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2 II Gunnison Country Tirnes · ThursdJY,. February 51 2004 ..... . ': ~ ..,. . ::. ...... '()~ . :.....:""~. ":'.:N." :.". '..':. :.~ c'.'<~'~~;~>'~'{{:.:,&~~~;)"/;}~~:~r~~~%~ . ,,; .', . .' DJ 10' ";ns.:~;~;~~~.,?~~~~:~t"~:il{~:;&fj~~ . .', .. r."\- ;....".,~-;.~,..{;,..~~.~!t,:.-fiJi. . ',.: ..::':'. .... ,'. . . ..' .:\. '~,",:!i" f~i.~p~~~;;~:X)@~~~ A day with the Water Buffaloes: The 'State of the' Water 2004' s:: ..... ..= OJ) .~ ~ ~ Q :i .;;t ~ ~ = o 'a :J ""- = c ~S c; = '; ;a.. ~ c = c.. c.n I- g ~ .::.:: c.. c.i IIJ ~ :; =: ~ : ~ "::I l:':: .s: - s .... ~ c e l.i :: ~ -= :; &' ~ .s 1',1'1 r ... - E = ~ Water. conHn~'ed from page 2 . ,. . idea the CWCB studied last year But then he brought up the re- wilh' a half-million dollar budget, constru(uons of nows for the past 1 only to learn that it was very. v~ry 500 yearst based on tree..rlngs and expensive.. literally a +llast straw." olher studies, which indicate the Nor was there allY indication longer. term ave~ge flow is pro~a. from any of the Front Ran5!ers that . hly ubctYr';en ~3 and. 13.5 miUion' anyone is thinkin~ about Gunni- acre...feeL ThiS ba~lCaI~Y means, . son Basin water at this point - ex.. Uwtlhe Colorado River IS already cept for Dave Miller, of course, at fun development and then who continues his, one-man' some. media-arid..mover blitz on behalf . Nobodv wanted to hear that. of the Union Park proposal.~ On lhe internal front, Aurora.s metro water districts seem to be di,reclor of resources Peter Binney workin~ closer to home, and on l?ed to d~ruse some of the ~as- plore modest proiects. and most of Slonale agncultural represe.ntauves the managers there seem to think. who daime~ that municipal fhat may wen be the shape of the growth was gOlllg to put Colorado future in water development: _ . . agriculture out of business. He ' In sum) from an Upper Gunni.. pointed OUl, first~ that no one was son perspective. there continues to forcing ~e Arkansas River Valley be a IOl of general talk among the ~ fanners to sell their water to the water buffalo about "the need to cities; the fanners were just mak:.~ . develop more SlOrage.~ but no.. ing good markel..b.ased decisions. '.body seems to be lookin~ specifi.. And second, he pO,lnle.d to the fig.. callv~ wilh any immediacy, at the ~ ures about use: wIth the farmers Upper Gunnison -- especially in now using dose to 90 percent of the wake of RereL~endum A. No l the \\'aler in the sUte, a doubling now. Not yet. But like the man of \\'at~r use in. the metro area' . said':' "Just because you're para- would slillleave more than 80 per,.. noid doesnrt mean lhey aren1t out cent of the water in agriculture. to get you." . A number of the speakers fo... . cused on the avas cu~e~t Stale en ~ M M Waler Supply Initiative study - IU I E (SWSl) as a potentially positive ~.~ .: -6 ~ 8. g; note for gelting the Slate organized c:: g ~ ~ ~:: 0 for waler development. S\V51 is an ~ s.... - t: j:: d,) - - ~ U Q) = G.>= tf.J~ ... effort to exanline, basin by basint .: 0 > ~ ~ 0 ~ the ,"valer resources and near..fu- ~ .....,.... "",.. ~ lure needs of each river basin in ~ 9 g..g.~ ~ g -;: Colorado. The sludy \viU be com- ~ CiJ ~.E b ~ -,::: ~ I d $: ~ t:I - - l!) 0 :: p e(e in November. - 2 E ~ -5 0 .9 ~ But a problem with SW51 is the E..:: ...::: -= == 0 ~ - ....... tf) e1) - - 1- faeL thal many people are doing t;] tf.l.~.:: .s 0 c. ~ ........- - ttl o_~~ exaclly v...hat the speakers at the c::. (; -c 4'<.!:J ~ = ~ OJ;>EO::s..o_Vl ~Dialogue" said they shouldntt do: = QJ tfJ I"JJ ~ = ~ x o '- I..t f..!,.. C i - ~ 0 bringing to the table the luggage C) c. ~ ~ {'O :t - CO from a century of interbasin mis.. ~ -;; -= e.b ~ (/}" g n b C~Occ::~~N trust, am iguous experience and =u - ~ .c ..;:: :.= ~> ~ outright contention. Harold,,~ ~ ;. .~ A E: is M Miskel of the eweB said lhal, if C ~ gp..g ~ ~ ~ ~ SW51 was to be useful, {lpeople =' ~ -c: (I,) ~ t a ~ have to be more open! and stop 8 a ,JJ ~ c ~..:::,... '" being so paranoid and parochial." g vr ~ ~. 9 ::= ~ 8 Ano~er speaker 'said SWSI g.~ . .~ 5 .ff e ~ cau Idn t succeed if "people were .c ;c;:::: ~ c. a; t; c.o...... only al the table to keep their own {is 6 .f9 ~ i"': .~ zf ~ t)lZJ:s..,."'-'~'" ox from getting gored. ti ~ '- Q) ~ eo s: hI-.. c" Q) o+J --' e = T e ~Di.alogueU was notable for 0 0 "S ~ ~ 0 0 t=: what wasn~t discussed too. I heard c3.;; s: ~ .r;; ~ -0 '-'" no .mention at all of "The Big CI! c.E ~ .~ U ~ E t Straw," the idea for moving West.:a 8 ~ ~ ~ '"i5 B :: ~ {,) -- en ~ Slope waler back up into Lhc head- .. >. ri ..V'J ~ ?' eo> ~ wa1ers from the Utah border - an ~f.2 ::: t1 e ~ :: ~ . Q: - <1> 4,) 0 Il) 1-. ~ Z R:t~~u&o I just got back from' an lnual descen t into the dly of tlle beast to hang ~ If a couple of days wi th _ ~oIorado>s water buffalo, :. t the 46Lh Annual Con.. ~:'~.' ention oC the Colorado vater Congress. George Sible y The Colorado Water. ~ongress is an, organization that u11s logether the states waler man- gers, water conservancies and onservation dislricLS. water cngi- ,eers, waler aLLomeys, and a snult.. ;::rlng or water scientistS and nvironmeotalists ~Lo pronlo le lhe dsc management and stewardship .r the Stnles water rcsources for the -enefit of Colorado's presenl and llture generations. lot The \\'aler buITalo of Colorado :onLinue to promole the COln- Idling post- \VWII vlsion that there ".ere no limits to \vhat Americans :ouId do r.hrough the application of echnoloID~ mone}~ discipline and ngenulty to the challenges pre- ;ented by nature. cOlnmunfsm, leath, space and 0 ther perceived 'problelTts. .. The \Vnter Congress rose lo its ull power in lhe 19605 and ,E10s "rhcn the federal government, hrough the Bureau of Redarruxtion~ .vas still pouring billions of dollars :nto the West for water develop.. ment. The water buffalo were led then by West Slope Congressman Wayne Aspinall who~ as chair of the House Interior Comtnfttee, steered a IOl of that money toward Col- orado for projects like the Aspinall Unit dams west of Gunnison. Today, the federal money for water development has entirely dried up; and the feds are now seen mostly as pan of the problem, source or endless environmental rules and proscriptions, and many of the water buffalo along the Front Range are confronting the unantic- ipated conSequences of (~getting what you wish for" in tenus of growth. But the spirit or Aspinall is still the guidlng light of the Water Con.. gress - the last event of their annu- al convention is lo announce lhe ilWarne k;pinal1 Water Leader 0 r the Year" - and the annual conven- li on is a good place to go lO find out .. - 10IIII ~ ..Q - = ..~ o -= i: o Q U whats cooking with those who move and tnanage th estates wnter. But what was cook- ing lh is YC4Jr was InOSl- Iy a fairly high heal of consternation and con- fusion in the wake of the Referendum A debacle. The Water Congress had sup.. porLed the referendum, and at- lenlptcd LO address this loss in a 111anner lhat was, for a bunch of re. publicans (mostly), a lot like a de.. Inocral primary: Lhey pUl about 20 buffalo in a squared..off circle around the problem and, in \vhat . was euphemistically listed on the program as "'"A Dialogue on Water Developlnenl After Referendum AI n started firing at each other. Sotne of this dialogue deserved an IIR" rating - not just for Lhe ver- bal viol ence. bu t an UR K fa r ~.Rcrun,n since \ve had heard a lot of lhe same things said last year, and some of them for Lhe last 40 }~cars. This Inoved Jason Peltier, D~puly Ass1. Secretary or Interior for \VaLe~ and Scicncc1 to observe thal it can be '~painfullo \\"atch a discussion \\'here evcf)'bod}' knO\\'S what everybody else is going lo sa y. II But Lhere were sonle dianlonds in aIllhc. coal shoveled around that morning. West Slapers were in shan supply on the panel .... Reeves Brown from Club 20 and Eric Kuhn from the Colorado River Waler Conservation Dislrict. But Kuhn was brave enough to say what a lot of us are wondering over here: thaL there might not be any t1million acre. fee 1 of Colorado River water left lo develop as Colorados share of the river. n He was engaging in what has generally been a no-no in Western water: looking at scientific factS. He pointed first at the Colorado Rivers steady decline through the 20th century. from a 20-year lla verage now" of around 18 Inillion acre.feet when the Colorado Rlver Compact was signed in 1922~ to a IOO-year nvcragc today of just over 15 Inil.. non acre- feet. See \\'aler on page 11 i al ~ r2 .~ 'Q "tc~. 'Q.it ~~ ~ ~ ..c "C , J t=..O ~ I ....l~. ~ ~ ...; ~ t > ........ "" ~ .- ~ ~ f:: ri'J ....... > .... ~~=~ y -.. <w ~ ~ .... ~ - ~] ~ .....~=c.. ~.. 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