From mythbusting and current trends in Colorado water (who said boaters and anglers can’t get along?), to knowing where to look and who to call to get your pressing water questions answered, understanding some basic concepts can make it easier to navigate, understand and participate in what’s going on with water.
Water 101
Water basics undergird Colorado's hottest news. From connections between water and health, to water law fundamentals, the water cycle and where water comes from — understanding these foundational topics matters.
BY ELIZABETH MILLER
Myths Vs. Facts
Coloradans are collaborating on win-win water solutions to keep water affordable, preserve ecosystems and farmland, and decouple population growth from water use — dispelling common myths about water.
BY EMILY PAYNE
Who You Gonna Call?
Resources and contact information to help answer frequently asked questions about Colorado water quality and quantity.
BY SIDNEY BARBIER
Water news from across Colorado:
Forging A Future Basin roundtables create a space for Coloradans to collaborate.
Around The State Reporting from Colorado's major watersheds.
MEMBER'S CORNER Celebrate the impact of WEco’s members.
INTRODUCTION
A Note From The Director
Leading The Way
It is my great pleasure to introduce myself to Headwaters magazine readers.
My name is Juan Pérez Sáez, and I became Water Education Colorado’s new Executive Director in September. As many of you probably want to know, I have a deep connection and care for water-related issues.
I grew up surrounded by farms, ranching and family. It was my upbringing with my aunt that brought me close to water. I remember vividly my childhood, and how we headed to the water wells to collect water, which we later used for everything. My first job, at only 13, was working at the family farm, and being responsible for the irrigation of watermelons. Coming from a place where drought was part of my life has taught me to value this resource and understand the implications that come from sharing with others.
Fast forward, I decided to go to school for Environmental Engineering at the University of Panama. I later received a Master’s in Natural Resources from The Ohio State University. During my journey conducting research, I worked with Amish farmers in rural Ohio, and I learned first-hand some of the best management practices put in place by farmers to steward their water.
As someone who calls Colorado home and has seen what reliable information can do for the community, I join Water Education Colorado with a commitment to continue to offer high-quality publications for all water stewards across the state. From scientists to water experts, farmers and ranchers and domestic water users in all corners of Colorado, reliable, accurate, non-biased water information is critical for everyone to make informed decisions. It is our ultimate goal that each edition of our magazine allows you to explore key issues across the state, and highlights stories from folks that are leading the way for how we can and should sustain this precious resource for present and future generations.
Water Education Colorado provides a unique set of programs for nourishing the water leaders and decision-makers in Colorado. Our Water Leaders Program and educational programs provide water sector professionals with the tools to overcome the challenges of a changing world while understanding the complexities of future water management. Through legislative training at the State Capitol, direct engagement with county commissioners, and our Water Fluency Program, we reach decision-makers, equipping them with an understanding of water resources so they can set policy with integrity. Lastly, our news and publications seek to maintain a flow of information in alignment with our vision of “a vibrant, sustainable, and water-aware Colorado.” I am committed to carrying out the impactful leadership programs, our Fresh Water News and Headwater magazines, while we explore new ways to engage more Coloradans.
I hope that all of the hard work our team has put into this edition connects with you as a reader, and you take away lessons that can ensure a sustainable water future for Colorado Onwards,
Executive Director
STAFF
Juan Pérez Sáez
Executive Director
Sabrina Scherma Programs Director
Sidney Barbier Publications and Production Intern
John Carpenter Operations Manager
Tess Koskovich Marketing, Communications and Outreach Manager
Jerd Smith Fresh Water News Editor
Lisa Strachan Membership and Development Manager
Caitlin Coleman Publications and Digital Resources Managing Editor
Dana Smith Headwaters Art Director
BOARD
OF TRUSTEES
Lisa Darling
President
Dulcinea Hanuschak
Vice President
Brian Werner
Secretary
Alan Matlosz
Treasurer
Cary Baird
Perry Cabot
Nick Colglazier
Nathan Fey
David Graf
Eric Hecox
Matt Heimerich
Julie Kallenberger
David LaFrance
Dan Luecke
Karen McCormick
Leann Noga
Peter Ortego
Dylan Roberts
Monika Rock
Kelly Romero-Heaney
Ana Ruiz
Elizabeth Schoder
Don Shawcroft
Chris Treese
Katie Weeman
THE MISSION of Water Education Colorado is to ensure Coloradans are informed on water issues and equipped to make decisions that guide our state to a sustainable water future. WEco is a non-advocacy organization committed to providing educational opportunities that consider diverse perspectives and facilitate dialogue in order to advance the conversation about water.
HEADWATERS magazine is published three times each year by Water Education Colorado. Its goals are to raise awareness of current water issues, and to provide opportunities for engagement and further learning.
THANK YOU to all who assisted in the development of this issue. Headwaters’ reputation for balance and accuracy in reporting is achieved through rigorous consultation with experts and an extensive peer review process, helping to make it Colorado’s leading publication on water.
CSU Spur, Hydro/The Shop, 4777 National Western Drive, Denver, CO 80216 (303) 377-4433
WHAT WE'RE DOING
10 Years of Water Fluency
WEco's 2024 Water Fluency Program marked its 10th year of providing in-depth education and training on water management and protection. This year's program was another success, with a focus on the Upper Colorado River Basin. The class graduated in September, and participants are leaving with new knowledge and skills to help lead their communities and organizations on water policy and projects. A special thank you to our 2024 Water Fluency Program Title Sponsors for their support: Colorado Water Conservation Board, Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority, and Special District Association of Colorado. Interested in learning the language and concepts of water to better navigate water management and policy? Registration for the 2025 program will begin early next year. Sign up to be alerted when registration opens at wateredco.org/water-fluency.
WELCOME TO THE WECO TEAM
Water Education Colorado welcomed two new team members this September: Lisa Strachan, Membership and Development Manager, and Juan Pérez Sáez, Executive Director.
Juan brings over 15 years of experience working across water resources management, policy, and international development, with a deep focus on sustainable practices and climate resilience. Lisa brings a wealth of expertise in nonprofit management, membership engagement and development. She is passionate about building strong relationships to support WEco’s mission. Both are dedicated to advancing water education and ensuring lasting impacts for Colorado's water future.
ONLINE
21 Ways to Care for Colorado Water: Every Drop Counts
Looking for practical ways to conserve water? WEco has updated its communication materials, originally from the Water '22 campaign, to help partners engage the community and spread the message. These materials include brochures, magnets and stickers, all available in English and Spanish. They highlight ways to conserve Colorado’s water — from managing our water footprint to sustainable outdoor recreation. Preview the materials and request them for your own activies at wateredco.org/21-ways.
A Conversation With KATIE
All people, all communities and all environments across the state depend on water. It's not just the water experts, it's about all of us. We have so many projects that really stem from collaboration and looking for those innovative solutions, and that can't happen without everyone. The public is absolutely part of that equation.
We spoke with Katie Weeman, a member of the WEco Board of Trustees and Marketing and Communications Director for the Colorado Water Conservation Board about the role of communication in bridging the gap between science and public policy. Read more on the blog at watereducationcolorado.org.
WEEMAN
WEco welcomes the newest members of our team: Lisa Strachan and Juan Pérez Sáez.
BEHIND THE STORIES WHAT WE'RE DOING
From The Editor
Deep Dive Congratulations 2024 Water Leaders Graduates
We are pleased to announce the 2024 class graduating from WEco’s Water Leaders Program. After an intensive six months of virtual and in-person training sessions, and countless hours spent meeting with coaches, cohorts and mentors, this year’s class is departing with the tools and confidence to make a big impact on their organizations, the water sector, and the state of Colorado and beyond. Join us in congratulating them!
Adam Kremers Brown and Caldwell
Alexa Kelly Colorado Legislative Council Staff
Austin Krcmarik Denver Water
Blake Mamich Colorado Water Trust
David Heintz BBA Water Consultants, Inc.
Deb Hummel The Watershed Center
Elizabeth Schoder Colorado Water Conservation Board
Jackie Fisher Orchard Mesa Irrigation District
James Dilzell Eagle River Watershed Council
Jessica Mills Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District
Jonathan Villines Mile High Flood District
Kaitlyn Beekman Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Water Quality Control Division
Katie Birch Colorado Parks and Wildlife
Katie Garrett Colorado Springs Utilities
Kerry Major City of Golden
Laila Parker City of Boulder
Leah Hubbard City of Greeley
Lindsey Marlow Friends of the Yampa
Lisa Brown Wilson Water Group
Ryan Van Pelt City of Loveland Water & Power
Applications for the 2025 Water Leaders Program are now open!
Learn more and apply at wateredco.org/water-leaders.
Water itself isn’t complicated — we all use it, recreate near it, rely on it — but there are a number of factors that go into how water flows, is regulated, allocated, treated, conveyed, stored and shared. The details can be both head-spinningly cumbersome and engrossingly interesting.
Of course, at Water Education Colorado, we’re well practiced at distilling complex water topics — take our Community/Citizen’s Guides, Fact Sheets, Water Fluency Program, and other programs. The “water wisdom” covered in this issue of Headwaters draws on traces of that work. But there are new and exceptionally challenging things about this issue — the biggest challenge is that we set out to accomplish a lot.
What we cover here matters. The topics we prioritized to include in this issue were selected by our publications and program committees, our reporters, our graphic designer, and by me. But they aren’t all-inclusive — in fact, we didn’t cover everything that we initially hoped to. Here are a few thoughts and resources related to some of the key pieces that may not have received ample space in this issue:
In Colorado, there is rarely enough water to fully meet all demands. That idea is woven into the Colorado Water plan and the work of the basin roundtables (see “Forging a Future,” page 11) but it’s also the reason why water law, compacts, water sharing, collaboration, and everything else we cover in this issue matters.
Water is for everyone and valued by all in different ways. We spell out a lot of facts and background info in this issue but could never have spoken with enough people in enough places to adequately convey the countless diverse ways that people value, use and understand water. While we tell stories in this issue about agriculture, cities, recreation, the environment, industry, and more, there are many more voices that aren’t represented here.
Take on a project at home as a first step in getting active and learning about water. For some ideas, check out the 21 Ways to Care for Colorado’s Water (read about it on page 5).
And finally, keep learning. If you’re intrigued, one page on water law isn’t enough (see page 15). Read WEco’s Community/Citizen’s Guide’s for more depth, still at an entry level, on topics including water law, compacts, water quality protection, our water heritage and much more.
I hope that the snippets in these pages help readers dive a little deeper and collect enough background info to more fully understand and engage with what’s happening in water today. Water, and information, are for all. Here’s to new levels of understanding and engagement with Colorado water.
A Night of Honor
Highlights from an evening of excellence that recognized the stars of the night and their glowing achievements.
The 2024 President’s Reception marked the 18th year of Water Education Colorado's annual celebration and fundraiser.
More than 220 friends, colleagues and supporters joined us on Sept. 5 to celebrate the mission and impact of WEco, along with the achievements and contributions of our award recipients. We were delighted to honor Doug Kemper with the 2024 Diane Hoppe Leadership Award and Lorelei Cloud with the 2024 Greg Hobbs
Next Wave Leadership Award (formerly the Emerging Leader Award).
This year, WEco renamed the Greg Hobbs award to honor the legacy of this former Colorado Supreme Court Justice and long-time Vice President and Publications Chair of Water Education Colorado.
We also bid farewell to WEco’s former executive director, Jayla Poppleton, and welcomed our new executive director, Juan Pérez Sáez.
With sincere thanks to our dedicated community’s generous support, via sponsorship, ticket sales, auction bids and donations, event proceeds totalled more than $50,000 that will directly support WEco’s many programs to inform elected and appointed officials, water sector professionals, educators, students, and interested community members. Mark your calendars now for the 2025 reception, tentatively planned for Sept. 10, 2025. ›
THANK Y OU TO OUR 2024 TIDAL, PEAK AND TORRENT SPONSORS
BY JAYLA POPPLETON
At this year's reception, Water Education Colorado recognized Doug Kemper with the 2024 Diane Hoppe Leadership award. Doug served since 2005 as the Executive Director of the Colorado Water Congress, where he fostered an increasingly diverse and inclusive community and meaningful collaboration.
After a 44-year career in Colorado water, he retired this fall to spend time pursuing hobbies ranging from playing exotic instruments and serving as a church elder to hiking and skiing. He’s also looking forward to spending more time with his family.
Doug never set out to lead the Colorado Water Congress, but doing so has fit perfectly with his passion for working through politically and technically complex situations involving a multitude of interests to find common ground.
Doug first took the helm at Colorado Water Congress after the previous director, Dick MacRavey, retired after 26 years. Doug had already served on the water congress board.
During his nearly two decades at Colorado Water Congress, Doug was able to take an established organization — it officially formed in 1958 — further build its reputation, and use it as an organizing tool to, in his words “continue to advance the integrity of what we do in Colorado water. It can be a high-conflict environment but it can also be very rewarding as we seek to find these optimal solutions that balance a wide range of diverse interests. Participating and contributing to these collaborative processes has been the joy of my career.”
His priorities have centered around three main things. First, to “build up our conferences, which were dying when I came on. Bored at too many
Doug Kemper
2024 DIANE HOPPE LEADERSHIP AWARD
“ I believe it ’ s important to keep learning throughout one ’ s career .” —Doug Kemper
conferences, I wanted to put on events I would enjoy attending.” Second, to maintain water congress’s highly successful legislative record. And finally, to achieve financial stability for the organization. On all fronts, he’s found success, and he credits that success to support and participation from the Colorado Water Congress Board and the water community.
Prior to taking the helm at Colorado Water Congress in 2005, Doug spent 20 years as the water resources manager with Aurora Water.
During his time at Aurora, he experienced the demise of the Two Forks project, when it was vetoed by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1990. He describes a “black, dark cloud” that descended for Aurora and other project proponents whose water supply plans were thrown into uncertainty. “The future and what people had been working on intensively for a
decade wasn’t going to happen. It became clear that whatever was going to happen would require a rethinking of water policy.”
With other large water supply projects stalled or failing, and recognizing the need for a new approach and new skills, Doug attended courses at the Harvard Program on Negotiation. There, he learned about finding common ground, managing conflict, and working with diverse interests to get things done. “To me, that was magic.”
He also went through training in collaborative decision-making at (now-called) CDR Associates in Boulder and consent-building at the Institute for Participatory Management and Planning run by Hans and Annemarie Bleiker. “I believe it is important to keep learning throughout one’s career. There is often a better way of finding optimal solutions to conflict and that can begin with a deep understanding of the points of view of others,” explains Doug.
“Those things became the core of my life, they guided how I spent my career,” where Doug says his proudest accomplishments involved working with local communities to take difficult situations and make them better. This work included developing several intergovernmental agreements in a variety of Colorado’s geographic areas such as the Eagle River headwaters, Upper Arkansas Valley, Lower Arkansas Valley and the Denver metro area.
At Aurora Water, Doug also met and married Jill Piatt Kemper. He has two children from his first marriage. His son, Ben, is in the Air Force Special Forces and lives with his wife and four children — they’re expecting their fifth — in Monterey, California. His daughter, Cayla, and her husband, Justin, live in Westminster, where she works as a project manager for a renewable energy company.
Thinking about retirement, Doug says he looks forward to “letting things roll and having a clean calendar for a while.”
He hopes to stay involved in Colorado water, a community he’s proud to be part of. “A lot that’s talked about with water is conflict,” he says, “but the real story of Colorado’s water community is how well we have risen to meet the challenges of the day. Our journey is a joy.”
Doug Kemper stands on stage as he accepts Water Education Colorado's 2024 Diane Hoppe Leadership Award. Kemper retired this fall after leading the Colorado Water Congress for the past 19 years.
BY JAYLA POPPLETON
Lorelei Cloud received WEco's 2024 Greg Hobbs Next Wave Leadership Award. Lorelei, who is vice-chair of the Southern Ute Tribal Council, made history in March 2023 as the first Native American to be appointed to the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB). She currently serves as vice-chair of the board and represents the Southwest Basin’s San Miguel, Dolores, Animas and San Juan rivers.
Between these dual leadership roles and others — Lorelei also serves as co-founder and now former co-chair for the Indigenous Women’s Leadership Network and as a leadership team member for the Water and Tribes Initiative — Lorelei is committed to empowering young female leaders and to acting on behalf of her tribe to strengthen both sovereignty and water security.
Her top priority has been preserving Southern Ute tribal water and developing that water. “The only way we’re going to protect it is to develop it. We’ve been disenfranchised since the creation of our reservation, and the development of our water is part of that.”
Along with the historymaking leap to serve on the CWCB, Lorelei’s proudest accomplishments include
Lorelei Cloud
2024 GREG HOBBS NEXT WAVE LEADERSHIP AWARD
• Alyson Scott Law
• CEGR Law
• Colorado River District
• Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority
establishing a Memorandum of Understanding, signed in April 2024, with the four Upper Basin states of the Colorado River Basin and the six Upper Basin tribes, with regard to the Colorado River. The MOU outlines a commitment to information-sharing, and to cooperating to address issues of mutual concern.
Lorelei spends a good deal of time educating others on Ute history, sovereignty, and belief systems. “There is a lack of knowledge with how tribes work within the government
structure,” she explains. And, “There is this colonized view of nature and land, where everything has to have ownership. But why, why does that have to happen?”
“We came from our Creator, and there are all of these things he gave us to take care of ... every blade of grass, every ounce of water has a spirit. There is a divine love between humans and Nature. It changes your view of the world. It changes how you see the essence of life.”
Part of her message is that the Ute people have always
been here on this land and will continue to fight to be here. But at the same time, her belief in our shared fate undergirds her spirit of collaboration.
“We’re all in this together. My environment is your environment and yours is mine. Your future is my future, and my future is your future,” she says.
Looking ahead, Lorelei is committed to ensuring tribes are included in every conversation with the state. And she sees an opportunity to further influence the structure and makeup of the CWCB. “There is another sovereign nation, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, that should have a seat on the CWCB to be able to represent themselves.”
Summing it up, Lorelei says of her life and career to date: “I’ve always been a water protector. I just needed a chance to show it.”
THANK YOU ALSO TO OUR 2024 PRESIDENT’S RECEPTION
• Denver Water
• Northern Water
• Special District Association of Colorado
• Tito’s Handmade Vodka
• City of Thornton
• Colorado Water Center
• Forsgren Associates
• Kind Design
• Kogovsek and Associates
• LRE Water
• Pueblo Water
• Rio Grande Water Conservation District
• Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District
• Southwestern Water
Conservation District
• Stifel
• The Nature ConservancyColorado
• Wright Water Engineers
Becky Mitchell, the State of Colorado's Colorado River Commissioner, stands with Lorelei Cloud as Cloud accepts Water Education Colorado's 2024 Greg Hobbs Next Wave Leadership Award.
A Confluence
Water issues abound. How Coloradans are handling these challenges, together.
Waterton Canyon near Denver, Colorado
Forging a Future
Basin roundtables create a space for water users to collaborate and commune.
BY CAITLIN COLEMAN
How does this sound: Discussions on water management issues, as well as locally driven collaborative solutions to water supply challenges.
Important?
The Colorado legislature thought so. That’s why in 2005, they passed the Colorado Water for the 21st Century Act, which established a few stakeholder groups, including nine permanent basin roundtables across the state to do just that.
They’re, by statute, designed to represent various interests, broadening the range of stakeholders who have a voice in Colorado’s water decisions. They are geographically oriented in each of the state's eight major river basins and the Denver metropolitan area. While anyone is welcome to attend and participate, there are formal seats established by legislation.
For each roundtable, volunteer members serve for five-year terms. The group includes an appointee from each city and county, a municipal appointment, a member from each water conservation/conservancy district and one legislatively appointed seat. There are also 10 at-large members appointed by the roundtable to represent environmental, agricultural, recreational and industrial users, as well as domestic water providers. Additionally, each roundtable includes
Nine basin roundtables represent each of Colorado's major river basins and the Denver metropolitan area. On each roundtable, water users representing various interests come together to make decisions about water policy, priorities and funding.
three established non-voting members representing entities who own water within the basin but live outside of it, as well as a governor-appointed non-voting Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) director. Confused? The CWCB offers a new guide to explain the roles of the agency, the roundtables and others. Find it at engagecwcb.org/cwcb-guide.
THE WORK OF THE BASIN ROUNDTABLES TODAY
Basin roundtable members come together regularly to discuss and make decisions about water policy, grant and loan funding, priorities and more. Their work, in part, lies in this convening, where relationships and friendships have been forged and neighbors continue to learn about each others values.
“The roundtables create a space where different water users that are worried about water for their farm, stream or city can find common ground,” says CWCB’s regional water coordinator, Jeff Rodriguez. “Sharing those perspectives and building collaboration is the bedrock of tackling the state’s water challenges,” he says.
While that relationship building is critical to the state’s water future, each basin roundtable also prioritizes projects
to help meet water needs. The roundtables recommend projects for funding through the CWCB’s Water Supply Reserve Fund (WSRF) Grants and Colorado Water Plan Grants. And each roundtable also conducts public education and outreach work.
Basin roundtables primarily operate locally, but they’re part of something bigger.
“ Sharing ... perspectives and building collaboration is the bedrock of tackling the state’s water challenges.”
—Jeff Rodriguez, Colorado Water Conservation Board
Whether through local discussion, pushing forward thoughtful WSRF applications, community water education, or crossbasin discussions, basin roundtables help set a shared statewide vision for meeting Colorado’s water challenges.
The roundtables contribute to the water plan by each completing a Basin Implementation Plan (BIP). These BIPs summarize regional challenges, priorities to address and strategies to overcome them, and ultimately feed into the Colorado Water Plan.
DOING THE WORK
The basin roundtables’ work plays a critical role in the Colorado Water Plan. The plan calls for Coloradans to work together to address water challenges and manage risk in order to sustain a robust economy and way of life. Just some of the risks and needs outlined in the plan include:
230-740K
Acre-feet of additional water per year could be needed across the state by 2050.
4.2 °
Colorado’s average temperature could rise by more than 4.2° Fahrenheit by 2050. Climate change is upping water demands.
300K
Acre-feet of water needs per year could be reduced through water conservation and efficiency efforts.
$1.5 BILLION
In funding is needed to support local water projects by 2050 to meet future water needs, optimize conservation and development, and implement the tools in the water plan.
“The basin roundtables play a critical role in shaping the Colorado Water Plan by bringing together a diverse set of voices from around the state to address regional water needs and solutions,” says CWCB Water Supply Planning Section Chief Russ Sands. “The collaboration from the roundtables brings local perspective to state discussions, but it also helps set the tone for the many local water policy discussions that play out every day across Colorado communities.”
GET INVOLVED
You don’t have to be a member to attend a basin roundtable meeting. Anyone can show up and speak up!
A meeting schedule is posted on the CWCB website. There, you will also find minutes and recordings of previous meetings. Or dig a little deeper, many of the roundtables have a website where you can find the same information on roundtable meetings, committee meetings, and contact information to learn more
“ The collaboration ... helps set the tone for the many local water policy discussions that play out every day across Colorado communities .” —Russ Sands,
Colorado Water Conservation Board
about the roundtables or inquire about getting involved.
Of course roundtables aren’t the only way to get involved and to learn about water decision making. In addition to basin roundtable meetings, check out water or irrigation district meetings, city council or county commission meetings, monthly Water Conditions Monitoring Committee meetings, or state CWCB board meetings, legislative hearings and committee meetings, and more.
Visit https://cwcb.colorado.gov/about-us/ basin-roundtables to learn more.
Jose Valdez plants watermelon seedlings on farmland in Rocky Ford, Colorado, in the Arkansas River Basin.
Around The State: Reporting From Colorado's Major Watersheds
ARKANSAS RIVER BASIN
According to Fresh Water News, Arkansas Valley water districts and Aurora plan to open talks as soon as December aimed at providing aid to the Arkansas Valley to offset the impact of a controversial, largescale water purchase by Aurora that will periodically dry up thousands of acres of farmland. This follows a hard-fought 2003 agreement among water players in the valley, Aurora, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, among others. While the agreement is not set to expire until 2047, valley water districts and Aurora have agreed to reopen the pact early to find ways to compensate the valley for the new loss of farm water. These recent challenges erupted this spring, after Aurora announced its $80 million purchase of more than 5,000 acres of farmland and the water used to farm the land in Otero County.
COLORADO RIVER BASIN
Fresh Water News reports that the Colorado River Water Conservation District, along with more than 20 partners, is working to raise $99 million to buy the Shoshone Hydroelectric Plant’s water rights from Xcel Energy. The plant is located in Glenwood Canyon, and its water rights are among the largest and most senior on the mainstem of the Colorado River. Many agree that sustaining these flows is critical to downstream agricultural communities, endangered fish species, recreation and drinking water. Upon purchasing the rights, the aim is to protect them with an instream flow water right when not being used to produce electricity.
As of late October, the River District and partners had secured $56 million, more than half of the funding needed for the purchase. Still, securing federal funding is key, and six members of Colorado’s congressional delegation have come out in support of the effort. Another possible
hurdle remains: Northern Water and other Front Range water providers have raised concerns about the project.
GUNNISON RIVER BASIN
In September, U.S. Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper introduced the Gunnison Outdoor Resources Protection Act (GORP). The GORP Act is one of the most ambitious Colorado public land bills and would provide increased protection for more than 730,000 acres in the Gunnison River Basin — that's more than a third of the 1.7 million acres of federal land in Gunnison County. The Denver Post reports that supporters say these protections are needed as the county manages increased visitation and development along with drought and climate change.
NORTH PLATTE RIVER BASIN
Work is underway to enlarge Hunter Reservoir in Jackson County. This CWCB-funded design and construction project — with $120,000 in CWCB funds approved in March 2024 — will expand water storage space.
RIO GRANDE BASIN
Fresh Water News reports that four years after a high-profile dam restoration project was completed in the scenic headwaters of the Rio Grande, environmentalists argue that promises to deliver water for fish during the winter and other recreational benefits have not been met. The Rio Grande Reservoir Project, owned and operated by the San Luis Valley Irrigation District, was funded by state loans and public grants provided by the Colorado Water Conservation Board. Local environmentalists say the project likely would not have been funded without assurances that it would be operated to help the river, including releasing water in the winter.
SAN JUAN/DOLORES RIVER BASIN
Colorado voters approved sports betting, both at casinos and online, by a narrow margin in 2019 which authorized the State of Colorado to levy a 10% tax on sports betting and to use most of the money to fund Colorado water projects. Fresh Water News reports that the Southern Ute Indian Tribe is now suing Gov. Jared Polis and the director of the Colorado Division of Gaming, saying the administration is illegally freezing tribes out of the online sports betting market.
SOUTH PLATTE RIVER BASIN
More than a quarter of a billion federal dollars are flowing into ecosystem restoration and floodplain management along the South Platte River, reports the Denver Post. The Denver City Council recently created a committee dedicated to establishing the river as an asset rather than a barrier to urban growth. This will include new residential and commercial developments — such as the River Mile development, slated to replace Elitch Gardens — along with river restoration projects. Local leaders see the creation of this new South Platte River Committee as a huge step for the city.
YAMPA/WHITE/GREEN RIVER BASIN
The second season of the Yampa River Ambassador program enabled educational contacts with 2,776 river users from June 1 through Labor Day weekend in 2024, according to the Steamboat Pilot. The program is run by the nonprofit Friends of the Yampa and funded by Steamboat Springs in an effort to educate the public about the importance of the river and to foster respect.
Sidney Barbier
BY ELIZABETH MILLER
Aspen Snowmass Wilderness Area
COLORADO WATER LAW
The principle governing Colorado water use comes down to what’s commonly called “first in time, first in right,” or prior appropriation. The system arose during settlement and the Gold Rush, promising people who put water to “beneficial use” — mining, farming, raising livestock or supplying communities — that if new users moved in, their water couldn’t be cut off. That water right is considered a legal property right to use a maximum amount of a public resource, whether surface or groundwater.
In times of short supply, court-decreed water rights with earlier dates (senior rights) can use water before rights with later dates (junior rights). The Colorado Division of Water Resources (DWR) administers water rights — satisfying senior users first and, where necessary, curtailing junior or undecreed uses. Since 1879, disputes about water right priority dates and amounts have been settled by Colorado water courts. There are seven water divisions in Colorado, based on the state’s watersheds, with a water court and a DWR division engineer in each.
Through water court, water rights can also change locations and types of use as long as that change will not "injure" water rights held by others. Injury to water rights occurs when an action may cause a water right holder to lose water in the amount, time or place they're entitled to use it. The law also allows for water rights to be abandoned. So, if a water right is not being used, it is subject to consideration for abandonment.
Over the decades, state lawmakers have officially recognized new “beneficial uses,” including in-channel water for recreation and instream flows for the environment. Only the Colorado Water Conservation Board can hold rights for instream flows, and only government entities can hold recreational diversion rights. Across Colorado, 28 riverside communities have secured at least conditional water rights for flows that allow for recreation, often accompanying a whitewater park. In 2022, after nine years of work, Glenwood Springs was awarded Colorado's most recent recreational in-channel diversion to construct a boating park.
Exemptions
Even though Colorado’s “first in time, first in right” priority system is the foundation of water allocation in the state, there are several exemptions that allow water users to operate outside this system. These exemptions allow certain water uses despite potential impacts on senior water rights.
The most common exemption is the exempt well, which allows property owners that don’t have other water supply options and meet certain conditions, to obtain water supply for household uses. Other exemptions include fire suppression ponds, livestock water tanks, rain collection barrels, and minor stream restoration activities. Each of these has distinct conditions and regulations. For example, livestock water tanks must be registered with the Colorado Division of Water Resources and are only allowed on streams that are “normally dry.”
Number of natural lakes, in addition to 9,700 stream miles, that are protected with instream flow water rights or natural lake level water rights held by the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
The most recent exemption was approved with Senate Bill 23-270. It exempts minor stream restoration activities, including projects designed to stabilize banks, provided that the activity does not raise the water level above the ordinary high-water mark.
“Understanding these exemptions is important for water users to make sure that they comply and take advantage of opportunities without violating senior water rights,” says Jason Ullmann, Colorado's State Engineer.
Glenwood Springs, Colorado
WHERE YOUR WATER COMES FROM
Water loops through the world in a cycle likely familiar from a grade school science lesson: Transpiration from trees and evaporation from surface water rises and condenses into clouds, producing precipitation. Precipitation accumulates into snowpack, then melts into streams, rivers and aquifers. Surface water is positioned to evaporate and be released into the sky again. What people might forget is that it’s a closed cycle: “The amount of water is the same, always, it just moves to different places,” says Melissa Clutter, an assistant professor of geosciences at Fort Lewis College. In Colorado, the amount of water available is rarely enough to meet all demands. The Colorado Water Plan provides a framework for helping Coloradans meet water challenges. According to the water plan, Colorado communities could need 230,000-740,000 acre-feet of additional water per year by 2050.
As water flows downstream, it carries sediment, nutrients, pollutants and other debris, which can affect water quality. A watershed is defined by an area of land where water flows through a network of drainages to a collection point like a stream, river or lake, which pools the water and everything it carries.
That means the health of forests matters to everyone downstream. As Jonathan Paklaian, executive director of the Arkansas River Watershed Collaborative puts it, “Our forest health is also our watershed health.”
Any problems for the forests, like wildfires and insect infestations that change how a forest stores snow and how water runs off become problems for water supply and quality. Making a difference for water means thinking on the scale that it flows — far downstream and across jurisdictions.
In a healthy watershed, water soaks into the ground and moves slowly through it or, in the case of snow, melts gradually out from under a thick canopy of trees. But when trees die or are burned in a wildfire, water and snow wash off quickly. Erosion cuts into more soil, and sediment washes downstream, along with wildfire ash and debris, which can clog infrastructure and pollute the water supply.
A history of suppressing wildfire has left forests thick with “fuels.” Add climate change’s warmer and drier weather, and the results are bigger, more frequent fires. Now the race is on to protect forests — and water — from catastrophic wildfire.
Source water protection now ranks as the top concern for water professionals, according to the American Water Works Association’s 2024 State of the Water Industry Report. This year, that issue surpassed concern about aging infrastructure for the first time in the report’s 20-year history.
“If we don’t have safe and reliable sources, we don’t have the ability to support public health,” Raven Lawson, AWWA Source Water Protection Committee chair, said in a press release about the report. About 60% of water utilities are implementing or creating source water protection plans according to the survey.
The Colorado Water Conservation Board's (CWCB) Wildfire Ready Watersheds program is helping communities plan for wildfire and take measures to mitigate before they begin. Through the program, communities can receive grant funding to craft a Wildfire Ready Action Plan. Plans incorporate local data and values in order to identify and rank risks.
Going Underground
Water managers have been looking underground for water storage, recharging what can effectively become evaporation-proof reservoirs. They are exploring what’s called aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) where water is injected into aquifers during wet
years and stored to use during dry years. ¶ “It doesn’t replace reservoir storage, it doesn’t replace conservation, it’s another tool in addition to those,” says Rachel Pence, who heads ASR efforts for Denver Water. ¶ Denver Water completed a project in 2022 investigating the productivity of two aquifers under the city and county for this technology. The next step is to drill wells, one in each aquifer, and test how they perform, monitoring for chang-
es in water quality after storage, to better understand whether to pursue this approach on a larger scale. One of the beauties of this technology, Pence adds, is that these systems can be built incrementally, as needed or as capital investment funds are available without spiking water rates for customers. The utility may decide this isn’t a good solution, she says, but adds, “The chance of it not making sense at all is pretty low.”
Twin Lakes, Colorado
Linking the Past and Present
1. Precipitation and Snowpack Snowpack accumulates on the ground, building in the mountains each winter. About 80% of Colorado's population relies on forested watersheds for municipal water, while the other 20%, relies heavily on well water.
2. Runoff and Flows As snowpack melts, it runs into streams and rivers, or soaks into soil to water trees and fill lakes, reservoirs and aquifers. Colorado is considered a headwaters state because its rivers provide water to 18 other U.S. states and Mexico.
3. Storage and Conveyances Infrastructure moves water from its source to deliver it where and when it is needed. Conveyances such as pipes, ditches and tunnels channel water into reservoirs, aquifers, ponds and other storage facilities to hold until it is needed or straight to its point of use.
4. Municipal Treatment, Delivery and Reuse Before it goes out through a muncipal distribution system, water is treated to meet health standards set through regulations like the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. Treated clean water is pumped to homes and businesses, then it makes its way through plumbing systems to the tap.
After it is used and flushed down the drain, most wastewater is conveyed to a wastewater treatment plant where it is treated to meet water quality control standards guided by the Clean Water Act. Treated water is reintroduced into local rivers and sent downstream for other communities to use. Some communities, and even individual homes, employ reuse systems where reclaimed water is purified further and piped back to customers.
5. Return Flow In most irrigation systems, crops consume a portion of the water applied to the field and unused water becomes a return flow, returning back to rivers or shallow aquifers after it is used. Downstream water users rely on return flows to meet their needs.
What happens in the headwaters impacts farms and cities downstream and across time, linking activities from decades ago to the present. The current project for the Arkansas River Watershed Collaborative addresses both.
High in the Arkansas River headwaters is California Gulch, a Superfund site left from mining near Leadville in the 1860s. There, little streams gather and supply Twin Lakes and Turquoise Lake.
The watershed collaborative's project will forward watershed health at California Gulch through forestry and fire mitigation. The collaborative will also reclaim mine sites, mitigating buried waste rock that leaches metals and acidity into waterways.
“All those things are great on their own but in that particular area, they work together to make an even stronger project,” says Jonathan Paklaian, director of the collaborative. Old metal tube culverts that easily clog will be replaced with wider, more flood-resilient and natural-bottom culverts so fish can travel through them. In patches of contaminated ground where vegetation will not grow, soil amendments will try to convince plants to sprout.
The U.S. Forest Service, Trout Unlimited, and Lake County government have partnered for the five-year, $8 million project. 80%
Amount of Colorado’s precipitation that falls on the West Slope — most comes in the form of snow — yet about 90% of Colorado’s population lives east of the Continental Divide.
COMPACTS
Turn on the tap, and the water flows. Little about that reliable delivery betrays the interconnected systems at play. As Jason Ullmann, Colorado’s State Engineer sees it, interstate and international agreements with 18 downriver states and Mexico govern when that water is available.
For Colorado, nine interstate compacts, two U.S. Supreme Court decrees, and two international treaties govern water use. These compacts are essentially treaties between states that Congress ratified. Colorado isn’t a direct party to the treaties with Mexico, but international agreements do drive decisions for Colorado's compacts, Ullmann says. Each compact is specific to a river basin and each is different in how it apportions water. Most are decades old.
“Overall, they’ve held up fairly well,” Ullmann says. “Many of them were drafted with foresight and flexibility that allow them to stand the test of time.”
They also, usefully, created commissions with latitude to interpret and adjust without violating their basic provisions, and even recognize the basic reality that streamflow varies from year to year.
Take the Rio Grande Compact, which relies on gauges along the river’s headwaters to determine the amount of water that has to flow past the New Mexico state line — it’s a percentage of the total annual river flow high in the basin, rather than a set amount.
Still, climate change and ongoing drought are making a tight system tighter.
“The supply and demand imbalance that’s occurring in pretty much all of the West is resulting in challenges in all of our compacts, and that challenge is making sure we comply with them,” Ullmann says.
In the Rio Grande Basin, snowpack has been below average for almost every year of the past 25 years. Even when that basin does see average or above average snowpack, the river flows don’t reflect those numbers: This season, despite 105% of average snowpack in April, mainstem flows were just 75% of normal.
Constraints do appear: on the South Platte, the compact requires a summer flow of 120 cubic feet per second into Nebraska. Sometimes, even with curtailments, there isn’t enough water to raise flows to 120 cfs, but as long as Colorado curtails water rights appropriated before 1897 in the lower portion of the river, the state is considered in compliance with the compact.
Though challenging, Colorado hasn’t yet missed the mark. “We’ve always complied with the compacts in all the basins,” Ullmann says, “which is I guess a point of pride.”
Negotiating on the Colorado River
The “Law of the Colorado River” centers on a compact, set in 1922, and a series of newer, layered agreements, laws, and other actions that regulate water in the basin among the basin states and Mexico. The states are divided into an Upper Basin — Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah — and Lower Basin — Arizona, Nevada and California.
The 1922 compact apportioned to both basins the right to consume 7.5 million acre-feet of water from the river and its tributaries annually. It contains a requirement that the Upper Basin can't deplete flows at Lee Ferry, Arizona below 75 million acre-feet over any 10-year period. But total consumptive use allocated under the compact now exceeds the river's average annual flow.
The number of U.S. states who, along with Mexico, are allocated water from rivers that begin in Colorado through one of nine interstate compacts, two equitable apportionment decrees, and two international treaties.
Currently, negotiators from the basin states, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, environmental interests and tribes are working to develop new operating guidelines for the river’s two major reservoirs, lakes Powell and Mead. Existing guidelines expire in 2026, and have allowed flexibility for operations under dry conditions. The goal is to adopt new guidelines that satisfy all interests before 2026.
The Conejos River (right) joins the Rio Grande on the 3,200-acre Cross Arrow Ranch southeast of Alamosa, Colorado.
Water Compacts at a Glance
INTERSTATE COMPACTS
■ South Platte River Compact (1923) Divides the waters of the South Platte River between Colorado and Nebraska.
■ Republican River Compact (1942) Divides the waters of the Republican River Basin between Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska.
■ Arkansas River Compact (1948) Divides the waters of the river between Colorado and Kansas.
■ Costilla Creek Compact (1944, revised 1963) Establishes uses, allocations and administration of the waters of Costilla Creek in Colorado and New Mexico. The 1963 amendment reallocated water between two ditches on the Costilla Creek system, and made other minor adjustments to the compact.
■ Rio Grande Compact (1938) Allocates the flow of the Rio Grande between the states of Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas; sets forth system of debits and credits and rules to account for fluctuations in streamflow. In Colorado, flows are delivered from the Rio Grande and Conejos River separately.
■ Colorado River Compact (1922)
The compact apportions to both the upper basin and the lower basin the exclusive beneficial consumptive use of 7.5 million acre-feet of water per year in perpetuity, and permits the lower basin to develop an additional 1 million acre-feet annually.
■ Upper Colorado River Compact (1948) Apportions a percentage of consumptive use from available river water to each upper basin state as follows: Arizona, 50,000 acrefeet each year; Colorado, 51.75 percent; Utah, 23 percent; Wyoming, 14 percent; and New Mexico, 11.25 percent.
■ La Plata River Compact (1922) Grants Colorado and New Mexico use of the river.
■ Animas-La Plata Project Compact (1968) Addresses a water project rather than dividing river waters, the compact gives New Mexico and Colorado equal priority in rights to store and divert project water.
INTERNATIONAL TREATIES
Mexican Treaty on the Rio Grande, Tijuana and Colorado Rivers (1944) Guarantees delivery of 1.5 million acre-feet of Colorado River water per year to Mexico except in times of extraordinary drought when the United States can reduce deliveries in the same proportion as the United States cuts its consumptive use. The treaty also addresses Mexico’s right to Rio Grande water.
Convention with Mexico on the Rio Grande above Fort Quitman, Texas (1906) Requires that the United States deliver 60,000 acrefeet of water annually at the International Dam at Ciudad Juarez except during periods of extraordinary drought.
PACIFIC OCEAN
GULF OF CALIFORNIA
Rio Grande Basin
Colorado River Basin
La Plata River Basin
Costilla Creek Basin
Platte River Basin
Republican River Basin
Arkansas River Basin
GULF OF MEXICO
HEALTH & ENVIRONMENT
Divisions Defined
Federal regulations ... like the Safe Drinking Water Act set water quality standards for municipal treatment and delivery systems to meet in order to keep tap water safe. The Clean Water Act and other water quality control laws aim to keep water safe from contaminants by setting standards for wastewater treatment systems and others who discharge to streams.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s (CDPHE) Water Quality Control Division monitors and reports on water quality for state waters, ensuring both surface and groundwater are protected for people, aquatic life, agriculture and recreation, and that utilities provide safe drinking water. The department investigates spills and issues permits and violations for both state and federal regulations.
The Colorado Division of Water Resources ... focuses on water quantity, administering water rights, issuing well permits, monitoring streamflows, and making decisions on dam storage levels and repair or construction plans for roughly 1,800 dams in the state.
Colorado’s Public and Environmental Health Improvement Plan for 2024 — the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s (CDPHE) priority issues to tackle — listed two emerging water-focused concerns: PFAS, and harmful algal blooms.
“New evidence suggests some of these contaminants may not be regulated at levels that protect health,” the plan states.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, include several thousand man-made chemicals used in various consumer products and industrial applications since the 1940s. Only in the last 10 to 15 years have researchers begun to understand their human health risks. These “forever chemicals” persist in the environment and in human bodies for years after exposure, leading to health concerns with cardiovascular, immune and reproductive systems.
After water providers began detecting PFAS in drinking water, the state conducted widespread sampling to assess where PFAS are found and passed legislation to reduce the chemicals' presence in consumer products and thus pathways into waterways. Firefighting foam containing PFAS, which can leach into groundwater, has also been banned. Earlier this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency set new drinking water limits for PFAS, which will compel new actions from water utilities to reduce human exposure.
Colorado is also seeing harmful algal blooms that produce toxins and can sicken people or pets in some lakes and reservoirs. These blooms may look like thick pea soup or spilled blue-green paint.
Climate change could cause these algal blooms to occur more often, or at greater intensity, as temperatures and drought conditions increase. Blue-green algae thrives in warm, slow-moving water, according to the U.S. EPA, so as climate
Colorado established nation-leading protections for wetlands and intermittent streams after a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling found that the federal Clean Water Act did not apply to those waterbodies. Most of Colorado’s stream miles are intermittent or ephemeral, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s (CDPHE) Water
Quality Control Division, but the court ruling left no agency with the authority to issue permits or enforce violations when, say, a road construction project harmed a wetland. Dredge, fill and excavation work have altered or eliminated about half of Colorado’s wetlands since statehood, according to the Colorado Wetland Information Center. ¶ In May, state lawmakers approved HB 24-1379, to firm up a system of state-issued permits for dredge and fill activities through CDPHE and formally protect wetlands and ephemeral streams.
The number of stream management plans and integrated water management plans that have been completed or are in progress across Colorado. These plans assess and strategize how to improve or maintain healthy river ecosystems, recreation and other water needs.
Colorado Leads in Wetland Protection
change increases water temperatures, the magnitude and duration of harmful algal blooms is expected to rise as well. These blooms are caused by excessive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous. At high levels, these nutrients can cause algae to grow faster than ecosystems can handle. Blooms produce elevated toxins and bacterial growth that can make people and animals sick if they contact or drink the water. Algal blooms also reduce oxygen levels in water, killing fish and aquatic life.
CDPHE and wastewater facilities in Colorado are implementing a longterm plan to reduce those nitrogen and phosphorous levels. The first phase of the plan incentivizes nutrient reductions and is expected to be completed by 2027. After 2027, CDPHE may develop numerical water quality limits. Point source pollution for these nutrients can include municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants, concentrated animal feeding operations, and storm sewer systems, but runoff that carries fertilizer from agricultural fields and residential lawns can also cause nitrogen and phosphorous levels to spike.
Colorado public health officials have sought to reduce the chance of overloading water systems with nutrients by establishing treatment requirements for stormwater and for wastewater dischargers based on available technology and with exceptions for disadvantaged communities. CDPHE also encourages voluntary controls of nonpoint sources, according to Colorado’s Nutrient Management Plan.
In thinking broadly about ecosystem health, stakeholders have developed a few tools to assess risks, prioritize, and take action to address them. Stream management plans use science and assessments to analyze holistic river health and recreation. Integrated water management plans (IWMPs) include more stakeholders and focus on a wider array of needs. By focusing more on water users and values, IWMPs often look at solutions that meet comunity needs in addition to river needs. Watershed plans work more broadly than IWMPs to focus on watershed health and mitigating risk to water users, often from fires or floods.
This year, the Town of Windsor deployed a high-tech solution to deter the algal blooms that have shut down its namesake lake repeatedly since 2019. Four new buoys now floating in the lake emit ultrasonic waves to disrupt algae moving through the water column, trying to sink it and deprive it of sunlight and nutrients.
Still, on July 3, town officials announced they’d have to close the lake to water skiing, tubing, swimming and other recreational activities for the July 4 holiday after CDPHE confirmed harmful algal blooms. The lake reopened a week later on July 10. It was the second time this summer the lake had to close.
Streamlining Restoration Together
In 2023, the Colorado Legislature passed a law that declared functioning natural streams “beneficial to all Coloradans” and supporting stream restoration projects around the state. But the law had to be translated to practical, achievable changes — and fit within a variable climate and an over-appropriated system.
To close the gap between ideas and actions, Abby Burk, senior manager of the Western Rivers Program for Audubon Rockies, has helped facilitate workshops that have reached as many as 1,100 people around the state over the past year. Attendees have included staff from nonprofits, local and state agencies, watershed groups, funders, as well as practitioners and academics.
“Everyone can agree — did agree — that we want healthy, functioning streams, but how we do that was the issue,” Burk says.
When this works, it can lead to wildfire resilience, drought resilience, flood safety, water quality, recreation, and immense biodiversity benefits. But each stream faces a unique set of stressors, so while the end goals might be similar, every project looks different. And all of it has to be achieved within the constraints of meeting existing water users’ demands.
The law spelled out six minor stream restoration activities. The criteria “really does help minimize rifts with downstream water users,” Burk says, “but the key is that folks need to know how to operate within the law.”
Working with a river restoration engineer and a land and water attorney these trainings have talked people through the law and best practices. In June, trainers hosted a workshop that included a day at project sites near Carbondale. At least 100 attendees joined in-person, and dozens more tuned in virtually. The aim was to learn, Burk says, but it was also to connect people interested in working on these projects.
Independent journalist Elizabeth Miller has written about environmental issues around the American West for publications including The Washington Post, Scientific American, Outside, Backpacker and The Drake.
Kayakers surrounded by blue-green algae
Windsor Lake
FROM LEFT: ISTOCK; COURTESY OF THE TOWN OF WINDSOR
MYTHS FACTS VS.
Key
Water Trends You Should Know, and the Realities and Misconceptions That Surround Them
BY EMILY PAYNE
“Every rural community in the West is grappling right now … Asking the questions, how do we want to grow, and what are we going to do about it? How do we want to protect our resources?” says Kristie Nackord, vice president of external affairs at the Palmer Land Conservancy.
The 2023 Colorado Water Plan aimed to promote informed and collaborative answers to these questions about water resources at the local level. The Colorado Water Conservation Board focused the 254-page document on four interconnected action areas: vibrant communities, robust agriculture, thriving watersheds, and resilient planning. And today, these themes are showing up within major trends across sectors.
Groups are collaborating throughout Colorado to develop win-win water solutions, keep water affordable, preserve important ecosystems and farmland, and decouple population growth from water use.
Can boaters and anglers actually coexist? Turn to page 26 to find out.
several years — exposes the soil to erosion. This can create dust which impacts snowpack and runoff, worsens air quality, and exacerbates weeds, says Wertz.
Meanwhile, irrigated agriculture is supporting Colorado’s wetlands and healthy landscapes, says Wertz. According to a 2012 Colorado State University study, 92% of the total wetland area of Northern Colorado is the result of water seeping from irrigation infrastructure. Increasing irrigation efficiencies could result in as much as a 50% decrease in wetland area.
Arkansas Valley projects are focusing on win-win water-sharing agreements to meet the needs of both farms and municipalities. For example, the Lower Arkansas Water Management Association provides water for Colorado Springs municipal use in five of every 10 years, while farmers in the Las Animas and Lamar areas take excess water during the other 5 years. The project, launched in 2016, was the state’s first formal water-sharing agreement between a well augmentation company and a municipal water provider.
If Recent Trends Continue, Another 400,000 Acres of Colorado Farmland Could be Lost by 2040.
If recent trends continue, 400,000 to 500,000 acres of Colorado’s irrigated farmland and ranchland could be lost by 2040, according to the 2023 Colorado Water Plan.
Factors including development, economic pressures, severe drought, climate change, and water availability are contributing to this farmland loss.
“Impacts to rural agricultural sectors — a cornerstone of Colorado’s economy — will reduce local ability to produce food, plant material and related positive environmental benefits, and impart serious economic loss to communities in rural Colorado, should the status quo continue,” says Dan Keppen, Executive Director of the Family Farm Alliance.
Losing agricultural land is occurring across the country. It is not only a food security and rural community concern but it can also have negative environmental impacts. “Conversion of agricultural land to commercial or residential uses is the biggest threat to healthy biodiversity in Colorado,” says Louis Wertz, communications director at the Western Landowners Alliance.
Abandoning farmland or leaving fields to fallow — meaning they are unseeded for one or
LOSING AGRICULTURAL LAND IS NOT ONLY A FOOD SECURITY AND RURAL COMMUNITY CONCERN BUT IT CAN ALSO HAVE NEGATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS.
Other water-sharing projects have helped support young and beginning farmers. In 2022, Colorado Springs Utilities purchased water from Bent County farmers Mark and Caleb Wertz, who used funds from the deal to purchase land and install center pivots on previously flood-irrigated fields. Water previously used for corners of their fields that the new pivots do not reach was acquired for growing municipal needs, while allowing the young farmers to continue their family’s legacy of more than a century of farming in the valley.
MYTH!
product rebates, among other educational tools and incentives.
Growing Populations
Mean More Water Use.
Denver Water serves 25% of the state’s population, about 1.5 million residents. Today, the utility is using as much water as it did in the 1970s, despite its service area growing by about 500,000 people. According to the utility, per capita water use has dropped by 35% since 2000.
This reflects a larger trend: A 2022 paper published in the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management surveyed 28 utilities reliant on Colorado River water and found that more than half have substantially decoupled their water demands from population growth, greatly reducing their per capita water use.
Fort Collins Utilities, which has seen a 35% reduction in per-person water use since 2000, attributes this to successful conservation and efficiency programs. The utility provides Coloradoscaping resources, sprinkler efficiency evaluation services, and high-efficiency
Communities are also reducing water use by moving away from Kentucky bluegrass, a popular perennial lawn grass that requires 50% to 80% more water than native species. For example, in 2020, the Eagle River Water and Sanitation District in Vail began offering rebates of $1 per square foot to customers willing to replace grass lawns with landscapes that
use less water. In 2022, the Aurora City Council banned the use of “cool-weather” turf grasses, including bluegrass, in all new home developments and golf courses.
At the state level, Colorado legislators passed a 2022 bill that delivered $2 million to programs to remove "nonfunctional" turf in areas where grass is primarily decorative and not used for recreation. This year, the legislature again appropriated funds for turf grass removal. In 2024, legislators also passed a new law prohibiting the installation of nonfunctional turf on most commercial, industrial and state government property.
But, turf removal alone
doesn't save water, said Jenna Battson, the Colorado Water Conservation Board's outdoor water conservation coordinator, during a talk in October at the Sustaining Colorado Watersheds Conference. Turf removal has to be paired with proper irrigation to save water, she says, and transformative landscape change will come from a combination of many programs and strategies.
Those working in water argue that education is critical for developing win-win solutions that provide clean, affordable water to Colorado’s growing urban areas while also protecting rural communities, and riparian ecosystems.
IN 2020, THE EAGLE RIVER WATER AND SANITATION DISTRICT IN VAIL BEGAN OFFERING REBATES OF $1 PER SQUARE FOOT TO CUSTOMERS WILLING TO REPLACE GRASS LAWNS WITH LANDSCAPES THAT USE LESS WATER.
MYTH!
Boaters and Fishermen Cannot Coexist.
TREND: WORKING ACROSS DIVIDES
There's a misconception that different water users can't get along — that agricultural interests and municipal interests are at odds, as are rafters and anglers. But water users in the Arkansas River Basin, home to one of the country's most popular rafting destinations and valuable agricultural economies, provide some of the most successful examples of cross-sector collaboration.
Since 1991, the Voluntary Flow Management Program (VFMP) — a partnership among the Arkansas River Outfitters Association, Chaffee County, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, and Trout Unlimited — has been dispelling the common myth that boaters and fishermen cannot coexist.
From July 1 to August 15, VFMP provides a flow rate that is ideal for rafting during the height of the rafting season. In the spring, reduced and stabilized flows pro-
mote trout rearing and incubation. And in late summer and fall, water managers seek to release flows that support both spawning and the fishing experience for anglers. In ramping flows up and down, the VFMP aims to limit dramatic fluctuations in flow volume and meet multiple needs on the river while supporting a healthy ecosystem.
“Partnerships between communities, municipalities, water
utilities, and conservation partners … this is what is needed in Colorado,” says Kristie Nackord with Palmer Land Conservancy.
In 2020, Palmer Land Conservancy, alongside farmers, elected officials, nonprofits, funders, and others formed a coalition to create a community conservation strategy, the Bessemer Farmland Conservation Project. The project balances water needs in Pueblo County.
Nearly one-third of Bessemer Ditch water, a 40-mile irrigation canal that supplies water to farm 20,000 acres, is now owned by a municipality. Currently, the water is leased back to farmers to meet the region’s agricultural
THE
needs, but as municipal water needs grow, farmland could be dried up.
“When water leaves a community, there is an economic disparity that happens,” says Nackord.
To prevent disaster, the coalition won a provision in Colorado’s Division 2 District Court allowing water to be transferred from less productive farms to more productive farms — a move that would previously have been illegal. Now, the community has a voluntary, market-based framework to protect the most productive farmland while the municipality receives the water it needs.
VOLUNTARY FLOW MANAGEMENT PROGRAM MANAGES WATER RELEASES TO MEET MULTIPLE NEEDS ON THE RIVER WHILE SUPPORTING A HEALTHY ECOSYSTEM.
FACT!
The Cost of Water is Increasing.
Both Denver Water and Aurora Water have increased their water rates by 4%-5% each year since 2022. This is a statewide and national trend: the Bluefield Research Annual Utility Rate Index found that from 2019–2023, the average water bill for 50 of the largest utilities across the U.S.
increased from $42.26 to $49.96, amounting to a 4.27% compound annual growth rate.
Utilities are faced with aging systems, inflation, rising costs for energy and chemicals, and climate stressors such as drought, flooding and other natural disasters.
FROM 2019–2023, THE AVERAGE WATER BILL FOR 50 OF THE LARGEST UTILITIES ACROSS THE U.S. INCREASED FROM $42.26 TO $49.96, AMOUNTING TO A 4.27% COMPOUND ANNUAL GROWTH RATE.
A number of utilities are also running programs to promote water equity for municipal users by reducing costs for income-restricted families.
For example, Fort Collins Utilities — serving about 35,000 customers in Fort Collins — provides a 25% rate reduction to customers who are at or below 60% of the state median income. The city-owned utility also partners with Larimer County Conservation Corps to offer free efficiency product installation for both homeowners and renters. Meanwhile, Aurora Water has a program to help families that are past due on their water bills with up to $500 in assistance once per year for up to four years.
“Take into account all of these factors, along with the historical underinvestment in water infrastructure, and many cities are left with no other choice but to raise rates,” says Charlie Suse, senior analyst at Bluefield Research.
The industry standard for setting water rates — followed by utilities across Colorado — is the cost-of-service methodology. This approach involves calculating the level of revenue required to properly operate infrastructure and maintain service, and then appropriately allocating the cost to various customer types (residential, commercial, industrial, etc.). In other words, each class of customer pays based on the cost that they create.
“Rates are required to be set at as low as good service will allow,” says Fletcher Davis, rates manager for Denver Water.
“Water equity is a growing theme in utilities’ capital planning documents and government funding mechanisms, particularly as cities increasingly assess utilities’ asset management through the lens of equity and environmental justice,” says Suse.
But many argue that systemic changes are needed to help keep water affordable for residents of Colorado: The American Water Works Association and other groups are advocating for the federal government to fund water assistance programs, such as permanently authorizing the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program, a more than $1 billion program established in 2020 to assist families struggling to pay water bills. H
Emily Payne is a writer covering the intersection of food, agriculture, health and climate. She is the editor of Food Tank.
WHO YOU GONNA CALL?
When it comes to knowing who to call and where to go for specific water concerns and questions, it can be overwhelming, given the different rules, regulations and geographic boundaries in Colorado. We've compiled some FAQs to help guide you to the right resources to ensure your questions and concerns about water quantity and quality are answered.
BY SIDNEY BARBIER
TESTING
Where do you go to get water tested?
It’s important to have clean, safe drinking water in your home. Whether you rely on a public water system or a private well, there are a handful of resources to test your drinking water.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment provides step-by-step instructions and a variety of test offerings — from fluoride to nutrients to metals and more — that homeowners can use to submit a water sample to the Colorado State Public Health Laboratory. Learn more at cdphe.colorado.gov.
Some water providers, water districts and counties also offer free water quality testing. For example, the Uncompahgre Watershed Partnership, Jefferson County, Adams County and others offer free well testing through the state lab. Need more info on well testing? Call the national Wellcare Hotline at 888-395-1033.
HOA
Who do you call if you have an HOA water-related question?
The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies has an HOA Information and Resource Center that can help consumers understand their basic rights and the responsibilities of an HOA. They can help guide and filter big-picture questions and help with filing a complaint. Learn more and contact them at dre.colorado.gov/hoa-center.
For specific HOA water questions that apply to your residence or property, reach directly out to your HOA property manager to settle any disputes.
... that legislation passed in 2023 says that an owners’ association cannot prohibit drought-tolerant landscaping? Did You Know?
INCIDENTS
Who do you call to report water quality incidents, spills or emergencies?
Call the Colorado Department of Public Health hotline at 1-877-518-5608. Make sure to have as much information about the incident as possible.
QUALITY
Who do you call if you want to know about drinking water quality in your municipality?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires community water systems to deliver a Consumer Confidence Report, or annual drinking water quality report, to their customers. These reports provide information about local drinking water. Access your water provider’s report on their website or search through all the water system reports in Colorado with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Safe Water Information Finder Tool, or SWIFT available at cdphe. colorado.gov/dwinfo. If you have concerns about your drinking water, reach out to your water system.
... the Mobile Home Park Water Quality Act created a drinking water testing program that launched across Colorado in July 2024. Did You Know?
USE
How do I report a neighbor's water use?
It depends where you get your water. Many local water utilities have their own methods for reporting water waste, whether by email, by phone or online app. Reach out to your local water provider if the water is coming through a public system.
If you believe that someone is diverting water out of priority, or using too much water, contact your local division office at the Colorado Division of Water Resources. Find contact info for your division office at dwr.colorado.gov/division-offices.
TURF REMOVAL
How do I get funding for turf replacement?
Funding for turf replacement is available in certain communities around the state. Find out if funding is available in your city or town, by contacting your water provider or municipality.
Legislation passed in 2022 provides funding for the Colorado Water Conservation Board's Turf Replacement Grant Program. Through the program, local governments, districts, nonprofits, and tribes can apply for state grants to fund turf replacement. Learn more about the program, apply and find a list of entities funded in 2023 at engagecwcb.org. H
Don't know who to contact? Reach out to Water Education Colorado. WEco is the leading organization for informing and engaging Coloradans on water issues. We work across the state and love to help make connections.
MEMBER'S CORNER
A Community Of People Who Care About Water
Our Members are Committed to Water Stewardship
This issue we’re spotlighting Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), which plays a pivotal role in safeguarding the state’s natural resources while engaging with communities across Colorado. As a proud WEco member for the past decade, CPW has found that this partnership strengthens its mission.
“Resources such as the WEco membership and Headwaters magazine are invaluable for CPW staff, keeping us informed and connected to the latest advancements in water management,” says CPW’s Water Resources Section Manager Robert Harris. “Our membership and partnership not only enhances CPW’s capabilities but also underscores our shared commitment to fostering responsible stewardship of Colorado’s water resources.”
With responsibility for managing 43 state parks, 19 fish hatcheries, and over 350 state wildlife areas, CPW stands out as one of Colorado’s most unique and geographically diverse water users. The partnership with WEco equips CPW staff with knowledge and skills but also reinforces their dedication to advocating for water rights and maintaining water quality for wildlife habitat.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s River Watch program conducts a training on electrofishing on August 7, 2022. River Watch empowers volunteers to collect water quality data across Colorado’s rivers and streams — enhancing scientific understanding and providing hands-on scientific learning.
Together, CPW and WEco are committed to ensuring a sustainable water future for all Coloradans. Thank you, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, for your invaluable WEco membership!
ENGAGE
Dive in to our diverse programming.
Find more information on our website.
A few ideas to pique your interest:
Consider joining the 2025 Water Leaders Program to gain effectiveness and influence. Applications will be open from November through January.
Are you an educator or outreach professional? Become an affiliate of the Water Educator Network for trainings, networking and collaborations. Visit wateredco.org/wen to sign up.
Make your voice heard! Visit our social media pages or craft a letter to the Fresh Water News editor to share your thoughts, opinions or experiences.
VOLUNTEER
We rely on our volunteers! Visit wateredco.org/volunteer:
Share your expertise and we’ll plug you in — as a blog contributor, a speaker, or a peer reviewer for publications.
Join a contact list to provide local support when we bring one of our programs to your area.
Be a WEco ambassador by sharing educational resources with your community.
Misson: IMPACT
Water Education Colorado is the leading organization for informing and engaging Coloradans on water. Through leadership training, educational resources, and programming, we are working toward a vibrant, sustainable and water-aware Colorado.
Number of 2024 Water Leaders Program graduates, with representation from six of Colorado’s eight major river basins. These grads join the ranks of 240+ Water Leaders alumni who are leading the state toward sustainable water solutions.
Your gift advances an engaged Colorado, leading to informed decisions and sustainable solutions.
Three ways to give:
Mark your calendars! Colorado Gives Day is Dec. 10, 2024. Celebrate with a charitable donation to support WEco at coloradogives.org.
WEco accepts charitable gifts of appreciated stock — you get double the tax benefit! Contact Lisa@wateredco.org.
Sponsor an upcoming program or event to showcase your organization’s support for water education. Visit wateredco.org/get-involved/ sponsorship-opportunities to learn more.
WATE R EDUCATION COLO R ADO .O R G
Publication of Water Education Colorado's Headwaters magazine is made possible by the generous support of sponsors and advertisers. We would like to extend our appreciation and thanks to these sponsors for contributing financially to this issue.
