Water rights

Walcher: The “sky is falling” water narrative doesn’t hold water

GregWalcher.com, Approved, National, State / / , , , , ,

Every year for the past 25, at least, negotiating teams for the seven states on the Colorado River have worked to overcome a new crisis, invariably driven by two entities: the State of California and the federal Bureau of Reclamation (BOR).

For a quarter-century, those teams have responded to federal pressure based on the dubious theory that an ongoing drought, and a resulting decline in the river’s flow, somehow changed the law and gave BOR authority to ignore the Interstate Compact.

Walcher: The “sky is falling” water narrative doesn’t hold water Read More »

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

Local, Approved, The 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. The new water for the expanded reservoir will come largely from that river as well.

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

Perspectives on water after 30 years of talking about it in the Arkansas River Basin

State, Approved, Colorado Public Radio / /

Water in the Arkansas River Basin is in high demand. Farmers, rafters, and fishermen use it. So do cities and towns far from the river, where hundreds of thousands of people live and work. Like elsewhere in the West, the region’s water resources are stretched by drought and growth, along with downstream obligations to Kansas.

Perspectives on water after 30 years of talking about it in the Arkansas River Basin Read More »

Kansas forced Colorado to stop irrigating 25,000 acres of farmland. Was it too soon to put them in the same room?

Approved, State, The Colorado Sun / /

Agricultural producers, scientists and policymakers from Colorado and Kansas gathered near the Ogallala Aquifer in Burlington on Wednesday to air their concerns and share ideas for how to survive continued drought. But it was hard to escape the Republican River Basin-shaped elephant in the room. 

Kansas forced Colorado to stop irrigating 25,000 acres of farmland. Was it too soon to put them in the same room? Read More »

Ten bills passed in session, earning some bipartisan support, aimed to address variety of water issues

Approved, State, The Colorado Sun / / , ,

Colorado lawmakers gave the thumbs-up to 10 water measures this year that will bring millions of dollars in new funding to help protect streams, bring oversight to construction activities in wetlands and rivers, make commercial rainwater harvesting easier and support efforts to restore the clarity of Grand Lake.

Ten bills passed in session, earning some bipartisan support, aimed to address variety of water issues Read More »

Martinez: Court sends a reminder; tax hikes require voter consent

completecolorado.com, Approved, Commentary, State / / ,

In a major victory for taxpayers, a unanimous panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals agreed with the National Taxpayers Union Foundation’s Taxpayer Defense Center (NTUF) that an overnight doubling of the property taxes in a few Northern Colorado counties violated the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR).

Martinez: Court sends a reminder; tax hikes require voter consent Read More »