WSP12574

• File Number: 8059
• Description: Section D General Statewide Issues - State Water Plan
• State: CO
• Date: 9/6/1989
• Author: David W Walker
• Title: A Colorado State Water Plan-Do We Have One - David W Walker - CWCB - 09-06-89
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

001353

Thus, my response to the idea of a
state water plan is that perhaps one could
be written. but not implemented. But I
could also argue that it might not even be
possible to write such a plan at all. In
many respects, we allocate water according
to social values. There are a host of
different values and uses for water:
agriculture, instream-flow, municipal,
industrial. etc. . .. But if we change the
allocation of that supply, the changes will
be based upon social values. The point is
that I don't think we can agree in Colorado
on a comprehensive framework for the social
values of water. We can agree on a list of
uses, but we cannot agree on whether
agriculture should get more or less, or
whether instream-flow should get more or
less. The process of trying to reach
agreement on the comparative social value of
water uses, which would then lead to changes
in how we allocate water, is extremely
difficult and probably impossible. I
suggest that it's more divisive to try to do
that than to simply work within the existing
framework and make the existing systems work.

Another important perspective is provided by James S.

Lochhead. a member and former chairman of the Colorado Water

Conservation Board. and the state's representative to the Upper

/

Colorado River Commission.

He points out that:

It has become politically expedient to
state that "Colorado needs a state water
plan." Many of those who express this
position fail to state how they would
implement the plan. what it would do, and
why it would be better than the existing
system.

For example, traditional water
development interests have advocated a
statewide tax for the development of large
storage projects. Clearly, a plan would

-7-