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<br />LeaderJhip e3 Money: the AnJwer to Colorado~ <br />Water Shortage <br /> <br />Continued from Page 1 <br /> <br />The most fantastic idea is the Colorado River Return Project or "The Big Straw." This plan, hatched by Butch <br />Clark, the Gunnison Water Commissioner in the 80's, would basically create a pipeline from the Utah border to <br />the Front Range of Colorado in order to deliver Colorado's unused portion of the Colorado River. "I think it has <br />promise; you're talking about a half million acre feet of water we are not using," says Reeves Brown. The project <br />would be costly just to study, with a $500,000 price tag for a CWCB led study. "Projects have not been identified <br />in this bill and that makes us nervous on the West Slope," says Reeves Brown. MacRavey adds that revenue bonds <br />are okay if you have the revenue. It's not clear where all that revenue would come from and if home rule cities like <br />Durango and Grand Junction could even designate such funding. <br /> <br />Also at issue is the large number of dams, 98, in the state that are out of commission due to safety issues under <br />direction of the state engineer. If repaired, these dams could provide approximately 142,000 acre feet of water to <br />communities. The CWCB would initiate repair projects through their funding mechanisms, but the money is just <br />not there currently. "It's not popular with the governor, but why not institute a quarter cent sales tax statewide for <br />water project repair," says MacRavey. <br /> <br />Colorado's leading academic institutions are doing their part to create better ways to track and assess drought <br />through a project called DroughtLab. DroughtLab researchers are initially focusing on three key areas of drought: <br />analysis and characterization, impacts and consequences, response and management. "DroughtLab scientists will <br />collaborate with local, state, national and international agencies in researching, developing and applying new research <br />and technology to analyze and mitigate the effects of extreme droughts," said Jose Salas, Colorado State professor of <br />civil engineering and co-director of DroughtLab. The collaboration's participants will also address the ecological <br />and socio-economic impacts of drought and its consequences on agriculture, cities, rural communities and industry. <br /> <br />Colorado is not alone in struggling to address the impacts of drought.' According to the' National Drought M:'itigation" <br />Center (NDMC) based at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, the U.S. lacks a coordinated policy to ensure that <br />its citizens will have the water that they and their descendants will need to survive. Yet, as a nation we put a great <br />deal of resources toward water and water problems. In 1990 there were 90,000 federal employees working within <br />10 cabinet departments, 2 major agencies, and 34 smaller agencies. State and private organizations have up to three <br />times as many resources dedicated to these issues. These agencies and personnel are not working within a common <br />policy framework. They are often at odds with each other. W. Goldfarb, author of "Water Law", noted that water <br />planning is fragmented and does not integrate with land use, river basin and other planning efforts. A number of <br />agencies and organizations have called for the development of a national drought policy including Western Governors <br />Association, Federal Emergency Management Administration, National Academy of Sciences and others. <br /> <br />Under the Western Water Policy Review Act of 1992, Congress directed the president to undertake a comprehensive <br />review of federal activities in the nineteen Western States affecting the allocation and use of water resources, and to <br />submit a report of findings to the President and Congress. A presidential commission made up of twenty-two <br />members released a lengthy report outlining approaches to a National Drought Policy in 1997. Their <br />recommendations included an interagency task force charged with creating the policy, a national climate monitoring <br />system, post drought audits, and regional drought forums. <br /> <br />In the West, people have come to count on variability in the climate like death and taxes. The need for our leaders <br />at all levels to think hard about sustainable water management proposals will not end with the current drought. <br />MacRavey sums up the situation by saying, "Someone needs to take leadership on our water issues and it will take <br />money to implement solutions." For more in-depth reading on drought policy see www.drought.unl.edu or <br />www.den.doi.gov. <br /> <br />2 <br />