From The Yuma Pioneer (Bill Boas):
“The aquifer is depleting rapidly…should we be concerned?” That was the label on several cases of half-filled bottles of drinking water served with lunch at the “State of the Basin Symposium” held this past Monday at the Wray High School Auditorium from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The symposium was sponsored by the Conservation Committee of the Republican River Water Conservation District (RRWCD).
About 250 people packed the auditorium to hear prominent speakers from Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska present a situation report on water issues affecting the Republican River Basin’s many thirsty users. When water is short, state lines become battlegrounds and the recent legal battle between Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska points to a future that can’t be “business as usual” for Great Plains water users.
Principal speakers included; Congressman Cory Garner, who was rescheduled from 4 p.m. to 1p.m.; Colorado Supreme Court Justice and water law expert Gregory Hobbs; Dick Wolfe, Colorado State Engineer; Scott Steinbrecher, Colorado Assistant Attorney General; officials of water conservation districts in adjacent Kansas and Nebraska; and experts from academic and private water engineering firms.
With population growing, and water supplies fixed, aggressive water conservation practices surfaces as one humanly manageable variable in the complex climatic, hydraulic, legal, and distribution environment of the Republican River Basin.
More Republican River Basin coverage here.