From The Washington Park Profile (Haines Eason):
The Colorado Water Congress—a professional networking association providing a forum for Colorado water-focused organizations and businesses—held its annual convention Jan. 27-29 at the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center. Leading the agenda after the opening of the General Session was a panel discussion entitled “Unwrapping Colorado’s Water Plan.” Discussion covered an array of topics, from the need for more risk taking in regards to partnerships between bodies that had not historically aligned to our debt to previous generations’ work on storage and other water-related infrastructure to the recent water supply problems in Flint, Michigan.
Immediately following, a second panel entitled “Securing Our Water Present” was tasked with discussing whether Colorado is committed to ensuring water supply in the face of current pressures. Pressures illustrated included aging infrastructure, natural disasters and water compact compliance.
Before discussion, moderator David Robbins of law firm Hill & Robbins reminded the audience of certain concrete water realities:“On a large scale there is no new water supply for us to talk about,” Robbins said.
“There’s a certain amount of water that’s available in our state each year under various hydrologic conditions. The water in our rivers is governed by interstate compacts … [and] we must learn to live with what we have and manage our plans accordingly.”
[…]
“Knowing that agriculture controls 85 percent of the water kind of makes us nervous when a water plan comes out,” [Don Ament] said.
“I believe in collaboration, but it makes you kind of nervous. If [a neighbor] doesn’t have any water and I have a lot of water and we’re going to share, what do you suppose is going to happen to me? [Sharing] means we’re going to spend less water in agriculture.”
“The second contributor to this economy that we’re all worrying about is agriculture,” Ament added…
Others like “Securing Our Water Present” panel member Sean Cronin of the Saint Vrain and Left Hand Water Conservancy District urge taking a broader view with regards to water usage in Colorado.
“If there’s a sector of the population laser focused on ensuring adequate flow and another segment of the population laser focused on consuming water up until our compact entitlement, I think the point of Colorado’s Water Plan is those are both values that Colorado needs to invest resources ensuring both happen for this generation and the next generation,” Cronin says.
“We’re all fighting for the same thing. We need to come together as stakeholder groups to ensure everybody has something.”
To read Colorado’s Water Plan, visit http://coloradowaterplan.com.