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Colorado killed its only data center water bills. Cities are filling the gap themselves.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado killed its only data center water bills. Cities are filling the gap themselves.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado spent a year trying to answer a basic question: should companies building massive AI data centers be required to disclose how much water they use? The answer, as of May 11, was no. Senate Bill 26-102 would have required operators of new large data centers to report annual water use to state health officials. A companion measure, House Bill 26-1030, sought to attract data centers through voluntary tax incentives tied to water efficiency standards. HB26-1030 died in committee on May 7. SB26-102 followed four days later. 238 lobbyists registered positions on one or both bills on behalf of 221 clients, according to Secretary of State records. Five days after the legislature adjourned, Denver City Council unanim...
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Colorado Drought Forces Denver Water To Drain Key Reservoir
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Colorado Drought Forces Denver Water To Drain Key Reservoir

By Nicole C. Brambila | The Denver Gazette HARTSEL • The Antero Reservoir isn’t empty yet. But it will be in about six weeks. Facing historically low runoff from this year’s drought-stricken snowpack, Denver Water expects to drain Antero Reservoir within the next six weeks to reduce evaporation losses and preserve water supplies. On May 1, Denver Water began releasing water from the reservoir, which is located 110 miles southwest of Denver. The move is expected to save roughly 5,000 acre-feet. That accounts for about a quarter of the reservoir’s capacity. An acre-foot of water is enough to cover an acre of land with one foot of water — or 325,853.3 gallons. That’s more than four times the amount of water used annually by a typical four-person household in Denver...
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As Drought Deepens, Colorado Still Has No Rules For Data Center Water Use
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

As Drought Deepens, Colorado Still Has No Rules For Data Center Water Use

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice In Aurora, data center proposals run through a simple filter. City officials compare total water use against how much of that water won’t come back—lost to evaporation. If either number gets too high, the project doesn’t move forward. When a developer wants to build in Denver, there is no matrix. That gap—two cities, two standards, nothing statewide connecting them—is the center of a question Colorado has avoided answering: who is responsible for knowing how much water AI data centers use, and when does that become too much? The question got harder to ignore this spring. On March 16, Governor Jared Polis activated Phase 2 of the state’s Drought Response Plan—the first activation in nearly six years—after federal ...
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Colorado Drought Pushes Water Districts Toward Higher Rates
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DENVER7, Approved, State

Colorado Drought Pushes Water Districts Toward Higher Rates

By Dan Grossman | Denver7 Denver Water and Aurora will determine drought restrictions and corresponding rate hikes next month. DENVER — Colorado’s drought has intensified dramatically this year, and Front Range water districts warning that rate hikes may soon follow. More than 90% of Colorado is under some level of drought, which is up from 62% at this point last year, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor. Perhaps most alarming is that 95% of Eagle County is in a drought, up from 0% at this time last year. Drought MonitorThis map shows Summit County — in bold above — which is currently experiencing a drought of D3 or higher across the entire area. D3 is extreme drought. About 15% of the county is under D4, or exceptional drought. The drought...
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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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State board to hear Front Range concerns over Western Slope’s $99M Shoshone river deal
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

State board to hear Front Range concerns over Western Slope’s $99M Shoshone river deal

By Shannon Mullane | Colorado Sun Front Range providers and others will voice their concerns in September about the Western Slope’s plan to purchase the historic and highly coveted water rights tied to Shoshone Power Plant Colorado’s top water board unanimously agreed Tuesday to hear out Front Range water operators’ concerns about a Western Slope plan to purchase historic Colorado River water rights. The Colorado River Water Conservation District, which represents 15 Western Slope counties, negotiated a $99 million deal to purchase water rights tied to the century-old Shoshone Power Plant, owned by a subsidiary of Xcel Energy.  The River District and the Front Range groups — Aurora Water, Denver Water, Colorado Springs Utilities and Northern Water — all want to maintain th...
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Can Gross Dam expansion be completed before activists and courts dry it up?
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Approved, Local, The Colorado Sun

Can Gross Dam expansion be completed before activists and courts dry it up?

By Jerd Smith | Colorado Sun As Save the Colorado and Denver Water prepare to face off in a federal courtroom Tuesday, water officials across the state are watching the Gross Dam expansion case closely for its environmental impact and its affect on water projects across the West. Kirk Klancke, a long-time Grand County environmentalist and president of the Colorado River Headwaters Chapter of Trout Unlimited, said a decision that shuts down the $531 million water project, could also shut down 12 years of work on the Fraser River and its tributaries. Here’s why: Denver Water owns much of the Fraser with water rights dating back more than 100 years. And it is that water that has historically been piped through the Moffat Tunnel near Rollinsville to fill the existing Gross Reservoir. ...
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Gross Reservoir safety work can continue under appeals court ruling
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Approved, Local, The Colorado Sun

Gross Reservoir safety work can continue under appeals court ruling

By Michael Booth | Colorado Sun Denver Water may continue shoring up its partially-finished Gross Dam expansion in southwestern Boulder County until a May 6 U.S. District Court hearing detailing long-term safety issues of a permanent injunction against further construction, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals said late Friday.  The appeals court granted Denver Water’s request for a temporary stay of the halt to construction at least through the May hearing. “Denver Water makes numerous allegations of immediate and irreparable harm from the district court’s injunction of further dam construction,” the appeals court order said.  U.S. District Court Judge Christine Arguello had previously issued the injunction against further Denver Water construction on the dam raising, saying t...
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