{"id":110725,"date":"2015-07-27T20:14:34","date_gmt":"2015-07-28T02:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/river-day-focuses-on-state-water\/"},"modified":"2015-07-27T20:14:34","modified_gmt":"2015-07-28T02:14:34","slug":"river-day-focuses-on-state-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/river-day-focuses-on-state-water\/","title":{"rendered":"River day focuses on state water"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Saturday
Saturday is Colorado River Day in honor of the waterway that serves as the backbone of the West\u2019s economy and a critical source of drinking water for millions. The state\u2019s farmers and ranchers are hopeful Colorado\u2019s Water Plan will protect the river, and have already invested heavily in water-conservation efforts.<\/span>Donna Boley\/Wikimedia Commons<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 Saturday was Colorado River Day, marking the date in 1921 when the river was officially renamed from the Grand River to the Colorado.<\/p>\n

The future of the river is uncertain because of water shortages and increasing demand, and it features prominently in an emerging Colorado water plan.<\/p>\n

Steve Ela, a fourth-generation organic fruit farmer on the Western Slope, said the river is a critical part of the state\u2019s heritage and way of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s the mountains and the recreational opportunities there, whitewater rafting or the fruit that I grow and we all eat, Colorado as a state and especially with it being the headwaters to the Colorado River, we use that water in so many ways,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A celebration Saturday in Denver focused on urban conservation measures outlined in the plan and the need for state leaders to do more.<\/p>\n

Ela said that in the plan\u2019s second draft, delivered earlier this month, the chapter on actions the state would take was heavy on goals but light on specifics.<\/p>\n

According to the industry group Protect the Flows, keeping the Colorado River healthy means protecting $1.4 trillion in economic activity, $800 billion in wages and 16 million in jobs.<\/p>\n

Ela said Colorado\u2019s farmers and ranchers have already invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in water-saving practices \u2013 including drip irrigation, micro-sprinklers, stock tanks and isolating cattle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe economy of the Western Slope is really dependent on that water,\u201d he said. \u201cThe longstanding concern of the Western Slope is that we\u2019re able to use that water and use it well to support our local communities and our economies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ela said he is hopeful the plan will produce viable solutions for the state\u2019s water needs, noting that cities, rural communities, farmers and ranchers are all in it together.<\/p>\n

Final comments on the plan are due by Sept. 17. The final draft is expected in December.<\/p>\n

The plan is online at www.coloradowaterplan.com. The report is at www.protectflows.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emerging plan to set state\u2019s long-term course<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[295,294],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-110725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-water","tag-water-supply"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110725"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=110725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}