Click here to access the report on the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments website. Here’s an excerpt:

July 2026

Background & Study Purpose

This study is an update to a 2012 Report that explores the relationship between water and economic activity in a portion of western Colorado where the interaction of precipitation, elevation, and location produces water for the Headwaters Region, much of Colorado, and the Western United States.

The Headwaters Region encompasses the headwaters of the Colorado River and its tributaries. The Headwaters Counties consist of Eagle, Grand, Gunnison, Pitkin, Routt, and Summit County, depicted in Figure 1-1, on the next page. The water in the Headwaters Counties plays a special, dual role in meeting the needs of residents, businesses, and visitors while at the same time, meeting legal obligations for providing water to 40 million people in Colorado and the western U.S.

The study rests in the fact that water resources emanating from the Headwaters Counties are neither consistent nor unlimited, subject to considerable future uncertainty. Besides year-to-year weather variations, longer term climate changes are evident, and climate scientists expect these trends in climate change to continue. Regardless, economic activity in the Headwaters Counties is not standing still; leaders there seek prosperity, looking to further develop economic activity in their counties, the same as all counties around the State. At the same time, water providers on the Front Range in Colorado are seeking increased water supplies, identifying transmountain diversions (TMDs) from the Headwaters Counties as a potential source.

Couple this with the uncertainty related to interstate Colorado River allocations under the Colorado River Compact, and it is clear the Headwaters Counties should be worried about water scarcity. In short, all these forces bear down upon the increasingly less predictable but indispensable water supplies originating in the Headwaters Counties.

Representing the Headwaters Counties, the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments (NWCCOG) through its Water Quality/Quantity Committee (QQ) sought a current understanding of the relationship of the local economies to the evolving availability of surface waters. NWCCOG retained Harvey Economics (HE) to prepare this study.