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Comments sought on State Water Plan

Locals who use water in one form or another are being urged to learn about and comment on the Colorado Water Plan that's intended to address statewide water supply gaps in coming years, with state population projected to double by 2050. The comment deadline is Sept. 17.

Representatives for area water interests met with the legislature's interim Water Resources Review Committee on Monday in Durango.

Committee chair State Sen. Ellen Roberts said the committee membership was based on water basins, with five Democrats and five Republicans. "The committee is a lot less about political party and more where you are from, your water basin," she said.

Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) Director James Eklund commented, "We don't need to look any further than California to see why strategic water planning is important." He expects longer droughts and stronger storm events in Colorado's future.

He called the State Water Plan "the largest civic engagement project in Colorado history." It was initiated by an executive order from Gov. John Hickenlooper in May 2013. Meetings were held around the state last year, and the first draft was released in December 2014. After response to that, the second draft was released earlier this month. It has 407 pages. The final draft is to be delivered to Hickenlooper by Dec. 10 this year.

"This plan belongs to all Coloradans, and that's how it should be," Eklund said. "People know the importance of water in the state." The plan has gotten around 24,000 comments, he said, calling this "open source policy making."

Much of the attention Monday was on chapter 10 of the plan, which lists "critical action plans." Eklund said, "We heard from people that it was important to have every action in one place" rather than scattered through the plan. "We have to be more agile in the state about policies and processes without violating senior water rights and prior appropriation. We want people to tell us what they think about chapter 10."

Lists of small and large projects, possible legislation, and policy changes came from nine basin roundtables representing nine water basins around the state. The state has $20 to $30 billion worth of project needs between now and 2050, including operation and maintenance, Eklund said.

State agencies including CWCB provide some grant and loan funding for water-related projects, but "Water gets no free pass from the fiscal knot we've tied ourselves into in this state," he said. "We have a pie of funding that can't help but get smaller because of the way Amendment 23 (school funding mandate) works... It will take a continued commitment by the General Assembly and probably a conversation with our voters at some point. We'll start bumping up against what we can actually fund in this state."

Eklund and Roberts expect the governor to pick five or 10 action steps to push forward, even before the final plan is delivered.

"We start work on the next legislative session in September," Roberts said. "We'd like to help you move things forward with what we can agree on. We don't have time to waste." She lamented that the legislature has diverted severence tax money for things other than what it's meant for, to backfill other budget shortfalls. "Whether this plan turns into anything concrete depends on the citizens," she said.

The plan includes "stretch goals" for municipal and industrial water conservation, to reduce use by 400,000 acre feet. "The stretch goal doesn't say we have all the answers or that conservation is the silver bullet, but... We can't do much about the (water) supply, but we can influence the demand," Eklund said.

Durango water engineer Steve Harris objected that it will be difficult to measure whether 400,000 AF is being saved. He wants to change the pecentage of inside versus outside residential water use, up to 70:30 for developments that use water from trans-mountain diversions (TMDs).

Ed Miller from Arriola commented, "I'd rather tell the Front Range you have X amount of water. Save water with high rises or reduce lawns to have water for more people." Instead of assuming state population will double, he wants "a study of what is the appropriate population for the water and land that we have. I think Colorado is repeating the mistakes that California did."

Roberts commented, "As much as we might not want people to move here, a lot of us weren't born in this state. I don't know how we stop them from moving here."

"Water and land use are inextricably linked in Colorado," and the plan has a section on that, Eklund said. It also addresses environmental resiliency and stream management. "People started diverting water from streams since before statehood (1876). It's only in the 1970s that we started looking at environmental impact" from diversions.

Agriculture viabiity is a big part of the plan. Without a plan, Eklund said, "The de-facto plan is buy and dry," urban water interests buying ag water and moving it off the land.

Other plan chapters deal with climate change, groundwater sustainability (Eklund cited California again), and project permitting issues. Projects that used to take three years and $3 million to get through the permit process now take 10 years and $10 million, he said.

The water plan is at www.coloradowaterplan.com.