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Before blaming alfalfa for Colorado’s water woes, consider what the headlines leave out
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Before blaming alfalfa for Colorado’s water woes, consider what the headlines leave out

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Alfalfa and water use: comparing apples to oranges There is a media narrative out there about alfalfa which, though not entirely wrong, is desperately in need of context; this being another example of why reporters parachuting into rural areas of the state to report on things prior to running back to the Front Range is doing no one any good (rural or urban). The claim was recently repeated in a Sun article, along with its natural follow-on. Quoting from the first link below: “It takes 44 inches of water a year in Burlington to grow alfalfa. Only about 10 inches of water drops on Burlington in a year. It only takes 15 inches of water to grow a healthy crop of black-eyed peas in Burlington. So. The numbers ...
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Coastal desalination could save Colorado’s water. The pushback? Cost
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Coastal desalination could save Colorado’s water. The pushback? Cost

By Michael J Badagliacco, “MJB” | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado’s water rights must never become a bargaining chip.  The 1922 Colorado River Compact apportioned 7.5 million acre-feet annually to the Upper Basin, including Colorado, and the same amount to the Lower Basin states. The 1928 Boulder Canyon Project Act fixed specific Lower Basin shares: California 4.4 million acre-feet, Arizona 2.8 million acre-feet, and Nevada 0.3 million acre-feet. The 1948 Upper Colorado River Basin Compact later assigned Colorado roughly 51.75% of the Upper Basin’s share, or about 3.86 million acre-feet. The 1964 Arizona v. California Supreme Court decree confirmed federal oversight of these mainstream allocations while highlighting the need for supply solutions beyond repeate...
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Trump Rejects Arkansas Valley Water Pipeline Bill Citing Federal Taxpayer Burden
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DENVER7, Approved, State

Trump Rejects Arkansas Valley Water Pipeline Bill Citing Federal Taxpayer Burden

By Sophia Villalba | Denver7 DENVER — President Trump has vetoed a bill aimed at providing reliable, clean drinking water to rural communities in southeastern Colorado. It's another setback for the decades old "Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act" that would have completed a 130-mile pipeline bringing drinking water to 39 Colorado communities on the Eastern Plains. This is the president's first veto of his second term in the Oval Office. He rejected the bipartisan bill that passed both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate unanimously, saying the project would cost federal taxpayers too much money. The Arkansas Valley Conduit was first approved back in 1962, but according to the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, it wasn’t built for deca...
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Lower Arkansas Valley Farmers Sound Alarm Over Urban Water Demand
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KRDO.COM, Approved, Local

Lower Arkansas Valley Farmers Sound Alarm Over Urban Water Demand

By Bart Bedsole | KRDO OTERO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - There is a battle going on right now across the west between cities and farming communities... over water.  Southeastern Colorado has become a target lately of large thirsty cities, but now many of the folks who live there are voicing concerns about not only the future of their farms but the future of America’s food supply.  The Hanagan family in Otero County is among them.  Kim runs the family’s market along Highway 50 most of the time, where her sons frequently arrive with new shipments, while Eric Hanagan manages the farm a few miles south of Swink. He is the fifth generation in his family to farm their land, which now includes about a thousand acres. "We were founded about 1909," he says, “It...
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West Slope’s Conscience v. Denver’s Memory
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GregWalcher.com, Commentary, State, Top Stories

West Slope’s Conscience v. Denver’s Memory

By Greg Walcher | Commentary, GregWalcher.com Washington Evening Star humorist Philander Chase Johnson created a great character named Senator Sorghum. A 1902 piece called “A Delicate Distinction” had one character saying, “That friend of yours seems to have a clear conscience.” Senator Sorghum answered, “No, not a clear conscience; merely a bad memory.” A convenient memory is common in politics. And current negotiations regarding the Colorado River District’s attempt to purchase the Shoshone water rights from Excel Energy provide a perfect example. Water providers up and down the Front Range, and especially Denver Water, seem to be conveniently forgetting the agreement made more than a decade ago – to support the purchase, and even help finance it. No water rights question i...
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Front Range Water Providers Clash Over Shoshone Rights
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Front Range Water Providers Clash Over Shoshone Rights

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics A million acre-feet of water in the Colorado River — and the efforts by Western Slope water partners to keep it there — became the subject of a recent two-day hearing that could decide just who gets water and how much. One of the major points of tension is the objection by several water providers — not to the deal, per se, between a subsidiary of Xcel Energy and the Colorado River Water Conservation District and its 32 partners — to keep the water in the river that flows through the Public Service Company of Colorado’s Shoshone hydropower plant six miles east of Glenwood Springs in the Colorado River. Public Service Company of Colorado (PSCo), the Xcel subsidiary, would still retain lease rights for that water, according to the deal. Rat...
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Cost of Colorado dam project doubles to $2.7 billion as towns fear the price
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Cost of Colorado dam project doubles to $2.7 billion as towns fear the price

By Michael Booth | The Colorado Sun Northern Water has halted multiple contract bids while it scales back designs to hold together a coalition of water agencies Northern Water has halted some design and construction contracts and is cutting back its multibillion-dollar, two-dam supply project after its biggest customer said it was pulling out, officials said, as they detailed how the budget for their decades-long ambition suddenly jumped to $2.69 billion from $2 billion.  Four design-and-build contracts for the Northern Integrated Supply Project, meant to serve growth in 15 communities and water agencies, were pulled from the bidding process for at least three to four months while engineers consider how costs could be cut, Northern Water General Manager Brad Wind said in...
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Colorado farmers and cities face tough choices in looming water showdown
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Colorado farmers and cities face tough choices in looming water showdown

By Sharon Sullivan | The Colorado Sun STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Colorado water officials announced Wednesday a rough plan to figure out how the state would handle an unwelcome specter in the Colorado River Basin: forced water cuts. Mandatory water cuts are possible under the 103-year-old Colorado River Compact in certain circumstances, mainly if the river’s 10-year flow falls too low. It’s a possibility that is one or two “bad years” away, some experts say.  Colorado, however, does not have a clearly defined plan, or regulations, for how exactly it would handle such forced water cuts. It’s time to start preparing, according to state engineer Jason Ullmann, Colorado’s top water cop. Over the years, Coloradans on both sides of the Continental Divide have asked about these “compact...
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Colorado Delegation Unites to Demand $140M Water Funds Release
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State, Approved, The Colorado Sun

Colorado Delegation Unites to Demand $140M Water Funds Release

By Shannon Mullane | The Colorado Sun The state’s congressional delegation sent a bipartisan letter to federal agencies, calling on them to fund Colorado River drought-response projects. Colorado’s entire congressional delegation, Republicans and Democrats alike, is calling for the release of $140 million in frozen funds for Colorado River water projects. In January, the last days of the Biden administration, the Bureau of Reclamation awarded funding for 17 projects as part of the federal drought-response effort in the overstressed Colorado River Basin. Three days later, President Donald Trump issued sweeping executive orders that aimed to reshape federal spending priorities to match his administration’s policies. The Colorado projects were caught in the maelstrom. Co...
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After years of controversy, Chimney Hollow Reservoir nears completion
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Approved, denvergazette.com, Local

After years of controversy, Chimney Hollow Reservoir nears completion

By Seth Boster | Denver Gazette Back in 2009, Zac Wiebe was hiking near the foothills of northern Colorado, where today a dam rises close to its final height of 350 feet. "I recall a sign that actually stated the reservoir could be built as soon as 2009," Wiebe said. That would not be the case — not in the face of lengthy permitting and litigation against Chimney Hollow Reservoir, to be a smaller neighbor of Carter Lake and divert Colorado River water for the northern Front Range's growing populations. In 2021, environmental groups and Northern Water settled a $15 million lawsuit. Now, Chimney Hollow's dam is close to complete outside Loveland. Northern Water expects to finish construction and begin filling the reservoir this summer. And a recently published plan envisi...
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