{"id":118054,"date":"2014-09-03T18:31:28","date_gmt":"2014-09-04T00:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/residents-weigh-in-on-water-issues\/"},"modified":"2014-09-03T18:31:28","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T00:31:28","slug":"residents-weigh-in-on-water-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/residents-weigh-in-on-water-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents weigh in on water issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"JERRY
JERRY McBRIDE\/Durango Herald<br><br>When it comes to water, La Plata County rancher Harold Baxstrom, who irrigates 180 acres from Lemon Reservoir, says, \"There's never enough.\"<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Nine river sub-basins. More than 10,000 square miles of drainage. Six water compacts and agreements. About 130 identified projects and processes ranging from repairing the spillway at Vallecito Reservoir to improving riparian habitat for three sensitive native fish, including the flannelmouth sucker. Differing, sometimes competing, uses for water, a scarce resource in the arid Southwest.<\/p>\n

Water is a complex and controversial issue in Southwest Colorado, and more than 100 people showed up Wednesday night to share their thoughts and concerns with the Colorado General Assembly\u2019s Water Resources Review Committee. It\u2019s holding meetings around the state to collect comments about the Colorado Water Plan now being developed<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no group of people who appreciate a drop of water more than the people of Southwest Colorado,\u201d said Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, who sits on the Water Resources Committee. \u201cIf you ask people in Denver where they get their water, they\u2019ll say their kitchen sink. Or they\u2019ll say they get their food from the grocery store.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Preston is the chairman of the Southwest Basin Roundtable, which is putting together Southwest Colorado\u2019s recommendations for this area\u2019s section of the plan. He shared highlights and summaries from the group\u2019s draft. And then attendees were off.<\/p>\n

Among the most frequent comments:<\/p>\n

Increasing storage is key because more of Colorado\u2019s water is leaving the state than we are required to release based on compacts and agreements. Increasing storage on the Front Range as well as here was one suggested answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we have to balance storage with environmental concerns downriver,\u201d said Jon Scott, who works with the Animas Watershed Partnership. \u201cFish don\u2019t have water rights, so it\u2019s easy to lose sight of their needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Practicing conservation is essential for Coloradans and people in downriver states who use Colorado\u2019s water.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndividuals want to have nice green lawns,\u201d said Jesse Lasater, who farms 500 acres in the Pine River Valley. \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t make sense to take water away from the people who are putting food on the table for green lawns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Protecting water rights might be required. Water is a property right in Colorado. Pending federal regulations may threaten those rights. There were concerns that federal regulations and this new Colorado Water Plan might trump existing, and valuable, water rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere aren\u2019t a lot of examples of the federal government doing stuff efficiently,\u201d said Sharla Dyar, who farms with her husband near Oxford. \u201cIt\u2019s not a good idea to give them more authority over our water.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Learn more<\/h4>\n

Visit http:\/\/cwcb.state.co.us\/water-management\/basin-roundtables to learn more roundtables and the Colorado Water Plan process.
\n Visit www.colo.gov\/lcs\/wrrc to comment on the Colorado Water Plan to the General Assembly\u2019s Water Resources Review Committee. Comments will be accepted through October.
\n The next meeting of the roundtable will be at 3 p.m. Sept. 10 at the Dolores Water District Conservancy offices, 60 S. Cactus St., in Cortez.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Farmer: Don’t give feds more authority<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":118055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6363],"tags":[188,13,528,295,294],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-118054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ds-news","tag-dolores-star","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-state-sen-ellen-roberts","tag-water","tag-water-supply"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118054","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=118054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118054"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=118054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}