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A newly released report on water in the Roaring Fork Valley area warns that population growth in Colorado's Front Range counties, and the effects of worldwide climate change, already have Front Range water providers “scrambling to secure additional sources of water.”
And one key source of that water may well be additional transmountain diversions, or improvements to existing facilities built decades ago, all designed to take water from the Western Slope and funnel it to the Front Range.
A draft of the Roaring Fork Watershed Plan, which is a project of the Roaring Fork Conservancy and the Ruedi Water and Power Authority, aims to increase awareness of, and involvement in planning for a likely scarcity of water in the coming decades.
The draft of the plan is available at the conservancy's website, www.roaringfork.org.
Area water policy experts have for several years been working on a plan for dealing with Colorado's expected increasing water demands and decreasing supplies.
More than 40 percent of the water in the Roaring Fork and Fryingpan river drainages is diverted each year, and sent to cities and counties on the Front Range.
Similar diversions are in operation in other Western Slope drainages, to satisfy the needs of a Front Range population that is expected to grow from roughly 5 million today to approximately 8 million by 2030, according to published estimates.
At present, it is unknown whether future transmountain diversions will take ever greater amounts of water from the Western Slope, since no new diversion projects currently are under study, the draft plan states.
But existing diversion rights are not being fully used, according to a Jan. 7 “Front Range Water Supply Planning Update.”
The possibility of increased diversions has galvanized water planners and local governments into figuring out how to cope with the difficult issues surrounding water policy in this region.
At a work session on March 15, the Garfield County Board of County Commissioners pledged ongoing support for watershed planning, including expectations that the county at some point will be asked for a financial contribution to the process.
“It's an important issue to be involved in,” said Commissioner John Martin at the workshop. “We're going to keep working with them.”
Martin noted that Garfield County and former senior county planner Randy Russell were instrumental in getting the planning effort started in 2002 with the Roaring Fork Watershed Collaborative.
Since 2006, the Ruedi Water and Power Authority has sponsored the planning effort, said Mark Fuller, the authority's executive director.
The draft plan has been out since early March to give the public an opportunity to read it and comment on it before a final version is written, Fuller said.
According to the plan's introduction, recent studies have revealed a projected need for up to 1 million acre feet of new raw water supplies for the Front Range by 2030.
Those figures do not take into account the possible effects of climate change, or water needs related to environmental or recreational initiatives or energy development.
The draft plan also relates that nearly 140 miles of streams surveyed in the Roaring Fork Watershed, out of 185 total miles of streams, show “moderately modified to severely degraded riparian habitat.”
This habitat zone, although comprising less than 3 percent of the landmass in the watershed, sustains “75-80 percent of wildlife species” in the region.
In addition, according to the draft plan, “functioning riparian areas reduce the risk of flooding and increase stream base flows.”
Increasing diversions, and resulting lowered water levels in rivers and streams, pose a threat to riparian habitat, as well as to the availability of water for municipal, agricultural and industrial needs.
The draft plan, which is more than 100 pages long, can be reviewed at the Roaring Fork Conservancy (RFC) website, www.roaringfork.org. According to Sharon Clarke of the RFC, comments should be submitted by the end of May.
The website will instruct viewers on how to make a formal comment on the draft.
According to the RFC website, a final plan is anticipated by the end of 2011, although Clarke said, “I think it is going to be an evolving process.”
jcolson@postindependent.com
And one key source of that water may well be additional transmountain diversions, or improvements to existing facilities built decades ago, all designed to take water from the Western Slope and funnel it to the Front Range.
A draft of the Roaring Fork Watershed Plan, which is a project of the Roaring Fork Conservancy and the Ruedi Water and Power Authority, aims to increase awareness of, and involvement in planning for a likely scarcity of water in the coming decades.
The draft of the plan is available at the conservancy's website, www.roaringfork.org.
Area water policy experts have for several years been working on a plan for dealing with Colorado's expected increasing water demands and decreasing supplies.
More than 40 percent of the water in the Roaring Fork and Fryingpan river drainages is diverted each year, and sent to cities and counties on the Front Range.
Similar diversions are in operation in other Western Slope drainages, to satisfy the needs of a Front Range population that is expected to grow from roughly 5 million today to approximately 8 million by 2030, according to published estimates.
At present, it is unknown whether future transmountain diversions will take ever greater amounts of water from the Western Slope, since no new diversion projects currently are under study, the draft plan states.
But existing diversion rights are not being fully used, according to a Jan. 7 “Front Range Water Supply Planning Update.”
The possibility of increased diversions has galvanized water planners and local governments into figuring out how to cope with the difficult issues surrounding water policy in this region.
At a work session on March 15, the Garfield County Board of County Commissioners pledged ongoing support for watershed planning, including expectations that the county at some point will be asked for a financial contribution to the process.
“It's an important issue to be involved in,” said Commissioner John Martin at the workshop. “We're going to keep working with them.”
Martin noted that Garfield County and former senior county planner Randy Russell were instrumental in getting the planning effort started in 2002 with the Roaring Fork Watershed Collaborative.
Since 2006, the Ruedi Water and Power Authority has sponsored the planning effort, said Mark Fuller, the authority's executive director.
The draft plan has been out since early March to give the public an opportunity to read it and comment on it before a final version is written, Fuller said.
According to the plan's introduction, recent studies have revealed a projected need for up to 1 million acre feet of new raw water supplies for the Front Range by 2030.
Those figures do not take into account the possible effects of climate change, or water needs related to environmental or recreational initiatives or energy development.
The draft plan also relates that nearly 140 miles of streams surveyed in the Roaring Fork Watershed, out of 185 total miles of streams, show “moderately modified to severely degraded riparian habitat.”
This habitat zone, although comprising less than 3 percent of the landmass in the watershed, sustains “75-80 percent of wildlife species” in the region.
In addition, according to the draft plan, “functioning riparian areas reduce the risk of flooding and increase stream base flows.”
Increasing diversions, and resulting lowered water levels in rivers and streams, pose a threat to riparian habitat, as well as to the availability of water for municipal, agricultural and industrial needs.
The draft plan, which is more than 100 pages long, can be reviewed at the Roaring Fork Conservancy (RFC) website, www.roaringfork.org. According to Sharon Clarke of the RFC, comments should be submitted by the end of May.
The website will instruct viewers on how to make a formal comment on the draft.
According to the RFC website, a final plan is anticipated by the end of 2011, although Clarke said, “I think it is going to be an evolving process.”
jcolson@postindependent.com
