From the Editor

The premise of this issue is that permitting water supply projects is necessary to balance impacts as Colorado’s water providers work to ensure sufficient supply for a growing population. While the following pages tell many stories of permitting, we don’t weigh the merit of the projects themselves—they’re the reason behind permitting, the “purpose and need” for this issue. Does Colorado need new, large water supply projects for its future? Many would say yes. But beyond localized impact, we should perhaps also be asking if proposed projects increase or decrease the big-picture risk to existing supplies. Are they sustainable?

The results from Phase III of the Colorado River Risk Study were rolled out in June. The study reveals a 45 percent chance that the Upper Colorado River Basin may not have enough water to meet its Colorado River Compact obligations over the next 25 years. That’s already high, but if we increase upper basin water use by just 11.5 percent, the risk doubles. Substantial Colorado River supplies are diverted east of the Continental Divide, so this impacts Coloradans across the state.

“There is an identified risk right now in the Colorado River Basin that we will at some point in the future have a problem with compact compliance,” says Anne Castle, a senior fellow at the Getches-Wilkinson Center at the University of Colorado. “As you add new demand to the system in the upper basin, that risk increases.” New demand could come in the shape of a new Colorado River project, intended to serve new development and growing population.

While permitting evaluates and mitigates many risks, it may not get at the risk of compact violation. “The permitting process at this point isn’t designed to consider that particular parameter,” Castle says. “It’s partly because we don’t have a terrific handle on it.” This new risk study provides some of the only data out there.

But proponents of new water projects today don’t all presume that raising a dam means they can divert more water for growth. For many, new projects are about reducing demand and risk. Plus, water providers aren’t just looking to river diversions for future water. Other options include conservation, better integrating land use and water planning, reusing water, and creating watersharing projects—some of which will still call for permitting.

Water supplies will need to evolve, which calls for planning and new projects to ensure a sustainable, low-risk water future. But as water providers propose water supply projects and stakeholders consider and engage with them, an effective and efficient permitting process is as important as ever to limit risk.

—Editor—