From the Sterling Journal-Advocate:
At its regular meeting on Feb. 13, the Logan County Historical Society will have a presentation on the history of water in Colorado. Jim Yahn, PE, manager of the North Sterling and Prewitt reservoirs, will present information on this important issue of water in Colorado, especially the South Platte Basin…
Municipal water use in the South Platte Basin in now about 25 percent of the total available and rising. Chief Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hobbs believes Colorado has done a remarkable job of setting water priorities and allocating the finite resource. He sees the current laws as being the best way to appropriate water to its different uses.
University of Wyoming legal scholar Larry MacDonnell disagrees. He believes the resources of the Colorado River are being squandered and advocates moving more agriculture water to urban areas.
Yahn says the large metropolitan areas of the South Platte are working very hard and expending a lot of money to conserve and otherwise make good use of the water they get. But the reality, according to Jim and other water experts, is that the population of the South Platte Basin is going to increase dramatically in the next 25 years and they will have to get more water. Conservation and high prices alone won’t do the job…
The LCHS meeting will be at 7 p.m., Monday, Feb. 13, at the Church of the Nazarene, 1600 Sidney Ave., Sterling Colorado. The meeting is open to the public.
More Colorado Water 2012 coverage here. More South Platte River basin coverage here.