Floyd Ciruli presented his polling information to a recent meeting of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District. Here’s a report from Chris Woodka writing for The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:
Ciruli has checked the pulse of opinion about water in both the South Platte and Arkansas River basins for years, and has consistently found the public does not want to dry up farms to meet urban water needs. “Water and farming have been a part of the valley for a really long time,” he told Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District board at its monthly meeting. He talked about his family’s roots in Pueblo and the Lower Ark Valley as well…
“The [2002] drought got everyone thinking differently,” he said. Since then, the state as a whole has begun moving in a new direction to reverse the trend of buy-and-dry to meet urban needs. That was illustrated by last month’s Roundtable Summit in Denver…
While Coloradans universally believe the state needs to protect its entitlement of water under the Colorado River Project, people are divided on whether it should be held in reserve to serve the Western Slope or developed in a project like the proposed Flaming Gorge pipeline, Ciruli said…
Ciruli said the Super Ditch has become a model in Colorado and other states — it was highlighted in a recent Western Governors report…
Super Ditch President John Schweizer asked whether more people will move to where the water is, which some have supported as an alternative to building expensive projects to pipe water into growing areas. “Pueblo is about the same size as when I was in high school,” Ciruli replied, adding that sizeable growth has mainly occurred in Pueblo West.
More Arkansas River basin coverage here. More South Platte River basin coverage here.