25d ‎(2)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 11/18/2007
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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Sharp said if the Lower Basin states "triggered a curtailment in the Upper Basin" in other words,
demanded their allocated water in a time of shortage, thus cutting off some current water uses in the
Upper Basin water users on the Yampa River would be "in a difficult and troubled position."
"Virtually all of our storage and industrial development is very junior in priority," Sharp said, describing
local water rights that were filed years, if not decades, after water rights in other areas of Colorado and
the Upper Basin.
Sharp and Isgar acknowledged that state water officials currently are struggling to determine how to even
administer a curtailment from the Lower Basin in the event of a shortage. The Colorado Water
Conservation Board currently is conducting a study to determine how much water is, in fact, available to
meet obligations of the 1922 compact.
Isgar said while he does not yet have draft language fora 2008 water bill, there "is a fairly good (chance)
that we will come forward with something, letting people know that water rights could be conditioned in
the future, based on some criteria."
COLORADO CLEAR OF DROUGHT WOES: On the official drought map of the United States,
Colorado sits as an island of relative cool-white moisture, surrounded by wide seas of scorched brown
and burnt amber from Los Angeles to Atlanta.
Timely storms in the past year have combined with a stronger conservation ethic to leave Denver-area
water systems flush in the month consumers shut down their sprinklers.
With Southern California smoldering and Dixie choking on dust, Colorado water officials take solace in a
predicted La Nina forecast for the Pacific Ocean that could bring increased winter stot7ns to the
Northwest and keep the Rocky Mountains on the cooler side of the drought map.
Yet the 2002 drought and intensified weather swings brought on by global warming leave no room for
smugness in the ongoing Colorado water fight. Even the fires in Los Angeles and San Diego can sense as
cautions to local water consumers, said Denver Water planner Greg Fisher. Colorado's saturation varies
decidedly year to year.
Denver, Aurora and other major utilities will use this off season to study and attempt to solidify what they
are now calling semi-permanent reductions by consumers. Since the worst of the Colorado drought and
wildfires in 2002, utilities have compared each summer's water use to 2001 or earlier levels to gauge
behavior changes brought on by price hikes and publicity campaigns.
Denver users consumed 21 percent less water through September than they did in pre-drought years.
Cuts in use and well-timed snow and rain from May to September left Denver's reservoirs at 93 percent of
capacity this fall, compared with 89 percent last year and an 87 percent median over the long term.
Consumers in Aurora appear to have cut use by about 19 percent from pre-drought levels, Binney said,
though managers have noticed "creep" in the levels of lawn-sprinkling as the city's reservoir situation
improved. Aurora's reservoir system is at 84 percent of capacity, a vast improvement over 32 percent in
October 2002.
Water use dropped by as much as 35 percent during the worst drought years, through a combination of
dire public messages, watering restrictions and higher prices.
Flood Protection • Water Project Planning and Finance • Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection • Conservation Plarming