Here’s a recap of Monday’s meeting of the IBCC, from Chris Woodka writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:
The Interbasin Compact Committee, working with the Colorado Water Conservation Board, has begun crunching numbers in looking at how the quest to satisfy future water demands will affect current uses.
The group also vented on issues of growth and water at its meeting Monday. “Rather than plan for one future, we are trying to look at multiple futures,” said IBCC staffer Eric Hecox, as he explained a computer tool that anticipates a mix of existing projects, new supplies, conservation and agricultural transfers…
The IBCC looked at several alternative portfolios – the mix of strategies needed to meet a variety of growth scenarios – in an attempt to hit a moving target. Most of the alternatives include new water from the Western Slope, dry-up of farmland in all parts of the state and conservation or reuse of urban water supplies. The model itself can change over time as basin roundtables sharpen their estimates of consumptive and nonconsumptive needs…
At its last meeting, the Arkansas basin group put the final brush strokes on a plan it will submit to the state to look at strategies to meet future water needs. The IBCC will collect similar information from the state’s other eight basin roundtables to fill in the blanks for a statewide picture…
Melinda Kassen of Trout Unlimited said the overall goal of meeting water needs is not as important to the environment as when and where the water is used. “It’s about ecosystems,” she said. “What do we have to do to protect the important ecosystems of the state?”
Mike Gibson, of the San Luis Valley Water Conservancy District, said the potential dry-up of 10 percent or more of the state’s agricultural land foreseen in almost every scenario of the model is not uniform. Most of the land to be dried up is in either the Arkansas or South Platte river basins, and some communities could see complete dry-up, having a much more devastating impact on the local economy, he said. “Ag producers want to be able to sell their water, but they’re not always real happy when their neighbor sells his,” Gibson said.
Even conservation and reuse strategies have to be applied carefully, said Mark Pifher, director of Aurora Water. If cities conserve water, as Aurora has with outside water restrictions in place long after the drought, they cannot depend on it to increase future supplies, Pifher said. And reusing water, as Aurora is doing in the Prairie Waters Project, is at cross-purposes with conservation. “The more water we conserve every day, the less I have to recapture,” he said. Eventually, cities will have to raise rates or take other unpopular measures if they continue to grow, he said. “The point will be reached where you have to remove lawns and where you have to use less water on public landscapes,” Pifher said. “Who makes the call?”[…]
[Jeris] Danielson said if cities cannot bring growth under control themselves, the state at least should look at implementing zoning density requirements, to ensure more efficient use of water. [Harris] Sherman said that question would be addressed later this month at a three-day seminar in Denver hosted by the CWCB.
More IBCC coverage here.