers not connected to surface water systems—essentially nonrenewable. The other major type of groundwater in Colorado, tributary groundwater, is found in alluvial aquifers tied to surface streams. Depletion of tributary groundwater can reduce river flows, making it subject to the same prior appro-priation system of water rights used to regulate surface water in rivers. Consequently, well owners with more recent, junior water rights may be required to stop pumping when surface streamflows cannot meet the water demands of those owning older, more senior rights to surface water.

The possibility of prolonged droughts re-turning to Colorado, coupled with the wa-ter demands of a growing population, has prompted water planners to take a hard, comprehensive look at the future.

Though Colorado is a headwaters state, meaning that four of the most important rivers in the West originate here—the Colo-rado, the Platte, the Arkansas and the Rio Grande—the water in those rivers is shared with 18 other states, the Republic of Mexico, and tens of millions of people. In fact, we are legally obligated to allow nearly two-thirds of our surface water to flow across our borders.

After those obligations are met, about 6 million acre feet of water remains in an aver-age water year to be put to use in Colorado. Typical of arid and semi-arid western states, about 86 percent of the water available here is used for agriculture. Municipalities de-mand nearly 7 percent; about 2 percent is allocated for industry; another 2 percent is used to offset water pumped from the ground; and about 3 percent is intentionally left in streams for the benefit of the environ-ment and recreation.

Those numbers aren’t static. The most recent Statewide Water Supply Initiative report (SWSI 2010), published by the Colo-rado Water Conservation Board (CWCB), forecasts that an additional 600,000 to 1 million acre feet of water will be needed by 2050 for cities and industries if Colorado’s population grows as projected, nearly dou-bling to between 8.6 and 10 million people. Demands stemming from the growing pop-ulation could likewise double the share of the state’s water going to municipal water use—at a cost to other current uses.

Many question whether we can meet those rising water demands without losing some of our agricultural base. In all likelihood, the an-swer is no. Most of our rivers are already be-

ing used to the fullest extent possible, with-out jeopardizing either the environment or our ability to meet our obligations to other states.

The Rio Grande, South Platte and Ar-kansas basins are already at or near full apportionment, mean-ing no one else can expect to be granted the right to use ad-ditional water of any substantial amount from these rivers. That leaves the Colorado Basin, which, theo-retically, could have as much as 800,000 acre feet of water left to de-velop in a year of aver-age precipitation.

That much water could nearly meet the state’s high-end estimates for the amount of additional municipal and industrial water needed 40 years from now. However, stud-ies by the CWCB have shown that under some modeled climate change scenarios, that buffer is completely wiped out, making any significant diversions of water from the Colorado a risky bet for continuing to meet those downstream obligations.

On the Colorado River, our obligations are to the Republic of Mexico as well as the states of Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Cali-fornia, which collectively are referred to as the lower basin states. “The lower basin has been getting extra water because we [here in Colorado] haven’t developed all of our al-location,” says Hannah Holm, coordinator

for the Water Center at Colorado Mesa Uni-versity in Grand Junction. “But, now we are getting closer to using all of our allocation. At the same time, there appears to be less water available, and with climate change, we could be facing an even drier future. So, it looks as if we are on a collision course.”

Climate change is certainly the wild card in the question of future water sup-plies. Warmer temperatures mean a longer growing season, more uptake of water by vegetation, and more evapotranspiration—evaporation from soil and water surfaces and transpiration from plant surfaces that moves water into the atmosphere. Warmer temperatures would also mean more rain, less snow and earlier runoff. According to a recent study by the National Center for

South Platte BasinNorth Platte BasinYampa-White

Basin

ColoradoBasin

GunnisonBasin

Rio GrandeBasin Arkansas

Basin

SouthwestBasin

52%

22%

78%

25%

75%

60%

100,000

40%

91%9%

48%

42%58%

43%

43%

57%

57%

64%36%

MetroBasin

50,000

10,000

Identified Projects and Processes at 70% Success Rate

M&I Gap

2050 M&I WaterDemand Medium (acre feet per year)

LEGEND

The GapProjected demands for municipal and industrial water supplies in 2050 far outweigh the current plans for projects and methods to supply that water. Here, the gap between supply and demand in each region is represented by the red portion of the pie. The blue portion represents the water that will be available to meet demand if 70 percent of currently planned projects are successful. The size of the full pie represents the total municipal and industrial water demand expected for each region. Source: Statewide Water Supply Initiative 2010


The Looming Water Gap

1.9% Commercial, Industrial & Institutional

1.9% Augmentation & Replacement of Groundwater in Shallow Aquifers

3.0% Recreation, Fisheries & Instream Flows

6.7% MunicipalitiesAgriculture86.5%

Water Use by Sector in Colorado

Source: Colorado Division of Water Resources

Atmospheric Research, those factors taken together could amount to between a 14 and 18 percent reduction in runoff in the Colo-rado River Basin by 2069.

Changes in the snowpack and runoff hy-drology will have a sweeping impact on the way water is used and managed in Colo-rado—disrupting everything from the time of year irrigators and others are allowed to divert water to the operation and man-agement of water storage systems. Higher temperatures will result in more demand for energy and cause peaks in demand for hydropower. Warmer water will make life difficult for cold-blooded fish and riverine ecosystems, and changes in the timing of streamflow could disrupt ecological pro-cesses that have evolved over long periods of time. The Climate Change Preparedness Project, put together by the University of Colorado-based Western Water Assess-ment, is an attempt to help water manag-ers think through these future outcomes in order to get ahead of them. But planning for unknowns is no simple task.

Looking 40 years out is about as far as anyone has been able to go. The SWSI 2010 report analyzes possible scenarios for water supply and demand through the year 2050. Using information collected there, as well as through other CWCB-funded stud-ies, a statewide assembly of stakeholders called the Interbasin Compact Commit-tee has put forth a portfolio of strategies for meeting the gap between future supply and demand.

Often referred to as the “four-legged stool,” the proposed actions include fur-ther water conservation improvements, farm-to-city transfers of irrigation water rights, new supply (generally understood as additional transmountain diversions from the Western Slope’s Colorado River tributaries to the Front Range), and mov-ing forward with already-planned projects to increase storage capacity. Of course, different interest groups have tried to ei-ther knock specific legs off the stool or add additional ones. Some environmental groups and Western Slope interests want

to take transmountain diversions off the table and push for an expansion of Front Range water conservation efforts. Others are proposing even more expensive and energy-intensive projects such as piping in water from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Wyoming or from the Mississippi River to the east.

To sort through the potential impacts on the water supply of implementing different combinations of these strategies, the CWCB developed a “portfolio tool.” Settings can be adjusted, for example, to calculate how much irrigated farmland could be saved by ramping up water conservation programs or by diverting water from the Colorado River Basin to the Front Range.

“Use of the portfolio tool is forcing wa-ter managers and stakeholders to face up to the hard questions that lie ahead,” says Holm. “And, it is also stimulating new and creative thinking, which is what we need to overcome the water supply gap while main-taining agricultural communities and envi-ronmental values.”

Quick Facts: Colorado Water Law • All water that is within the state of Colorado is public property.

• Under the prior appropriation system, the first person to use water for beneficial use has the right to continue to use that water for that purpose–this is often referred to as “first in time, first in right.” In times of short supply, water users with earlier decrees (senior rights) get to fill their needs before others with water rights decreed, or confirmed by a division water court, at a later time (junior water rights).

• “Beneficial use” is a criterion used to determine the basis, measure and limit of a water right. The types of uses that have been defined as beneficial have changed over time from a focus on mining and irrigation in Colorado’s early years to more recent recognition of the benefits of instream flows for the environment and recreation.

• Tributary groundwater is hydrologically connected to a natural stream system either by surface or underground flows. All water in Colorado is presumed tributary until proven otherwise.

• Native American water rights and federal agency water rights are determined by federal law and are reviewed and decreed in state water courts.

• Colorado consumptively uses about one third of the water that arises in the state. The rest is dedicated to satisfying nine interstate compacts and two U.S. Supreme Court equitable apportionment decrees.


Climate Change and Streamflow Projected median changes in streamflow due to climate change by 2050 across the U.S., as determined by multiple global change models, are shown in colors. Percentages refer to the number of models that agree on the direction of the change. Source: Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.3

87%

67%

62%

+25%

+10%

+5% Incr

ease

+2%

-2%

-5%

-10%

-25%

62%

58%

58%62%

67%67%

67%

75%

96%

97%71%

100%

Decr

ease

Milly, 2005iS

tock

.com

Read CFWE’s Citizen’s Guide to Colorado water law or the Citizen’s Guide to Colorado’s interstate Compacts available at yourwatercolorado.org.

Take the

Step

Economics have always played a role in the development of water supplies. For starters, water development has histori-cally been heavily subsidized by the fed-eral government. Many of the state’s big infrastructure projects, including reser-voirs and transmountain diversions such as the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, were mostly built with federal funds. Wa-ter users have had to repay only a fraction of the costs for these projects since pay-ments were spread over decades with no interest and no adjustments for inflation.

In other instances, large communities have been able to use political clout to sup-port the movement of water to their users by lobbying for these projects or through out-right buying of large, valuable water rights.

While water in Colorado is a public re-source and is not individually owned, the right to use surface and groundwater in Col-orado has many of the qualities of private property ownership. Water rights can be bought, sold and even rented by individu-als, groups or organizations.

As in real estate, the value of a water right is partially determined by location, location, location. There are other factors as well, such as the seniority of the right, meaning the position of the right in the pri-ority system, where senior rights holders have an advantage over juniors. Histori-cal consumptive use, a figure representing the amount of water permanently removed from the stream system by human activity that could continue to be similarly “used up,” also affects a water right’s value. But location is without a doubt the most impor-tant element.

Amy Beatie is executive director of the Colorado Water Trust, an organization dedi-cated to protecting and restoring the state’s

streamflows. The trust buys water rights in order to change their decreed use to what’s called an instream flow, or water left in the stream for the natural environment. The most valuable water rights Beatie encoun-ters are in active markets.

“Take a large, senior water right in Clear Creek near Georgetown,” says Beatie. “That is a highly active water market, and you may pay $35,000 per acre foot of historical con-sumptive use. The same type of water right in another area with a less active water mar-ket might cost $800.”

While the pricing of water rights often reflects market value, individual water bills do not even come close to covering the true value of the water coming out of the tap. According to Chuck Howe, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Colorado, one of the biggest shortcomings of how water is priced is that people get to use very expensive water without really pay-ing for it. Utilities charge consumers for the operational and maintenance costs of water delivery but leave out an important chunk of the value of water—the investment or op-portunity costs.

Many cities in Colorado acquired their water supplies long ago at very low cost. But, if put on the market today, there would likely be people clamoring to buy those rights at steep prices. However, municipal water suppliers are nonprofit organizations, so the market value of the water rights held by the city cannot be reflected in the water prices charged.

“Boulder County has an inventory of water rights valued at somewhere near $400 mil-lion,” says Howe. “The costs of those invest-ments are not reflected in the fees the coun-ty charges. If they were, the price of water would be nearly double the current level.”

The Incalculable Value of Water


Horsetooth Reservoir, below, is part of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project.

Howe argues that if the true value of wa-ter was included in the pricing structure, it would lead to more rational water use and consequently more conservation. “If you have a really big lawn and you want to grow bluegrass in August, then you should have to pay a great deal for it,” says Howe. “Peo-ple pay attention to prices.”

The economics of water becomes in-creasingly important as we begin to develop strategies to confront the gap between wa-ter demand and supply.

The SWSI 2010 report found that a mix of conservation strategies including edu-cation, rate adjustments, leak detection, and incentives to replace inefficient appli-ances and water-dependent landscapes cost between $5,000 and $8,000 per acre foot saved, depending on the level of re-ductions achieved. The cost of new infra-structure projects designed to increase storage capacity or transport water ranged from $5,900 per acre foot for projects on the West Slope up to $32,200 per acre foot on the East Slope. Agriculture-to-urban wa-ter transfers, including transaction fees, re-lated infrastructure and treatment, cost be-tween $33,500 and $40,000 per acre foot.

Even as conservation is clearly more cost-efficient than “concrete and steel” infra-structure projects, it takes longer to produce results and requires more difficult political and regulatory actions aimed at changing people’s behavior.

“People’s habits change slowly,” says Trainor. “They get used to running their sink while they are shaving, or having a bluegrass lawn. So, we take the long-term approach with education, hoping to change people’s water consumption habits so they are ready when a big drought occurs and we have to stretch the supply.”

Under water utility’s tiered rate structures, the cost per gallon rises along with increasing levels of use—reaching a price as much as four times greater at the highest tiers, and creating a financial incentive for water conservation.

$17.60

$3.20

5

10

15

20

$3.29

Prices perGallon

0 $1.29

$10.88

$2.37

$13.30

Starbucks CoffeeBrewed at the shop

Milk

BottledWater

Coca-Cola

Gasoline

Orange Juice

CanolaOil

$0.03Tap Water


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The Cost of WaterFor something we can’t live without, water is comparably inexpensive. Here we compare the price for a gallon of various liquids we commonly rely on, or simply enjoy.

(Prices found in Denver as of December 2011)

3 4 C o l o r a d o F o u n d a t i o n f o r W a t e r E d u c a t i o n | y o u r w a t e r c o l o r a d o . o r g3 4 C o l o r a d o F o u n d a t i o n f o r W a t e r E d u c a t i o n | y o u r w a t e r c o l o r a d o . o r g

Leaders throughout the water community recognize that conservation, both municipal and agricultural, must be a part of any port-folio of solutions moving forward. But, water conservation too has its limits. So, beyond building new projects to divert and store water that we may or may not have, or mov-ing water away from agriculture, are there any other sources? Can we “create” more water to compensate for climate-induced reductions in supply or to provide for our growing population?

When it comes to the precipitation that falls in Colorado, we get what we get. But some are working off the hope that we can make new water appear out of thin air by forcing clouds to give up the goods. The practice of cloud seeding has been practiced for years, with arguable results. Cloud seeding involves sending silver iodide vapors up to the clouds to stimulate precipitation.

Denver Water, the state’s largest utility, has employed the concept, gaining an es-timated 35,000 to 50,000 acre feet of water annually, at a cost of $12 to $23 per acre foot. The induced precipitation falls across about 6,000 to 7,000 square miles of wa-tersheds that feed the agency’s reservoirs.

Nolan Doesken, Colorado’s State Cli-matologist, remains unconvinced. “The science of cloud seeding in the lab is rock solid, but the application is a little harder to determine,” he says. “The underlying vari-ability of precipitation in any one location makes it difficult to definitively conclude that the change you observe is directly re-lated to cloud seeding.”

Still, ski resorts and numerous others con-tinue to pursue it. According to Larry Hjerm-stad of Durango-based Western Weather

Consultants, there are ongoing cloud seed-ing efforts in the central mountains and a number of the state’s major watersheds.

Another water “source” that has been ex-plored is the removal of tamarisk, a deep-rooted invasive plant that aggressively ob-tains water from the soil and groundwater. In Colorado, major stretches of the Colorado and Arkansas rivers have been infested with tamarisk. A single mature tree can produce up to 500,000 seeds per year, crowding out native plants along waterways. Tamarisk likely uses about the same amount of wa-ter as other phreatophytes, or water-loving plants, such as willow or cottonwood, but tamarisk also invades more upland areas where it replaces non-phreatophytes, which use much less water. The Grand Junction-based Tamarisk Coalition has been lead-ing efforts to control tamarisk. Removal is a time-consuming and labor-intensive job involving cutting, herbicide application, and continued monitoring to ensure that re-growth does not occur.

There are indications that a new biocon-trol agent, a beetle that aggressively attacks the tamarisk, could allow re-establishment of native vegetation, benefitting habitat and possibly resulting in water savings. There again, some of the hope has been lost. A 2010 report by the U.S. Geological Survey concluded that removing tamarisk does not result in long-term additional streamflow.

Others have pointed to Colorado’s natu-ral gas industry as a potential water source. Nationally, the industry averages 10 barrels of water for every barrel of oil it obtains from the ground. This “produced” water is con-sidered by the industry a nuisance waste to be disposed of—usually, it’s evaporated in

The tamarisk or saltcedar leaf beetle, Dio-rhabda elongata, is being used as a biological control agent to destroy non-native tamarisk plants, possibly freeing up some water supply. Tamarisk infestations are common in Colorado, including along the North Fork of the Gunnison River (below).

To follow the progress of the Interbasin Com-pact Committee or your local roundtable, or to find out how to attend a meeting, go to www.ibcc.state.co.us.

Take the

Step

Scan this code with your smart phone or other device to access the Interbasin Compact Committee’s website and meeting calendar.

H e a d w a t e r s | W i n t e r 2 0 1 2 3 5 H e a d w a t e r s | W i n t e r 2 0 1 2 3 5

holding ponds or re-injected deep under-ground. Colorado’s State Engineer, the top official responsible for water’s administra-tion here, has established rules for regu-lating produced water within Colorado’s system of water rights. And the industry is working on how this water might be treated in order to be used by others.

Yet another possibility is desalination, or taking the salt out of salt water. It’s an ex-pensive and energy-intensive process. Al-though landlocked Colorado has no access to seawater, there is the very distant pos-sibility that, through an exchange, Colorado could use more water from the Colorado River by subsidizing a desalination opera-tion in California. An existing desalination plant in Yuma, Arizona, has recently shown

promise, producing 28,000 acre feet per year at a cost of $600 to $900 per acre foot. The plant was built in 1992 to satisfy treaty obligations related to the salinity levels of Colorado River water that was sent across the border to Mexico. Arizona and Nevada are keenly interested in desalination, but the potential benefits for Colorado are a long ways off. Still, at this point every option is being explored.

For Greg Trainor, the solution to the wa-ter challenges that Colorado faces isn’t “new” water. Rather, it involves coming to terms with the conflict between the differ-ent values that make Colorado such a great place to live—economic growth, agricul-tural production, environmental health and recreational opportunities. The reality is that

we are rapidly approaching a time when trade-offs will have to be made regarding the ways that we value and use water. In or-der for those conversations and ultimately, those decisions, to be most effective, public education is imperative.

“We need the public to understand the values and the uses of water, the impor-tance of conservation, the factors that af-fect supply, the fact that climate change is a real threat. It is a long-term proposition,” explains Trainor. “You don’t implement a water education program in 2012 and in 2013 the world changes. But, an informed public is essential in order to have the right conversations about sharing values and looking at the problems and crucial deci-sions we face.” s

A few of the 107 cloud-seeding ice nuclei generators operating in mountain areas across Colorado, in an effort to stimulate precipitation and bolster water supplies.. Photos courtesy Colorado Water Conservation Board.

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“When I came here, I saw the abundance of water from the Rocky Mountains and some wells being drilled,” Sakata recalls, “and I thought it was the ideal place to start growing vegetables.”

Many other farmers have also seized the opportunity, joining Sakata in the sur-rounding area of the South Platte River Basin, which begins in the Rocky Moun-tains and fans outward to envelop the city of Denver and the expansive plains to the east. In the postwar era, this northeastern part of the state has boomed with fields of sugar beets, corn, potatoes and barley. Snowmelt flowing from the mountains is diverted and stored to irrigate fields that otherwise would not flourish in the arid climate. The vast groundwater aquifer has also been tapped extensively through wells, additionally buffering water sup-plies. “That’s what made northern Colo-rado a real oasis in production of crops,” Sakata says.

This unlikely oasis, in fact, spreads across the state, well beyond the vegetable farms and sugar beet fields of the South Platte Basin to the fruit orchards and sweet corn fields on the other side of the Rockies, as well as the pastures and cattle of the north-west, the potato farms in the south, and the melon patches in the southeast. These working farmlands produce a bounty that feeds millions in Colorado and around the world. They also play a vital role in provid-ing open space and wildlife habitat, which, along with agriculture itself, defines much of Colorado’s character. Through its many ups and downs, the agricultural industry has al-ways depended on that one worrisome as-pect—water.

Farms and ranches cover 32 million acres in Colorado, nearly half the state. Just under 10 percent of that land is irri-

gated, boosting productivity and providing a form of crop insurance. Without irriga-tion, farmers risk the possibility of drought-induced crop failure, opening the door for substantial financial losses. But irrigation water serves as a buffer against the vari-ability of the state’s natural rainfall.

The water diverted from rivers and pumped from the ground to provide that buffer accounts for 86 percent of the state’s available water. Agriculture’s dominant share not only represents the industry’s historical importance, but also makes it an obvious target for planners and develop-ers considering future growth. Since the 1970s, burgeoning cities in Colorado have bolstered their water supplies by buying up irrigators’ water rights and, in the process, drying up farmland. Forecasts indicate the growth trends are likely to continue and even increase, along with the demand for urban water supplies.

Even taking into account the potential for conservation and new water storage proj-ects, many planners have presumed that the bulk of new urban water will need to come from transfers of water now owned by farmers and ranchers, says James Pritch-ett, an agricultural economist at Colorado State University. Without a Plan B, more than 400,000 acres—about 13 percent—of irrigated farmland in the state could dry up, with implications for farmers, consumers and the environment.

“The biggest challenge we face is mak-ing sure we understand that water needs to stay on the land to produce agricultural products,” says John Salazar, commis-sioner of the Colorado Department of Ag-riculture. “As we face enormous pressure from growth in the state, we need to start planning for the future, instead of having the future plan itself out for us.”

an Uncertain VentureAs goes farming, so goes Colorado—or at least that’s how it’s been. According to the state Department of Agriculture, farms, ranch-es and the food industry generate $20 billion of annual economic activity, making agricul-ture second only to mining and energy devel-opment in terms of its economic importance to Colorado. Agribusiness supports more than 100,000 local jobs. But despite its sig-nificant financial and geographic footprint, the idyllic mosaic of farms and food producers has always sustained itself amid hardships.

Sakata remembers the drought of 1954—which, he says, exceeded the dire conditions of the early 2000s—as the first of many trials to his operations. He turned to groundwater to supplement variable water supplies dur-ing subsequent times. But in the 2000s, new restrictions limited well pumping in much of the South Platte Basin because of suspected depletion of the underground aquifer and re-lated legal complications.

Add in capricious environmental epi-sodes—hailstorms, pests, ravenous bird flocks—that can decimate crops, then ac-count for the uncertainty of commodities markets, and it’s little wonder that farmers are tempted to sell their water rights to mu-nicipal suitors. “I think we’re the only busi-ness in the whole United States where there is no guarantee of what kind of price we’ll get for our product,” Sakata says. “We have such a small margin of profit [that] we have to cut everywhere we can.” In order to mini-mize the impacts of market whims, Sakata has diversified over the years. In addition to growing an array of vegetables, he also pro-duces field crops, such as corn, wheat and alfalfa, that are often used for feed on beef cattle and dairy ranches.

For its part, the beef industry is more pre-dictable. In Colorado, roughly 70 percent of crop receipts are livestock-oriented. Many ranchers are able to subsist in tough land-scapes, raising cattle in high-altitude pastures in areas such as the Yampa and North Platte river basins, along the northwestern edge of the Rockies, then trucking young herds to feedlots in the plains as the weather cools in order to “finish” the cows on a diet of corn and other feed. The demand for cattle feed,

Irrigated farms and ranches cover 4.5 percent of Colorado and account for 86 percent of withdrawals from the state’s water resources.

By Joshua Zaffos

Bob Sakata was 20 years old when he began farming 40 humble acres on the outskirts of Brighton. Sixty-six years later, Sakata Farms covers 3,000 acres and is one of the 100 largest vegetable producers in the country. Sakata still works his fields of broccoli, sweet corn and onions with his son, Robert, and other family members. Despite his success, he has never forgotten his younger days growing up on a truck-garden farm in California and his father’s constant worries over water.

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and for ethanol, has led farmers to plant a whopping 1.3 million acres of corn in Colo-rado, much of it in the eastern half of the state, including the South Platte and Arkansas river basins. As much as 85 percent of the corn produced goes to livestock, far above nation-al averages, says Mark Sponsler, chief execu-tive of Colorado Corn. He attributes this to the climate and the proximity to beef markets and processing facilities in the Midwest.

Corn acreage has held steady within the state over the past 40 years, but most grow-ers raise corn on irrigated lands. Would it be possible to grow corn without water for irriga-tion? Yes, according to Pritchett, it’s possible, but productivity can drop by 80 percent. A farmer that opted to sell his water and move that direction would need to get a lot bigger, growing from say 1,000 acres to 4,000 or even 5,000, in order to continue to earn the same income. But, for farmers nearing retirement, especially in areas where the pressures from development are high, such a “conversion” may become an easier decision to make, says Pritchett.

One of the key reasons agricultural water has been targeted for purchases or transfers to municipal use is that it’s more affordable and immediately available than developing new supplies—and many farmers are as-sumed to be ready to sell. In the past, cities have sometimes bought out irrigators’ water rights on the down-low, purchasing water from irrigation companies as undisclosed clients. Now, utilities will seek out willing landowners who are struggling to keep their farms going and facing a cloudy future as their children look to lives outside of farming and ranching.

Some people considering the future of farming in Colorado have suggested that low-value and water-intensive crops, includ-ing corn and wheat, should be phased out in favor of more high-value crops that consume less water, such as fruit, tomatoes, garlic and hops. On some level, that’s been happening over the last few decades as niche markets in peaches, heirloom onions, sweet corn and wine grapes have flourished in the Gunnison and Colorado river basins in western Colo-rado and elsewhere. Such shifts might lead to agricultural water being more highly val-ued and could lessen the impacts of buyouts and even reduce farm water consumption. But Pritchett and Sponsler point out there’s a reason this hasn’t happened more widely. People raise crops to make farming a sustain-able financial venture. Demand for high-value crops is limited, and producing too many wine grapes or heirloom onions deflates the price and undermines such efforts.

Meanwhile, the prices of crops also rise and fall depending on global food demands. Salazar notes that farming and ranching are powering Colorado through the recession, with exports increasing by 20 percent be-tween 2010 and 2011. Prices have climbed for wheat and a few other staple crops, due in part to the migration of Chinese farmers to cities and the associated decline in agricul-tural production there. The result here, says Salazar, is that Colorado farmers have been planting more winter wheat.

Agricultural economists who study the

trends expect corn and other livestock-sup-porting staples to remain prominent in state agriculture over the next 30 or so years, espe-cially as the world consumes more beef. But there is a wild card: If consumers keep buy-ing their food based on where it comes from and how it’s produced—and are willing to pay a premium on locally-grown, specialty prod-ucts—certain high-value crops could become more significant.

the Rise of Local MarketsBailey Stenson and her husband Dennis be-gan Happy Heart Farm near Fort Collins 28 years ago. From the start, the Stensons have used biodynamic farming practices, a method of organic agriculture that applies compost and manures in place of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and views a farm as a unified “organism.” After their first seven years, the Stensons pioneered community-supported agriculture (CSA) in the state, selling indi-viduals and families seasonal shares of their crop. After sustaining steady growth for more

than a decade, Stenson says interest in farm shares began peaking about five years ago. Today, Happy Heart has 140 local members who pick up food shares from the farm week-ly. Many other CSAs—there are now 100 op-erating in Colorado—deliver shares within a 25-mile or so radius.

The growth of CSAs has accompanied the expansion of farmers’ markets and grocers oriented toward natural and organic foods. Data from the USDA census shows 10 to 20 percent growth in the past decade of farm receipts of direct sales to consumers. The state’s Colorado Proud labeling program, launched in 1999, has been used to promote local products and now counts more than 1,500 farms, restaurants and retailers, includ-ing Walmart and other large supermarket chains, among its supporters.

Consumers are “waking up to the fact” that buying local and organic foods is healthy for their families and beneficial to their com-munities and their neighboring farmers, says Stenson. “More and more people are really wanting to connect with the people growing food.” According to a 2011 survey conduct-ed by Colorado Proud, nearly 92 percent of Colorado residents would buy more locally-grown agricultural products if they were avail-able and identified as such. “It’s still kind of a trendy thing,” says Stenson, “but I think with the economy and the environment right now, it’s going to go from a fun choice to an abso-lute necessity.”

Local food systems still need to optimize their benefits, says Dawn Thilmany, an agri-cultural economist at CSU who focuses on the subject. A prime example: As long as dozens of trucks from each vendor are ship-ping out to farmers’ markets, buying local in Colorado doesn’t necessarily reduce trans-portation costs. The rise of more mid-sized, food-growing operations and supply chains created for local sales and seasonal and specialty crops could reduce fragmentation in the market, Thilmany says, and deliver on assumed environmental advantages, such as saving gasoline, over conventional practices. “I think we’re seeing a shift, but I don’t know where it’s going to end,” Thilmany adds. She guesses as much as 20 percent of Colorado’s groceries could eventually come from local sources, a significant gain from present levels of 5 to 10 percent, depending on the product.

Keeping Water on the FarmFor all the goodwill and gusto toward Colo-rado farmers and food production, agricul-ture still faces the looming pressures from population growth and the likely reduction of some water use. The question is wheth-er the pressure can be diverted or at least controlled in order to protect farming and ranching in Colorado.

For their part, many farmers and ranchers have improved irrigation efficiency on their lands, maximizing the percentage of the wa-ter they apply that actually goes to benefit the crop. According to the 2007 USDA Census of Agriculture, 49 percent of the nearly 3 million acres of irrigated farmland in Colorado now use sprinkler and drip systems that are much more efficient than traditional practices.

“You attempt to do everything you can to

COlOraDO’s

TOp TENF a r m & r a n c h P r o d u c t s

Market Value of Agricultural Products Sold in 2010 (Dollars in millions) Source: The source is the

USDA Economic Research Service

Cattle & Calves 2,852

Corn for grain 604

Wheat 500

Dairy Products 457

Hay 287

greenhouse & nursery

254

Hogs 194

Potatoes 156

Sheep & lambs 111

Poultry/eggs 85


become efficient,” says Sakata, who has lined canals and replaced flood irrigation with pivot sprinkler systems, among other measures, over the years. “I’d like to be given credit for the fact that we’re thinking about the state and the population to conserve water, but let’s face it, it’s an economic reason too. If you waste water, you lose money.”

The catch is that efficiency improvements and water conservation have some unin-tended consequences, not to mention legal obstacles. By irrigating with sprinklers as op-posed to flood irrigation, farmers inadvertently reduce percolation into groundwater and the eventual return of some of their irrigation wa-ter back to streams, affecting the timing and volume of river flows. The changes can harm fish and bird populations that rely on streams historically supported by these “return flows.” The altered flows can also deprive down-stream users—in Kansas or New Mexico, for instance—of water they expect to receive and are legally entitled to.

Thus, in Colorado, such efficiency improve-ments are monitored so that downstream us-ers are protected. If a grower needs less wa-ter for irrigating her farm due to an efficiency improvement, she doesn’t get to “keep” the savings, because technically, the crop is still consuming the same amount. Instead, the farmer must allow the unneeded river flows to continue downstream, to be available for the next user in line. And she is prohibited from transferring the rights to that water to another use, such as leasing it to a city water utility. “We need, as a state, to be working on figur-ing out how we can have more flexibility with how water gets used so that we can maintain the agricultural economy,” says water attor-ney David Robbins, “while at the same time accounting for the demands of burgeoning cities and respecting our obligations to down-stream water users.”

Over the past decade, state lawmakers have attempted to create policy tools that, while still operating within state water law, could minimize the permanent sale of agricul-tural water rights. The Colorado Water Con-servation Board has put $4.2 million toward

alternatives to permanent transfers, fronting the cost for conceptual, legal and engineering work on potential solutions. Now, says Rob-bins, it’s up to cities and farmers to prove the concepts can work.

One promising option is a program to al-low farmers to lease water rights to cities during dry years, receiving payment in ex-change for letting their fields fallow. While fallow, unplanted fields could recover im-portant soil nutrients, and at the same time give farmers a reliable income stream. But fallowing isn’t an option for fruit growers of the West Slope and vegetable farmers like Sakata, who need to protect their market share. Transporting water from rural parts of the state to populated areas also presents a logistical and financial challenge.

In the Arkansas River Basin, farmers and ranchers know the impacts of selling agri-cultural water rights, as many small farming towns have dwindled with past water sales. “When water goes away, people go away and the economy goes away,” says Jay Winner, general manager of the Lower Arkansas Val-ley Water Conservancy District.

Winner and others are trying to avoid re-peating that scenario around southeastern Colorado. Through a subcommittee of the Ar-kansas Basin Roundtable, irrigators and water managers are teaming with CSU economists, including Pritchett, to model what the future of agriculture might look like in the region. The researchers plan to study how much land would be dried up in the basin as cities target local farmers to sell their water rights. The group will also look at which crops could expand acreages if water sharing catches on, and how technology may improve productiv-ity in coming years.

“Our goal is: We have what we have when it comes to agriculture, and we want to keep it,” Winner says. “That entails working with the cities so that they understand the value of agriculture, not just in the Arkansas Ba-sin, but in the state of Colorado, and to fig-ure out a way that we can all work together for the benefits of the state to keep agricul-ture viable.” s

COlOraDO’s

TOp TENa g r i c u l t u r a l C o u n t i e s

Market Value of Agricultural Products Sold in 2007 (Dollars in Millions) Source: National Agricultural

Statistics Service – Colorado Field Office

Weld 1,539 Cattle, dairy products, poultry, wheat, corn, nursery products, sheep, hay, vegetables

Yuma 711 Cattle, corn, wheat, hay, dry beans, hogs

Morgan 494 Cattle, wheat, corn, proso millet, hay

logan 442 Cattle, wheat, corn, hay, proso millet

Kit Carson 337 Cattle, wheat, corn, proso millet, sunflowers

Prowers 263 Cattle, wheat, hay, corn, sorghum

Adams 153 Nursery products, proso millet, sunflowers

Phillips 143 Wheat, corn, proso millet

Washington 130 Wheat, proso millet, corn, cattle, hay

larimer 128 Dairy products, cattle, nursery products,

wheat, corn, hay, vegetables

- 5,000

10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000 40,000

1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

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08$/

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Water Sales to Municipalities: Colorado

Individual Transactions Average Price

Water Sales To Municipalities: Colorado

Source: Every Drop Counts, Western Resource Advocates

The cost of water sold to municipalities in Colorado rose in the early 2000s, likely in response to population growth and severe drought. Each point represents one transaction; the line represents the average sale price (in 2008$). Values do not include transactions costs or annual operations and maintenance costs, such as treatment.

In 2002, Colorado was rocked by a searing, record-breaking drought. The state, whose mountains had witnessed endless winter snows and huge spring melts for decades, went dry. Water was rationed. Cars

weren’t washed. Lawns turned brown. Corn and alfalfa fields burned up.

In earlier droughts—in the late 1800s, the 1930s, the 1950s—Colorado was a sparsely populated place. Water decisions were made by a relatively small group of people: farm-ers, water utilities and large oil and mining companies, most of whom had staked their claims to the water decades ago. Few in the general public knew much about the intri-cate system of streams and irrigation ditches that funneled snowmelt from the mountains to the plains to the rivers that would eventu-ally carry it far beyond our borders, to Los Angeles, El Paso, St. Louis and New Orleans.

Fewer still knew much about Colorado’s

historical prior appropriation doctrine, a le-gal platform that dates back to the days of the gold rush. It was designed to allocate a scarce resource fairly and to prevent specu-lators from hoarding water. The doctrine says those with the oldest water rights have the first priority to use the water in a stream and that only those who can put it to benefi-cial use can divert it from streams or place it in storage. Hard-fought battles in the 1970s, 80s and 90s to expand the legal definition of beneficial use so that water could be kept in the stream for fish, kayak courses and ripar-ian, or streamside, habitat were also known to only a handful of people.

These days, however, nearly a decade since that historic drought struck, the era of benign ignorance about one of Colorado’s greatest natural resources has ended. Colo-radans know more about their water now than they ever have before. And a range of new water values is emerging. “These

Changing Values, Changing Landscapes

In 2009,Denver Water polled 1,120

of its 1.3 million customers and found out:

86%are concerned about the region’s future water supply

73%believe their water use affects water avail-ability in other parts of Colorado


By Jerd Smith

Em

met

t Jor

dan

changed values are creeping in every-where,” says Neil Grigg, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Colorado State University and the author of numer-ous books on water. “It’s subtle, but it’s al-most like blood flowing through capillaries. It’s happening little by little, via different routes, and the result is big change.”

Coloradans are asking that water be used in new ways so that less is wasted, while critical water needs are met. Farm fields that once luxuriated in gushing floods of irrigation water are now carefully watered with sophisticated pipes that deliver precise amounts of liquid. Irrigation gates, once la-boriously opened and closed by hand, are now operated mechanically using comput-erized remote controls so that adjustments related to changing stream conditions can be made quickly. Sophisticated moisture gauges tell growers how much water each plant should receive daily—information

that is conveyed to computerized irrigation programs. High-powered irrigation wells that once freely pumped from aquifers are now closely tracked with meters, much like the meters that measure how much water a homeowner uses each day.

City dwellers too have dramatically changed the way they value water. Wa-ter rates have soared since 2002, and rate payers have demanded that this increas-ingly pricey commodity be used wisely. In Parker, residents have agreed to pay more to help fund a program that allows the city to use agricultural water from farms, but only in ways that allow the farms to keep operating. In Aurora, taxpayers have funded a groundbreaking water system that captures return flows in the South Platte that Aurora has already used, treats them through a series of settling ponds and filters, mixes them with purer moun-tain water the city has stored, and then

64%have made changes in how much water they use over the past few years

41%say having enough water is the most im-portant water issue in the Denver region

28%say conservation and avoiding water waste is the most important water issue in the Denver region


… our ability to recapture and use what we have in a very efficient way is what all the major metro areas are going to wind up doing.

—Mark Pifher, Colorado Springs Utilities

See “Changing values,” page 43

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ProfileA century ago the Cache la Poudre River served as the indus-trial center of Fort Collins. Power plants and mills lined the banks, while residential and commercial hubs developed away from north-ern Colorado’s iconic river.

The relationship between towns and waterways has changed drastically since then, and for the past decade John Stokes, as di-rector of the Natural Resources Department for the city of Fort Col-lins, has worked to patch the community back to the river, both in spirit and physical proximity.

Stokes, who in January 2012 took on a new role as the city’s point-person for the Poudre River, has seen progress along the Poudre River, where he personally finds peace and quiet and en-joys wildlife watching and fishing. “We’ve started to turn the cor-ner on 100 years of neglect,” he says, pointing to the city’s parks and natural areas. “We’ve done a lot to conserve the edges of the river.” From picnicking, boating, fishing, walking or biking along the riverfront paths, Stokes says you’d be hard-pressed to find a Fort Collins resident today who hasn’t enjoyed the recreational opportu-nities the river affords.

“The Poudre River is a fantastic asset to the town,” Stokes says. About half of Fort Collins’ water supply comes from the Poudre, and Stokes notes the waterway’s importance to the city’s economic development, from its microbreweries to tech industries.

“We’re one interest of many,” Stokes says. “There are so many demands on this river.” As a result, Stokes strives to work with other influences in the watershed. He and his department recently began a project, with assistance from Colorado State University scientists,

to create an ecological model for the Poudre River. While the city doesn’t own a large percentage of the river’s water rights, the plan aims to guide decisions affecting the amount of water left flowing in the river through town. The Poudre River has 26 diversions before it reaches Fort Collins, says Stokes.

The model will project how the river will cope with various de-mands. Stokes hopes the model will provide structure to commu-nity and city council conversations about a host of financial, policy, strategic and political decisions.

The city owns about 75 percent of the Poudre River floodplain in its jurisdiction, and Stokes sees even more opportunities to make the Poudre relevant to the community. Long-term, he envi-sions a resilient river system sustained through town featuring world-class opportunities for recreation, while supporting en-hanced ecological values. —Emily Palm

John S tokesci ty o f Fo r t co l l i n s

Key events behind Colorado’s shifting water perspective

1977

1977

1977

Budget “hit list.” Newly elected President Carter issues budget with no funding for several western water projects. End of significant federal financing of reclamation, with the exception of settlements involving Native American reserved water rights.

1990

EPA veto of Two Forks. Long-planned Denver metro area dam and reservoir of 1.1 million acre feet is stopped. Big reservoir development appears to have ended.

2002

Drought of 2002. Record-breaking drought after decade of rapid growth. Tempering of municipalities and water policymakers’ confidence in continuing supply.

2003 Referendum A, which would have allowed the Colorado

Water Conservation Board to borrow up to $2 billion for public and private water projects by issuing bonds, defeated. Water policy is polarized and politicized.

2004

Statewide Water Supply Initiative (SWSI) study completed by the Colorado Water Conservation Board. Indicates Colorado will need an additional 630,000 acre feet of water by 2030.

Source: Ciruli Associates 2011


ProfilePatti Mason moved from Pennsylvania to Colorado for her edu-cation, studying land conservation transactions with plans to work for a land trust. Ten years and a career twist later, she now works as the director of advocacy for the U.S. Green Building Council Colorado.

The more she realized the impact building has on the environ-ment, the more she wanted to follow that path. “If you’re going to build, how can we do that with the least impact possible?” ques-tions Mason, a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Accredited Professional. LEED is an internationally-recog-nized rating system used to certify buildings that implement green practices, such as water and energy efficiencies.

While still in school, Mason studied water law, knowledge that now comes in handy. How Colorado manages water doesn’t nec-essarily prove intuitive for builders unacquainted with Western water issues, who often ask Mason, “What do you mean I can’t capture water on-site?” Colorado, among other states in the West, restricts rainwater harvesting as well as gray water reuse. In many other states, green builders install systems to utilize water already washed down sinks and showers in lieu of flushing drinkable water down the toilet. Colorado regulations throw more than a few devel-opers off, says Mason, who helps guide builders through the state’s complex laws.

That’s not to say that Colorado lags behind. “Colorado has some really progressive green-building policies in place,” Mason says, but the next step is being able to reuse gray water. “I think we’ve gone as far as we can go with high-efficiency fixtures,” she says, noting that technology has advanced such that reusing gray water doesn’t necessarily mean water quality downstream will get worse. Once water is used once, it needs to be treated whether or not it is used again, she explains, quoting her former water law instructor as saying, “You’re really just delaying water.”

Beyond changing existing policy surrounding gray water reuse, Mason sees another plateau in LEED for Neighborhood Develop-ment. LEED ND takes the LEED ratings system concept beyond a single building, applying it to a broader community development project, such as Stapleton in Denver.

“We do feel we have a role to play,” Mason says. “Buildings have an impact on water, and the green building community is ready to take on that leadership role.” —Emily Palm

Pa t t i MasonU.S. G reen bu i l d i ng counc i l co lo rado

delivers it to homes. The project, known as Prairie Waters, has won national recognition for its new water treatment method-ologies and its efficiency.

“Prairie Waters is leading a wave of water supply in the West,” says Mark Pifher, former executive director of Aurora Water who recently left for Colorado Springs Utilities. “The West is becoming very urban-ized. There is diminishing supply and a growing population. People are going to have to find a way to be more efficient with the supplies they currently have. They are not going to be able to wave a wand. So our ability to recapture and use what we have in a very efficient way is what all the major metro areas are going to wind up doing.”

Denver Water, the state’s largest water utility, has tracked the at-titudes and behaviors of its 1.3 million customers since the 2002 drought. “Surveys we’ve done have shown how our customers’ per-spectives have changed,” says Denver Water’s manager of demand planning Greg Fisher. “People’s conservation ethic is easy to see. Their water use is 20 percent below where it was before the drought. It doesn’t matter that the drought is over. It truly is a new world.”

Like utilities everywhere, Denver Water carefully monitors use. One annual bellwether is the peak day demand. This is the one day each year—always a hot summer day—when Denver customers use the most water. In 1989, peak day demand stood at 550 million gal-lons. Last year, the peak day demand was 330 million gallons. “We haven’t gone over 400 in three years,” Fisher says. “Ten years ago people didn’t turn off their sprinklers when it rained. Now they do.”

People have also become deeply interested, almost obsessed, with water-saving toilets. Denver and other utilities offer rebates to homeowners who install ever more efficient devices. Once upon a time, a low-flow toilet that used 1.6 gallons per flush was consid-ered cutting edge. Now, if Denver residents want a rebate, they have to purchase the 1.28-gallon version. Last fall, Denver Water asked the state legislature to mandate use of the 1.28-gallon toilets state-wide. Turned down in this attempt, Fisher says the utility will make another run at the law in coming years in an effort to ensure that water savings continue to improve. “We’re not in a crisis right now,” Fisher says. “But the question is: Do you want to effect change in a crisis or do you want to effect change through leadership? We want to see what we can provide through leadership without waiting for another crisis to occur.”

2011

2005 HB 05-1177 establishes

water roundtables to identify need, solutions and reach consensus.

2007

Ritter administration continues roundtable process.

2010

SWSI 2010 reveals Colorado demand for municipal and industrial water will increase by 600,000 to 1 million acre feet by 2050.

2011

Hickenlooper administration holds roundtable summit. Encourages steps forward to implement solutions.

“Changing values,” continued from page 41


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Jennifer tucker VisitacionGuides tone co lo rado

ProfileWater isn’t just a subject that Ted James teaches; it is the avenue through which he teaches all subjects.

In his 15 years of teaching science at Eagle Valley Middle School in Eagle, Colo., James’ curriculum included river excursions through Glenwood Canyon, countless field trips to aquatic sites, time in the lab studying samples, and projects that parent chaperones would often marvel at as college-level.

James attributes his ability to teach such in-depth coursework to the support he received from Colorado River Watch and the Walk-ing Mountains Science Center, formerly the Gore Range Natural Science School. Through his River Watch course, James’ students sampled more than 300 local river sites for aquatic research—trans-lating to at least 300 field trips and more than 300 sessions in the lab.

“It’s real-world science,” James says, noting that after proving the samples met strict protocol standards, the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission began using the data to set standards for minimizing heavy metal pollution leaching from old mines in the area. James’ students helped monitor streams that ordinarily would not have the manpower to be monitored.

Though James retired last year from teaching, he has begun new projects at the Walking Mountains Science Center. He hopes citizen scientists will collect aquatic samples from local rivers and bring them in for analysis at the center’s newly-opened Buck Creek Cam-pus in Avon.

The Buck Creek Campus is the first educational facility in Colo-rado to achieve the U.S. Green Building Council’s highest certifica-tion for sustainable design, LEED Platinum. There, equipment and indoor lab space will be available; James will be at-the-ready to help analyze samples; and public programs with names in the vein of Watershed Wednesdays will facilitate social connection. Ideally, James will provide a model of teaching science that inspires people to get involved in local schools.

“I’ve seen programs come and go because people get burned out,” says James. He hopes the community aspect will give par-ticipants staying power, adding that teacher turnover in school dis-tricts makes water curriculum person-specific. A more ideal sce-nario would be an involved resident who serves as an anchor for a particular creek, collects consistent samples and assists in River Watch classes when a teacher runs a local program.

If the typical voter was required to have the scientific literacy of one of his seventh-grade students we’d be better off, James says, “We need an informed citizenry on water education and it’s not go-ing to happen just leaving it up to the public schools.” —Emily Palm

ted JamesWalk ing Moun ta i ns Sc ience cen te r

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Upper Arkansas River Valley residents in Colorado have cultivated a rich recreational economy. Now the area, home to the 14,000-foot Collegiate Peaks and the most commercially-rafted river in the United States, faces the challenge of invigorating the local agricultural community.

Jennifer Tucker Visitacion is working to foster local agriculture as the executive director at Guidestone Colorado, an organization dedicated to strengthening the local food economy through preserving agricul-tural resources and educating for ecological literacy.

A Colorado native, Visitacion moved back from the East Coast to Salida with her husband in 2009 to open a small farm retreat center. She planned to partner with an educational organization to foster the local food economy. Before hanging up her shin-gle (she is still developing the center), she began working with Guidestone Colorado. “The organization has tons of potential,” she says, noting that before she joined in February 2011, the two-year-old organization had pursued its goals entirely through a volunteer board.

For Visitacion, segueing from her past work in environmental educa-tion to local agriculture was not a giant leap. Taking care of the local food economy not only helps expand awareness of the role of earth systems, she explains, but also improves social and economic issues.

“The biggest issue here,” says Visitacion, “is water rights being taken off the land.” With its mild, sunny climate, the Upper Arkansas River Valley is often referred to as a banana belt, a distinction that has enjoyed a long agricultural history. Yet, it’s a way of life facing attrition; the average age of a farmer in the United States is 57, ac-cording to the 2007 USDA Census of Agriculture. By bringing new farmers to the valley, Guidestone Colorado helps keep land operat-ing agriculturally.

“Look at the farming and ranching population, it’s aging,” Visita-

cion says. Operations without family members or others to succeed them need to find alternatives. Guidestone Colorado connects retir-ing farmers with aspiring agriculturists through their Land Link pro-gram, a clearinghouse of information containing would-be farmers’ needs and those of existing landowners. The program aims to link retiring farmers or landowners who want to see their property used agriculturally with people who want to farm, resulting in land pur-chases, lease arrangements or other agreements.

Guidestone Colorado’s efforts help keep water rights in the valley. “Preserving agriculture means also preserving water that’s attached to that land,” Visitacion says. “Once you lose the water, the land is no longer viable for agricultural production.”

ProfileJennifer tucker VisitacionGuides tone co lo rado

The 2002 drought has certainly had a profound impact on modern Colorado’s ap-proach to water. But other earlier events set the stage for this era, where conservation is king, and streams, fish and kayakers have rights once reserved exclusively for farmers, miners and water utilities.

Pollster Floyd Ciruli’s grandfather grew melons in the Arkansas Valley. As a public opinion researcher, the Colorado native now makes his living taking the pulse of residents, conducting frequent polls on water. Ciruli says a number of historical events have trans-formed our beliefs about water. In 1977, for instance, President Carter stopped funding for federal reclamation projects. These proj-ects were once the lifeblood of the Ameri-can West, helping build some of Colorado’s largest storage facilities, such as the Aspinall Unit in Gunnison County and the Colorado-Big Thompson Project spanning from Grand

County to the northern Front Range.“At that point we realized there wasn’t

going to be any more water from Washing-ton,” Ciruli says. “Then we spent the next 13 years thinking about Two Forks.” Two Forks, proposed by south metro suburbs and Denver Water, was a 1.1 million acre-foot reservoir project, which was vetoed by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1990. “We had never before seen such a big project be stopped by environmental objec-tions,” recalls Ciruli.

Other major shifts were also underway. Dick Stenzel worked for the Colorado Divi-sion of Water Resources for 25 years, serv-ing as assistant state engineer and as division engineer for the South Platte Basin. Stenzel distinctly remembers the start of the legal battle over recreational water rights, in part because it occurred in Golden, a city whose streams he was responsible for regulating.

“Everybody knew the kayak courses exist-ed, but for the most part, they basically used the river as it was. They never really filed for water rights,” Stenzel says. That started chang-ing in the 1990s. The battle over whether a city could appropriate water for recreational use went all the way to the state Supreme Court. There, justices deadlocked in a 3-3 tie, leaving in place a lower water court’s decision to grant Golden the right to claim water for its kayak course, which was later affirmed by the state legislature. Since then, communities from Pueblo to Steamboat Springs to Durango and beyond have established kayak courses with guaranteed water rights.

Even streams now claim water for them-selves. Since the mid-1970s, the Colorado Water Conservation Board has slowly, care-fully acquired both new and existing water rights on streams throughout Colorado, in order to ensure some water remains for the




When it comes to limited water resources, Greg Kernohan sees many overlapping interests among key players, be they agricultural, municipal or industrial, who might not ordinarily team up. That’s why the manager of the Colorado and Wyoming conservation programs for Ducks Unlimited works at the forefront of forging collaborations.

Growing up three hours north of Ontario, Canada, Kernohan be-gan working for Ducks Unlimited while attending Sir Sandford Flem-ing College, where he studied terrain and water resource technol-ogy. In 2000, Western water law and the challenges for wetlands in Colorado piqued Kernohan’s interest and drew his attention to the Intermountain West of the United States. As a specialist in a field not well understood at the time, obtaining the visa to work in the U.S. came easily, and Kernohan soon parlayed his passion into his career.

Now, through a host of unlikely partnerships between water con-servancy districts, water conservation boards, municipalities, cor-porations and agricultural organizations across the state, Kernohan oversees a Ducks Unlimited conservation program that annually pursues more than a dozen restoration projects that together cover more than 5,000 acres. To date, Ducks Unlimited has conserved or restored 78,000 acres of wetlands and associated habitats in Colorado, Kernohan says.

To achieve such success, Kernohan works to bring overlapping interests together. For example, the threat of “buy and dry”—where agricultural water is sold to cities—puts the lower South Platte wa-tershed at risk of losing at least 160,000 irrigated acres, says Ker-nohan. Losing that kind of acreage threatens the waterfowl popula-tion, river basins and rural communities alike. “We understand that supporting a strong agricultural economy is vital to future waterfowl populations in Colorado,” Kernohan explains. Irrigated agricultural land provides waterfowl with high-energy foods during the winter months in addition to return flows that seep from irrigation back to the river later in the season, when rivers are naturally at their lowest.

It took several years for Kernohan to earn the trust of those with agricultural interests, but now he regularly partners with landowners. A project Kernohan worked on in 2009 along the South Platte best epitomizes what Ducks Unlimited hopes to do. By diverting river wa-ter in times of excess to nearby wetlands, the organization secured habitat benefits while, at the same time, helping eight family farms that had earlier had their wells shut down due to associated river depletions. The farms were able to trade the re-timed flows, which seep through the wetland and return to the river later when the river needs more water, in exchange for pumping their wells. Ducks Un-limited funded the project and received a duck pond in return.

“We don’t have to put anything to the side; we can work togeth-er,” Kernohan says, adding that it merely took putting aside mis-conceptions. —Emily Palm

ProfileGreg Ke r nohanDucks Un l im i t ed

benefit of fish and aquatic habitat. The Colorado Water Trust, an innovative nonprofit created to bolster the state’s efforts, is do-ing the same, identifying water rights holders who are willing to donate, sell or lease some of their water so that it can instead be kept in rivers.

In the mountains and even downtown Denver, dozens of wa-tershed groups, funded by the Environmental Protection Agency and the occasional bake sale, carefully monitor the streams in their communities, engaging with kayakers, farmers, scientists and local water districts to measure everything from heavy metals to stream temperatures. Their dedication and careful work has supplied the state and federal government with more local stream data than ever before and, as a result, these agencies keep much better track of stream conditions themselves.

In 1989, the year the Colorado Watershed Assembly was founded to support and connect watershed groups across the state, only a handful of such groups existed. Now the assembly has nearly 80 member or-ganizations statewide, organizations with access to a small, but steady source of grant-based funds from fellow Coloradans, who can donate by checking a box on the Colorado Income Tax Form. The donation program, known as the Colorado Healthy Rivers Fund, is administered by the Colorado Water Conservation Board. The CWCB reviews grant applications from both watershed groups and others seeking funds for projects to benefit waterways. Since the income tax check-off began in 2003, 105,000 Coloradans have donated $816,000.

“In some ways Colorado has always been a natural resource in-vestment kind of state,” Ciruli says. “Water diversion, water de-velopment…it’s always been part of the culture. During the 1990s and early 2000s, though, there was all of this massive growth and there was decline in the public consciousness about water. But that changed in 2002. The drought really got deep into the soul of the public and water planners.”

And the mark it left isn’t likely to fade, thanks in part to changes in the way water policy is made. Russell George, former director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, saw the bitter conflict the drought precipitated and sought ways to bring people together for public dialogues over how water in their communi-ties should be stored and distributed. The result was the establish-ment of public roundtables in each of the state’s river basins. A super-body known as the Interbasin Compact Committee (IBCC) was also created to facilitate discussions between the roundtables. Suddenly, water discussions are as much a part of community life as a county commission meeting.

“Water is becoming a much more public discussion,” agrees Den-ver Water’s Fisher. It’s also becoming more collaborative. Last year Denver Water reached a groundbreaking agreement with numerous West Slope parties, conceding to sharply limit any water it takes from Colorado River Basin streams in the future in exchange for support to expand Gross Reservoir in Boulder County. Denver and Aurora have also partnered to expand the use of the Prairie Water plant so that water-short communities in Douglas County, to the south, can tap some of Denver’s return flows instead of seeking new supplies from already-stressed West Slope rivers.

CSU’s Grigg says these shifts in the public’s perception of water and how it’s valued are likely to bring good things to the state. “I don’t see any downside,” Grigg says. s


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How much water does it take to write a story for Headwaters magazine?The Water Footprint Network estimates that brewing a single cup of coffee requires 37 gal-

lons of water, when the full costs of production and transport are factored in. Usually it takes two cups of coffee to get the creative juices flowing; with seven days in front of the computer, that’s already more than 500 gallons before delivering a first draft.

Taking into account the water needed to build the computer, power and heat the home office, grow the trees to make the paper, drill the gas to shuttle the car to interviews, and ultimately, to produce the ink and run the printing presses, this single 1,200-word story could easily use more than 10,000 gallons of water.

“It’s time to start thinking about the water embedded in a product,” says Amelia Nuding, water/energy analyst at Boulder-based Western Resource Advocates. “It’s not something most consumers think about in daily life.”

Much like the more established notion of a carbon footprint, a water footprint is less an exact science and more a conservation tool aimed at increasing consumer awareness. De-veloped in 2002 by Arjen Hoekstra at the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands, water footprinting was designed to trace the direct and indirect use of water with the intent of comparing regions across the globe.

Technically, the equation calculates two indirect water usage components—agricultural and industrial—and adds the total to the direct water consumption of a nation. Unsurprisingly, China, India and the United States round out the world’s largest water footprints, accounting for about 39 percent of the planet’s consumption, according to the Water Footprint Network, a Finland-based organization directed by Hoekstra.

However, international water footprint comparisons are not cut and dry. Global trade means only a percentage of goods produced using regional water supplies are actually consumed in the country where the water is withdrawn. While the Water Footprint Network attempts to fac-tor this into its calculations, water footprints can’t account for water consumption’s impacts on diverse, local ecosystems. For example, water used growing organic cotton in China has a different impact on the region than the same amount of water used growing organic cotton in Turkey. Production in regions with less available water is more costly to the environment, yet that cost can’t be accounted for in dollars and cents.

“It’s important to know how much water is used to make a product and to understand

Keeping tabs on your tap is just the first step in determining your impact on global water supplies

By Rebecca L. Olgeirson

how Much water are You drinking?

One cup of wine =63.4 gallons of water

One cup of milk =54.9 gallons of water

One cup of coffee =37 gallons of water

One cup of beer =19.8 gallons of water

One cup of tea =7.9 gallons of water


“It’s time to start thinking

about the water embedded

in a product,”-Amelia Nuding

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water scarcity in those regions,” says Nuding, who honed her knowledge on the sub-ject as a graduate student, researching water footprints in clothing manufacturing for outdoor retailer Patagonia.

At this point, individual states in the U.S. aren’t calculating their contributions to the na-tional water footprint. Rather, here in Colorado, water footprinting is considered a tool for re-ducing household water consumption. Although the Water Footprint Network estimates only 5 percent of an individual’s water footprint stems from direct, personal consumption, local ex-perts believe this is the easiest place for Coloradans to get started if they want to tread more lightly. “For the average consumer, they need to begin with looking at the water they use,” says Nuding. “Most folks aren’t going to make a purchasing decision based solely on water.”

Greg Fisher manages demand planning at Denver Water. He suggests examining con-sumer choices within the home, starting with water-reliant appliances. With the best choices, residents can save thousands of gallons over the next 40 years. “I always look at this from a basic behavioral level—are you going to flush 5 gallons or 1.28 gallons per flush?” says Fisher. A high-efficiency washing machine uses an average of 13 gallons per load, compared to the nearly 40 gallons required by a traditional machine, explains Fisher. Adding aerators to faucets can decrease the amount of water flowing from the tap by up to 50 percent with little noticeable difference to the user.

Denver Water’s website has a handy tool for tracking its customers’ water use, charting individual households’ history of consumption with a simple bar graph. The city of Boulder takes the concept further by giving each household an actual water budget. A single-family household gets 7,000 gallons per month before rates begin to climb. The program, which started in 2009, has resulted in lower usage. “Most customers are staying within budget,” says Russ Sands, water conservation program manager for City of Boulder Utilities. “They see it on their bill and know if they stay on budget they pay less.”

Of course no water audit would be complete without investigating the biggest source of household water consumption—the lawn. Denver Water estimates that 52 percent of its cus-tomers’ household water is used for outdoor watering. How much is that lush lawn worth? For some consumers, the cash cost incurred by steeper utility rates is a deterrent. For others, the environmental cost is more effective. “Do we really want to take water out of our rivers to water our lawns?” asks Nuding. “Once you look at it in a water footprint context, the larger

how Much water are You wearing?One cotton t-shirt = 718 gallons of water

Denver Water estimates that 52 percent of its customers’ household water is used for outdoor watering.

A high-efficiency washing machine uses an average

of 13 gallons per load, compared to the nearly

40 gallons required by a traditional machine.

picture becomes more significant and we can see the implications of individual choices.”As a water/energy analyst, Nuding also emphasizes understanding the impact of power

sources on water supplies. “Consumers can’t choose how they get their energy delivered,” she says. “But it is important to think about how much water is used and its implications for the future.” She notes recent agreements by Xcel Energy to transition away from coal-fired plants toward natural gas plants as a positive step for Colorado’s water resources.

As for consumer choices, Nuding encourages Coloradans to factor in the ecological im-pact of their purchases. Whether shopping for a new ski jacket or a taking a quick trip to the grocery store, find companies that are cognizant of and working to reduce their own water footprints.

The Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) has seen children catching on to the im-pact of indirect water use in its community outreach. “They already know some ways to save water at home,” says Ben Wade, water conservation coordinator at the CWCB. “But when you show them how much water it takes to build a car—building the frame and the tires—the message starts to sink in; you see they really get it.”

Ultimately, getting kids (and their parents) to see water as a finite resource that requires trade-offs is something a water footprint can help illustrate, adds Veva Deheza, chief of the CWCB’s water conservation and drought planning section.

From investigating big-picture choices such as our energy sources to simply installing a $10 aerator on a kitchen faucet, consumers can see their actions impacting water supplies. Incorporating a meatless dinner on the menu once a week can make a difference. Switch-ing from coffee to tea, with a footprint of nearly 30 gallons of water less per cup, could have saved 400 gallons of water in the writing of this story alone.

Still, coffee is a better choice than wine, which would’ve added more than 350 gallons to this story’s water footprint, and who knows how many more drafts would’ve ensued? s

how Much water are You eating?One pound of beef = 1,799 gallons of waterOne pound of cheese = 600 gallons of waterOne pound of pork = 576 gallons of waterOne pound of chicken = 468 gallons of water One pound of potatoes = 119 gallons of water

What’s your Water Footprint?The average American’s water footprint is 2,842 cubic meters (750,000 gallons) annually, ac-cording to the Water Footprint Network. However, a few minutes on the Internet with a spe-cialized calculator can produce a more accurate individual figure: www.waterfootprint.org.

The Water Footprint Network calculator is certainly thorough, but its metric units make it a bit complicated for most of us. For a faster, simpler calculation, check out National Geographic Society’s Freshwater Initiative, which estimates Americans’ water footprints at 2,000 gallons per day—twice the global average. http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/water-footprint-calculator.

The average rate of water use in Colorado is 172 gallons per day per person, measured at the tap. By contrast, when factoring in additional indirect uses of water, the average American’s water footprint is 2,000 gallons per day. Sources: Colorado Water Conservation Board and National Geographic Society Freshwater Initiative.

Scan this code with your smart phone or other device to visit National Geographic’s personal water footprint calculator on the Web.

how Much water are You wearing?


Take the

Step

Imagine life without your toilet. The picture, both at home and in the surrounding com-munity, gets messy quick. Or, perhaps there is no faucet to turn, whereby, with little effort of your own, safe water pours forth from underground pipes that connect to a water treatment plant.

Now, imagine if all the children under five years old in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona and Kansas died from diarrhea. Reality strikes. An equivalent number of children—approximately 1.5 million—younger than five do, in fact, perish this way an-nually around the world. This silent threat steals the breath of more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. A lack of access to clean water and sanitation,

including toilets and wastewater treatment, is the root cause of this problem. The absence of clean water is also linked to poverty and lack of education and opportunity.

Diseases contracted from drinking dirty water either kill people, or make them too sick to work or go to school. And the burden of hauling water over long distances—the United Na-tions estimates an average of 6 kilometers per day in poor communities—is often shouldered by women and girls, who likewise lose the opportunity to earn an income or an education.

The discrepancy between the water “haves” and “have-nots” has grown so glaring that in 2010, the United Nations General Assembly declared access to safe drinking water and sani-tation a basic human right, making it a global priority to assist the nearly 900 million people estimated to be without safe drinking water and 2.6 billion without access to sanitation.

Some Colorado organizations and businesses are already working in that direction.

Innovative Water TechnologiesFive years ago, Jack Barker received an email from a mission group in India soliciting help. The message quoted a young, orphaned girl: “I drink water every day because I have to. It makes me sick.” At the time, Barker managed about 100 small water treatment and waste-water plants around Colorado through his business AAA Operations. Today, a copy of that email hangs on Barker’s office wall, reminding him of the reason he and his wife, Car-men, started Innovative Water Technologies, a spinoff company with a mission of bringing purified water to remote areas.

To further its mission, Rocky Ford-based Innovative Water Technolo-gies designed the Sunspring, a self-contained, solar-powered, porta-ble water filtration unit. The Sunspring uses membrane technology developed by General Electric that can filter particles as small as .02 microns. “You can drink the water straight out of it and it’s bacteriologically safe,” says Barker.

The 900-pound Sunspring arrives at its destination with all the necessary tools for assembly, and can produce

Water for AllColoradans Tackle the Global Water CrisisBy Erin McIntyre


An American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than a typical person in a developing country slum uses in a whole day. Source: 2006 United Nations Human Development Report

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purified water within two or three hours, given fresh water and sunshine. It can continue to filter up to 5,000 gallons per day for ten years and perhaps longer. The unit also has a Category 5 hurricane rating, making it durable for parts of the world which endure frequent natural disasters.

Barker got a first-hand look at the impact a Sunspring can have on a community after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Haiti’s fuel crisis made it difficult for water treatment plants, which needed power generators, to operate. When Barker arrived, the threat of cholera and dysentery loomed. “They were sending down plane loads of anti-diarrheal medicine and they were taking it with dirty water,” says Barker. “It was just a vicious circle there.”

Within hours of the earthquake, General Electric donated 10 Sunsprings. The Pentair Foundation donated two more. And Innovative Water Technologies donated time and travel to teach the local people how to use the technology.

“When we would show up to install a Sunspring, it was like a festival—hundreds of people waiting to see if it worked,” Barker recalls. Barker demonstrated the purified water’s safety, drinking the first cup as the crowd cheered. “We were able to give the Haitian people the same exact technology that we use here in the U.S. for our drinking water. To me that’s an honor.”

Engineers Without Borders USATwelve years ago, University of Colorado civil engineering professor Bernard Amadei met Angel Tzec, a landscaper from Belize, by chance. Their serendipitous friendship sparked a clean water project in San Pablo, Belize, where children were spending their days col-lecting river water for their families instead of going to school. Amadei, eight students and a volunteer civil engineer worked with the community to install a system to provide clean water, powered by a nearby waterfall. This first project ignited a movement for more, and Engineers Without Borders USA was born. Now the group’s membership includes more than 12,000 student, faculty and professional volunteers who currently work on 350 proj-

ects spread through 45 developing countries. More than half involve water. Projects are set in motion by recipient communities themselves, after they

take the initiative to apply. “We make sure they’re looking for a partner, not just someone to take over,” says the organization’s executive direc-

tor Cathy Leslie. After one of 250 volunteer chapters in the Unit-ed States adopts the project, they begin fundraising, site visits,

stakeholder interviews and an assessment of everything from available materials to potential roadblocks, such as local poli-

tics or cultural issues. Leslie considers the local community’s investment in its

own project key to the project’s ultimate success. That in-

“We were able to give the Haitian people the same exact technology that we use here in the U.S. for our drinking water. To me that’s an honor.”—Jack Barker

At a hospital in Cerca La Source, Haiti, (left) a Sunspring now provides safe drinking water to as many as 5,000 people daily. In Roche Blanche, Haiti, (right) Jack Barker offers clean water to a thirsty villager. Photos courtesy Innovative Water Technologies.



vestment can range from offering sweat equity to contributing half a chicken per family per year.One of Engineers Without Borders USA’s success stories came in the wake of a natural

disaster. Shortly after Hurricane Mitch hit Central America in 1998, staff visited a water project site in Guatemala. They expected the water system to be in shambles. Mitch was rated a Category 5, the highest level of intensity for a hurricane. Yet, the local community had managed to protect the system from the storm. Leslie surmises that by preserving the system, residents avoided diseases that are often prevalent in the aftermath of natural di-sasters—such as cholera and dysentery—and untold related deaths.

Water For PeopleMore than 20 years after working on the Kenya-Ethiopia border, Ned Breslin recalls the encounter that inspired him to focus his career on water and sanitation. He was interning with Lutheran World Relief during college, focusing on rural, nomadic groups of people and water when he witnessed firsthand how women worldwide often spend their days trekking for precious water. “I saw this caravan of women and girls walking across the desert with their camels. We were talking to them and they were polite but kind of wanted to move on. I just sort of thought it was insane that these girls in this caravan that had started in the middle of the night to fetch water would be doing this over and over again, and they really had very little hope,” he explains.

Today, as chief executive of Water For People, which was formed by the American Wa-ter Works Association in 1991, Breslin oversees projects in 11 countries. “Our goal is not to be in every country on the planet,” Breslin says. What is important is reaching every home, clinic and school in a particular region—the organization’s “everyone” commitment. In November 2011, Water For People announced that a collection of 14 rural communities in Chinda, Honduras, represent the organization’s first region to reach full coverage. Since 2007, Water For People has worked to help 3,000 residents there overcome challenges ranging from water shortage during the dry season, flooding and hurricanes, and lack of access to latrines. Roughly half the residents had access to water and sanitation when the project started. Now, everyone does.

Water For People aims to help communities become independent and works with locals to set up creative financing for the future. “Finance and putting skin in the game matters,” says Breslin. “If we’re doing sustainable water and sanitation, then that means communities should never call us again.”

The challenges in providing safe water to communities are the same around the world, Breslin says. And, those challenges will only increase. According to the United Nations, by 2025 an estimated 3.4 billion people will be living in water-stressed areas.

“We have more and more people drawing from the same resource with absolute clear evidence in declining quality and quantity, linked with difficulties in finance,” says Breslin. “We’re actually reaching a point in the world where these situations we’ve gotten away with for so long are going to have to be dealt with.” s

Learn more:> Innovative Water Technologies: www.innovativeh2o.com

> Engineers Without Borders USA: www.ewb-usa.org

> Rocky Mountain Section of Water For People: www.rmswaterforpeople.org

> United Nations, Water for Life Decade: www.un.org/waterforlifedecade

> UNICEF’s WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) program: www.unicef.org/wash

“…I just sort of thought it was

insane that these girls in this caravan

that had started in the middle of

the night to fetch water would be doing this over

and over again…”—Ned Breslin

Every day, 200 million hours of women’s time is consumed for the most basic of human needs — collecting water for domestic use.

This lost productivity is greater than the combined number of hours worked in a week by employees at Walmart, United Parcel Service, McDonald’s, IBM, Target, and Kroger. Source: Water.org

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Go. See. Do. Act.

For the wildlife loverThe San Luis Valley, Headwaters of the Rio Grande

From the San Juan Mountains to the west, the Rio Grande River flows through canyons, across high parks and then out into the San Luis Valley. There it meanders across the broad flat plain, supplying working ranches and extensive wetlands, and thereby extraordinary wildlife. To the east, the soaring Sangre de Cristos rise in a nearly vertical wall with peaks over 14,000 feet.

With only 6 to 8 inches of annual rainfall on the dry San Luis Valley floor, local communities, farmers and ranchers are utterly dependent on snowmelt, which supplies river flows and recharges the vast aquifers underlying the valley. The Rio Grande River forms a green ribbon of life in this high desert, and its waters are spread far and wide. Canals and ditches sustain large areas of agricultural production, in combination with groundwater drawn from the aqui-fers. To experience the Rio Grande Basin for yourself:

Go: A summer drive to the Rio Grande Reservoir high above the town of Creede will carry you past beautiful, conserved, private ranches along the Rio Grande River, then off the pavement and up into the San Juan National Forest, where fishing, rafting, and boating on the reservoir are all available. Above that are jeep and then hiking and riding trails into the higher regions of the Weminuche Wilderness. Check out www.coloradodirectory.com/fishing/fishing_creedewest.html for more information on fishing in the area.

See: When melting snow from the Sangres runs down Medano Creek and across the sandfields of Great Sand Dunes National Park, the water creates a delightful, but temporary, beachfront at the foot of the peaks. The water spreads and rises in sand waves, and people of all ages frolic in the flows. The park’s website pro-

vides updates on streamflows for people who want to catch the short-lived phenomenon: www.nps.gov/grsa.

Do: Come the spring migration of the greater sandhill cranes from the south, birders likewise migrate to the annual Monte Vista Crane Festival, held in mid-March. Seeing the 20,000 or so sandhill cranes forage and do their mating dances, in noisy association with a vast array of ducks and geese, is an experience that draws people back each year. The Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge is just a few miles south of the town of Monte Vista and the Rio Grande Riv-er. Diversions from the river, as well as some water pumped from wells, provide water to the extensive shallow wetlands of the refuge, which in past days was called “the duck farm” by some skeptical ranchers. Now, through a deep collaboration formed with the ref-uge and many partners, approximately 8,000 acres of the ranches upstream on Rock Creek, northwest of the refuge, have been pro-tected through voluntary conservation easements. This helps se-cure the water supply for the refuge, as well as providing vital food resources for the migrating hordes. It’s a common sight to see the tall gray forms of the cranes out among grazing cattle in the wet meadows of the ranches. For information about the Crane Festival, and the fall Kids Crane Festival, go to www.cranefest.com.

Act: For ideas on how you can involved, contact the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust at www.riograndelandtrust.org, the Rio Grande Headwaters Restoration Project at www.riograndeheadwa-ters.org, or the Rio Grande Basin Roundtable chair Mike Gibson at (719) 589-2230.

—Rio de la Vista

Greater sandhill cranes forage in the San Luis Valley’s wet meadows.

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For the Infrastructure NutBlue Mesa and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Blue Mesa Reservoir, located 10 miles southwest of Gun-nison, is Colorado’s largest water body. At full capacity, it holds 940,800 acre feet of water and is 333 feet deep at the Blue Mesa Dam. Blue Mesa is only one component of the Aspinall Unit, which also includes the lesser-known Morrow Point Dam and Reservoir and Crystal Dam and Reservoir. All three were authorized in 1956 and work in tandem to regulate the flows of the Gunnison River, provide storage and supply hydroelectric power.

Today, the Unit is also operated in consideration of environmental concerns. In 2008, after years of negotiations between environmental groups, the Bureau of Reclamation and the state of Colorado, a water right was finally decreed for the Black Canyon of the Gunnison Nation-al Park. Situated downstream of the three dams, the Black Canyon’s riparian resources have been degraded by decades of artificial flows. The decree requires minimum flows in the park of 300 cubic feet per second, and a once-annually, 24-hour peak flow intended to imitate natural spring runoff hydrology. There are many ways to explore the impressive infrastructure and natural features of the area:

Go: From June through Labor Day, park rangers lead 1.5-hour boat tours on Morrow Point Reservoir, at the head of the Black Canyon. Leaving twice a day at 10 am and 12:30 pm, tours include stunning scenery and information about geology and history. Contact the Na-tional Park Service at (970) 641-2337 ext. 205 for 2012 start dates.

See: Explore the national park. Just outside of Montrose, the south rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is open year round. Visitors can camp, hike, and stand in awe at numerous dra-matic viewpoints of the canyon walls, which from river to rim are more than 2,000 feet tall.

Do: Watch the Crystal Dam spill. In big water years like 2011, the Crystal Dam spills, or fills to the point of overflowing, creating an impressive cascade. A steep road from the national park’s South Rim entrance leads down to the river and takes visitors close to the base of the dam. Information on the Crystal Dam spill is available at the Bureau of Reclamation’s Grand Junction office: (970) 248-0652.

Act: Connect with the National Park Service, which offers volunteer opportunities, at www.nps.gov/blca/supportyourpark/volunteer.htm. Contact High Country Citizens’ Alliance, a regional environ-mental group which advocates for the health of the Upper Gunnison River, at www.hccaonline.org. Or call the Gunnison Basin Round-table chair Michelle Pierce at (970) 944-2333.

— Jennifer Bock The Black Canyon of the Gunnison’s steep, narrow gorge (above) is sure to impress, as is the state’s

largest reservoir, Blue Mesa (below).

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Go. See. Do. Act.

It’s easy to miss the turn into the Wild Basin entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park. This out-of-the-way, dirt-road entrance sits just below the highest moun-tains in the park on its southeastern side near

Allenspark. Cross through the gate and you’ve entered lands reserved by the federal government under the National Park system. Cross a creek 3 miles down the trail to Sandbeach Lake and ask: Does that creek have minimum flow protections? We know the land is protected, but is the water? A backpacking trip in the park provides a glimpse into Colorado’s Instream Flow Program.

Go: The Sandbeach Lake Trailhead begins right at the gate of the Wild Basin Entrance, a southern (and quiet) access point. With a net elevation gain of 2,000 feet over 4 miles, the hike can feel steep at times. But intermittent views of Mt. Meeker looming to the north prevent any real complaint. Use the trail in the winter for snowshoe-ing and camping as well. The 8-mile round trip could be completed in a long day, but watching the sun’s light wane against multiple peaks warrants at least a night’s stay. To camp, you’ll need a back-country permit from the National Park Service: www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/backcntry_guide.htm.

See: Water is the reward on this trail. Not only is Sandbeach Lake one of the deepest natural lakes in the park, but the trail follows segments of two streams: North St. Vrain Creek and Hunters Creek. The initial section of the hike offers expansive views of the North St. Vrain’s headwaters—a slow, meandering build-up before the stream enters a steep-walled canyon to the east. And just as the sweat spot grows be-tween your back and backpack, the trail meets and eventually crosses Hunters Creek, a fast-flowing mountain stream inhabited by federally-protected greenback cutthroat trout.

Do: Both streams have flow protections. In 1995, the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) appropriated an instream flow water right on all 4.6 miles of Hunters Creek for flows vary-ing from 0.75 cubic feet per second in the winter to 3.5 cfs during runoff. Today, new water users cannot deplete those minimum flows. Just downstream of the park boundary, the North St. Vrain enjoys protections of up to 21 cfs under two water rights owned by the CWCB. The CWCB is the only entity today that can appro-priate or acquire water rights for instream flows, and the agency protects more than 8,000 miles of streams in Colorado. These instream flow water rights have equal footing to every other wa-ter right in Colorado and are administered by the state according to their relative priority under the “first in time, first in right” sys-tem. Trekkers can also see the headwaters for many other well-known rivers in the park, including the Colorado and the Cache la Poudre. Although the two rivers’ headwaters begin less than 2 miles apart, the Colorado runs west, carves the Grand Canyon, supplies 30 million people with water, and flows toward the Gulf of California. On the other side of the divide, the Poudre flows down to Fort Collins, joins the South Platte River near Greeley, and eventually reaches the Gulf of Mexico. Both rivers have pro-tected instream flows for particular segments.

Act: Find out if your favorite local stream has flow protections on the Colorado Water Conservation Board’s website at www.cwcb.state.co.us. Click on Instream Flow Program, and search the database by county, water division or watershed. If the stream does not currently have protections, you can recommend a new appropriation by filling out a questionnaire: www.cwcb.state.co.us/environment/instream-flow-program/Documents/Appropriations/ISFQuestionnaire.pdf. If you own senior water rights, they can also be sold, leased or donated to the program. Contact the CWCB or the Colorado Water Trust, a nonprofit that specializes in water right transfers for instream flows: www.coloradowatertrust.org.

—Zach Smith

For the Wilderness EnthusiastPacking out the Instream Flow Program in Rocky Mountain National Park

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The Colorado Water Conservation Board has instream flow water rights on more than 1,500 stream segments covering more than 8,500 miles of stream and 477 natural lakes in Colorado.


For the Archaeology BuffMesa Verde and Colorado’s Native American Water Heritage

Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of 936 such sites recognized around the world for their outstanding cultural or physical significance. Mesa Verde is home to some 600 Ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings, many other mesa top and bottom pit houses and ancient water harvesting works. As glorious as the park is, there are many other interesting Na-tive American, cultural and recreational features to enjoy in the area.

Go: Begin at the Southern Ute Cultural Center on tribal lands at Ig-nacio near the Durango airport: www.succm.org/plan-your-visit/plan-an-event. Throughout their history, the Utes have loved horses and the shining waters of the San Juan Mountains. They possess an 1868 tribal reserved water right and rank among the most indus-trious Native American peoples in the United States. The product of an agreement settling Ute water right claims, the Nighthorse Reser-voir of the Animas-La Plata Project in Ridges Basin above Durango stores water for use by the Southern Ute, Ute Mountain Ute and Navajo tribes and neighboring towns.

See: Inspect the ancient Far View Village and Far View Reservoir on Chapin Mesa within Mesa Verde National Park near Cortez. This in-genious mesa top reservoir collected drinking water before it silted over. It is one of four ancient reservoirs that operated at Mesa Verde from 750-1180 A.D. Read up before you go: http://wrightpaleo.com/wordpress/publications. See beautifully decorated water mugs and jugs at the Spruce Tree House museum. Locate the precious spring the people relied upon for drinking water and for raising domesticated turkeys at this spectacular cliff dwelling. More information is available at the park website: www.nps.gov/meve/historyculture.

Do: Learn through hands-on activities at the Anazasi Heritage Center near Dolores how the first Coloradans grew and prepared food, and fashioned clothing and shelter for their families over the centuries in a water-short region. The center is run by the Bureau of Land Management: www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/ahc.html. Nearby, McPhee Reservoir provides water to the farmers and communities of Montezuma County, along with fishing and camping: www.packyourgear.com/Colorado/McPhee-Reservoir.aspx. Book a journey into the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Park with a Native American guide: www.utemountainute.com/tribalpark.htm. W. H. Jackson’s famous 1874 photograph of the tribal park’s Two Story House, a cliff dwelling perched 800 vertical feet above the Mancos River, first alerted the world to the archeologi-cal riches of the Mesa Verde region. Jackson thought the circular structure on the eastern edge of this dwelling was a water cis-tern. More likely, it stored water jars and served as a star-gazing and watch tower. Ask your guide to stop at the legendary cre-ation panel that features Rain Cloud with her butterfly wings and the flute-playing rainmaker, Kokopelli. Get a preview of what you might find by reading “The Four Corners,” a short narrative of my own guided experience there: www.cobar.org/docket/doc_ar-ticles.cfm?ArticleID=5851.

Act: Contact Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, a nonprofit ed-ucational organization located near Cortez, to learn how you and your family can get involved in hands-on archeological research activities: www.crowcanyon.org/about/about.asp.

—Justice Greg Hobbs

Mesa Verde’s Far View Reservoir (above) stored water more than 1,000 years ago. The legendary Ancestral Pueblo panel at Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Park (top).

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Go. See. Do. Act.


For the AgritouristGrowing Healthy Food in Boulder County

It began with a hobby garden, but now Mark Gut-tridge and his wife Kena run a small farm outside of

Longmont, supplying Boulder County farmers markets, commu-nity supported agriculture (CSA) customers and their own farm stand. The folks at Ollin Farms produce nutrient-rich produce without using chemicals and focus on efficient water use.

Mark’s background in water resource and environmental en-gineering influences his choices as a farmer. He’s been so suc-cessful with efficient drip irrigation that much of his water comes from the municipal supplier—a testament to how little water they use on the farm. This uncommon approach sprang from Mark’s desire to “grow the most amount of food possible using the mini-mal amount of water,” he says. “There was a need in the com-munity to have real food back in our diets.” To learn more about Ollin Farms’ sustainable agriculture practices:

Go: Ollin Farms hosts periodic Farm Dinners that have become a hit over the past three years. Sample fresh farm produce and other locally sourced foods, prepared by local chefs. Most din-

ners are held on the farm, under the stars. Or, attend the farm’s Tomato Festival in August or Fall Festival in October for an op-portunity to glimpse Ollin Farms’ methods up close.

See: As urbanization separates kids from nature and rural areas, Ollin Farms provides an opportunity for children to re-connect. The farm’s annual summer camps teach kids ages 6 to 11 (or 3- to 6-year-olds in half-day sessions) about planting, animals and harvest. Camps wrap up with a Farm Party and meal prepared by a local chef. Visit www.ollinfarms.com to sign up for programs or learn more.

Do: Transition Colorado, a group working to engage communities in becoming more resilient and self-reliant, held its first annual Slow Food Bicycle Tour de Farms in 2011, where cyclists tra-versed 15 miles of Boulder County countryside, learning about local farming and enjoying the bounty at a local farm lunch along the way. Visit www.transitioncolorado.org to see what events are scheduled for Eat Local! Week 2012.

Act: Find a local farm or CSA near you at www.localharvest.org/csa. Plan a visit to learn more about local farming, or join a CSA to start eating local, healthier foods. —Deserai Crow

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Support The ColoradoHealthy Rivers Fund On Your Next State Income Tax Return!

Cleaner Water

Healthier Wildlife & Restored Habitat

Improved Recreation & Accessibility

Your donation helps support:

To learn more visitwww.coloradowater.org

Support The ColoradoHealthy Rivers Fund On Your Next State Income Tax Return!

Cleaner Water

Healthier Wildlife & Restored Habitat

Improved Recreation & Accessibility

Your donation helps support:

To learn more visitwww.coloradowater.org

Photo courtesy of John Fielder


Waterwise landscaping can play an important role in managing the water resources of Colorado. Whether starting from scratch or “waterwising” an existing land-scape, it can be easy, inexpensive and fun to save lots of water with xeriscapes.

By Jim Knopf

Across Colorado, more than 50 percent of treated drinking water is used to ir-rigate landscapes. As Colorado’s growing towns and cities look toward providing adequate water supplies for the future, many have turned to their consumers, of-fering incentives to trim usage, including rebates for installing xeriscapes in place of heavily-watered lawns.

Xeriscape simply refers to waterwise landscaping. It’s not necessarily dry and non-irrigated. Attractive landscaping can range from fully irrigated—never dry—to com-pletely non-irrigated.

Great xeriscapes are not gravel gardens. In fact, xeriscapes provide even more variety than lawn-dominated landscapes, while requiring far less water.

Plant Your Own Xeriscape GardenDIY

1 To start, focus on waterwise plant selection: Choose

plants with similar water needs, and group them together. Don’t mix plants of different water needs in the same area, and don’t put plants with high water requirements adjacent to drought-tolerant plantings or pavement. Use plants with moderate water needs

between areas that will require either high or low amounts of water. Then, don’t overwater. Use catch

cans to learn how long to water for the amounts sug-gested for different watering zones.

2For an existing landscape: Try making the lawn

smaller by creating wider, waterwise edges. Substitute hardy, drought-tolerant perennials, such as lavender, bearded iris, Rocky Mountain Penstemen or Russian

Sage, for bluegrass. These can also be used for showy “filler” plants while shrubs are maturing. Try to make

selections that will provide color throughout the growing season. For the best aesthetic effect, plant in groups of three or more similar plants, and stick with

odd numbers unless using six or more of a single vari-ety. Play with spacing and size variations in a group.

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3 If starting from scratch: Consider that xeriscapes can cost far less than lawnscaping. Waterwise shrub, groundcover and flower plantings require far less expensive soil preparation, making it easier and cheaper to install than traditional lawns. Also, irrigation can often be done with hose-end equipment for a few hundred dollars as opposed to several thousand for a fully automatic, underground system. Make lawns as small as possible, and con-sider planting turf-type tall fescue, which has half the water requirements of bluegrass.

4 Simplify maintenance: In flower plantings, minimize bare ground. Fill the areas with plants you want, and let them fight the weed war. Keep the lawn small. Even mowing can be fun if there is little of it, and if the mower eliminates the need for trimming edges. Experiment to find edges that work for your mower.

How Much Water Does Landscaping Really Need?The following chart shows how to divide landscaping into different zones, based on the water needs of plants. Numbers illustrate typical conditions in Denver for a sunny, level area in soil that is not extreme sand or clay.

High Water Zones Moderate Water Zones Low Water Zones Very Low Zones

Relative Moisture

Reference

Bluegrass turf(always wet at surface)

Half the moisture of Bluegrass turf

Buffalograss turf Too dry for any turf

Average Water Needs

18-20 gallons per square foot each season.5”—3 times per week

10+ gallons per square foot each season.75”—once per week

0-3 gallons per square foot each season.5” per 2 weeks, optional

No irrigation

Typical Plants Kentucky Bluegrass, Redtwig Dogwood, Pansies

Turf-type Tall Fescue, Potentilla, Purple Coneflower, many shade trees

Buffalograss lawns, Rabbitbrush, Mexican Hat Coneflower

Piñon Pine, Yuccas, Apache Plume, Agaves, Penstemons

Catch Can “Technology”Prevent overwatering by measuring how much water you apply to the landscape. To measure your current water use:

• Place six identical catch cans in a single sprinkler system zone (a catch can is any straight-sided, open-top container).

• Evenly distribute the catch cans and ensure each can is least 3 feet away from sprinkler heads.

• Run the sprinkler zone for 10 minutes.

• Pour the water from five of the containers into the sixth container.

• Measure and record (in inches) the water depth in the container.

• Empty the container and repeat above steps for each sprinkler zone.

•The combined water depth in the sixth container equals the amount of water each sprinkler zone produces in one hour (precipitation rate in inches per hour).

Source: Northern Water

Gardening is greatest when it’s something to do and not to be done with. Think about what you like doing and what you don’t. Mowing must be done every week, while shrubs, groundcovers and even flowers can be left for long periods without attention. Get clever. There are endless ways to reduce regular maintenance chores and to create a landscape that’s fun to maintain. Maintenance by puttering—little by little and when you want to—is great. And xeriscape makes it all possible.

Jim Knopf is a registered Landscape Architect whose experience in waterwise wildlife gar-dening on the edge of Boulder County open space has provided major lessons in mischief management of such critters as bobcats, bears, bull snakes, coyotes, foxes, rabbits, deer and several resident mountain lions. Jim’s favorite motto is: “Don’t get frustrated, get clever. You’ll win for awhile, but never forever.”

He is the author of The Xeriscape Flower Gardener and WaterWise Landscaping with Trees, Shrubs, & Vines, which are helpful resources that list hundreds of plants by water needs.

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Catherine Moravec, Conservation Specialist, Colorado Springs Utilities

Top 12 Low Water Plants for 2012

1. Russian hawthorn, Crataegus ambigua Small tree, 20’ tall x 15’ wide, beautiful white flowers in spring, glossy green leaves in summer, brilliant red berries in fall.

2. Tatarian maple, Acer tataricum Small tree, 20’ tall x 20’ wide, attractive small leaves that turn yellow to orange in fall, pink to red seeds in summer light up the tree for a month. ‘Hot Wings’ is an outstanding cultivar.

3. Fernbush, Chamaebatiaria millefolium Tidy mounded shrub, 5’ tall x 5’ wide, tough as nails in dry, sunny conditions, fern-like green leaves most of the year, lilac-like white flowers in July.

4. Dwarf blue rabbitbrush, Ericameria nauseosus var. nauseosus Small tidy mounded shrub, 2’ tall by 2’ wide, soft blue leaves with golden flowers appearing in September, beautiful structure in the winter landscape.

5. False indigo, Baptisia australis Perennial flower, 3’ tall by 3’ wide, intricate blue-green rounded leaves held in a fountain-like form, deep blue flowers in early summer, attractive black seed pods.

6. Sunset hyssop, Agastache rupestris Perennial flower, 2’ tall x 2’ wide, thin, gray-green leaves have a wonderful smell, salmon-pink flowers emerge in July, attracts hummingbirds, butterflies, moths.

7. Little bluestem, Schizachyrium scoparium Ornamental grass, 3’ tall x 2’ wide, fine blades of blue-green grass make this upright plant a wonderful background for other plants. Turns bright red in fall, which lasts throughout winter.

8. SILVER BLADE® evening primrose, Oenothera macrocarpa subsp. incana Perennial flower, 4” tall x 2’ wide, silvery fuzzy leaves serve as a wonderful backdrop for huge lemon-yellow flowers that appear from May to September. Great for the front of the border.

9. Colorado desert blue star, Amsonia jonesii Perennial flower, 1’ tall x 1’ wide, Gorgeous mound of green stalks that produce light blue star-shaped flowers in early summer. Foliage looks great after flowering, turning bright yellow in fall.

10. Moonshine yarrow, Achillea ‘Moonshine’ Perennial flower, 2’ tall x 2’ wide, one of the toughest, most reliable plants in the dry border. Silvery mounds of leaves support lemon yellow clusters of flowers from June to September. Fabulous winter interest.

11. Red valerian, Centranthus ruber Perennial flower, 2’ tall by 2’ wide, hardy blue-green leaves are topped by reddish-pink clusters of flowers from June to August. Long-blooming.

12. CRYSTAL RIVER® veronica, Veronica ‘Reavis’ Groundcover, 2 “ tall by 2’ wide eventually, a tough evergreen mat of round leaves, spreads very well, bright blue flowers in spring. Great for planting in between flagstone steps and around patios.

Simplify your xeriscape upgrade with a Garden-In-A-Box. This one-stop shop provides a selection of xeriscape plants, plant-by-number designs, and planting and care instructions—all below retail costs. Run by the Center for Resource Conservation in Boulder County, Garden-In-A-Box takes the brainwork out of planning and features designs created by professional landscape designers with the do-it-your-selfer in mind. All of the xeriscape

garden collections thrive in Colorado’s arid climate, though most are developed more specifically for the Front Range and would be suitable for altitudes up to 6,000 or 7,000 feet. Boxes go on sale in January each year and are available for pickup in May. Prices range from $85 to $135 for a complete kit, which can cover up to 100 square feet. To find out more, go to http://conservationcenter.org/water-home/garden-in-a-box-sale/.

Garden-In-A-Box

DIY


Photo courtesty Colorado Springs Utilities xeriscape demonstration garden.


Storage Stream Health Legislative Actions River Protections New Demands Agriculture Recreation Photo courtesty Colorado Springs Utilities xeriscape demonstration garden.


1580 Logan St., Suite 410 • Denver, CO 80203

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Headwaters Winter 2012: Water 101 Take the Plunge

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