{"id":116378,"date":"2014-11-20T23:51:40","date_gmt":"2014-11-21T06:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/state-water-board-sends-plan-to-governor\/"},"modified":"2014-11-20T23:51:40","modified_gmt":"2014-11-21T06:51:40","slug":"state-water-board-sends-plan-to-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/state-water-board-sends-plan-to-governor\/","title":{"rendered":"State water board sends plan to governor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Animas River flows southeast of Durango. The state water plan sent to the governor Wednesday by the Colorado Water Conservation Board is an amalgamation of eight separate water basins including the plan for basins in Southwest Colorado.<\/span>JERRY McBRIDE\/Durango Herald file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

BERTHOUD \u2013 The Colorado Water Conservation Board on Wednesday sent to Gov. John Hickenlooper a draft water plan that aims to shape the future of the precious resource in Colorado.<\/p>\n

The board met at the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District in Berthoud.<\/p>\n

After hearing an overview of the comprehensive plan that took a year-and-a-half to craft, the board voted unanimously to send it to the governor, sparking applause from an attentive audience. One board staff member cried upon its passage, highlighting the long, tedious journey of the plan.<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper ordered the plan in May 2013; a final plan must be completed by Dec. 10, 2015.<\/p>\n

Board members are careful to point out that the roadmap is a \u201cliving document\u201d that can be changed over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will take the direction that (the governor) has given \u2026 to you all and make sure we are all on the same page and moving forward together onward into 2015,\u201d said James Eklund, director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board.<\/p>\n

The municipal water supply gap is growing in Colorado, with shortfalls expected by 2050. The result could be agricultural dry-up and fish and wildlife extinction, not to mention increased demands and pressure on municipalities.<\/p>\n

The Water Plan aims to provide a roadmap for the future while protecting private ownership of water rights. Colorado uses a so-called \u201cprior appropriation\u201d system. In this system, rights are granted to the first person to take water from a river or aquifer, despite residential proximity.<\/p>\n

But the plan must navigate a maze of state, local and federal laws, as well as balance the needs of agricultural-heavy rural Colorado with the rapidly expanding urban-centered Front Range.<\/p>\n

There has long been resistance from rural Colorado to transmountain water diversions for Front Range communities. Some municipalities end up purchasing water rights from farmers when there is no diversion, leaving ag land dry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no more water to give,\u201d Mike Samson, a Garfield County commissioner, told the board during public testimony.<\/p>\n

The Water Plan task is monumental. It will end in the first such comprehensive plan for Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an unprecedented effort,\u201d said April Montgomery, a member of the Water Conservation Board representing the San Miguel, Dolores, Animas and San Juan rivers in Southwest Colorado. \u201cThis is the first time we\u2019ve had a grass-roots basin implementation plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Included in the water plan are proposals from eight separate water basins, including a roadmap provided by the Southwest Basin Roundtable.<\/p>\n

The basin is more complicated than other basins in the state, flowing through two Native American reservations, the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation and the Southern Ute Indian Reservation. Also the basin includes a series of nine sub-basins, eight of which flow out of state.<\/p>\n

Other complications include agreements with the federal government, which owns large swaths of land in the region.<\/p>\n

Montgomery said the Water Plan offers Southwest Colorado an opportunity to come together and develop a unified plan moving forward.<\/p>\n

The goals of the Southwest include pursuing projects that meet the municipal water gap; providing safe drinking water; prioritizing conservation; and promoting water reuse strategies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a mandate,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cIt just gives us direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russ George, a member of the water board representing the Colorado River Mainstem, said many thought drafting a plan would be impossible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been just an absolutely impossible task, but typical of this outfit, \u2026 we did it anyhow,\u201d George said. \u201cThere\u2019s no magic here, no promise around the corner, it\u2019s all choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

On the Web<\/h4>\n

To view the Colorado Water Plan draft, visit http:\/\/bit.ly\/1F1C1Cf<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

be changed over the years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":116379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5843],"tags":[94,13,295,294],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-116378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-water","tag-water-supply"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116378","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=116378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116378"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=116378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}