IBCC Representative Comments

• Title: IBCC Representative Comments on Visioning
• Date: 3/6/2008
• Interbasin CC - Doc Type: Correspondence/Memos

• Colorado's recreation economy would continue to grow in importance for the state,
both in terms of amenity buyers and recreationists. State water users would have
committed to keep enough water in the rivers to sustain this important part of
Colorado's economic engine.
• We need to take conservation seriously, not just for the sake of our having a safe
and secure water supply, but also for the sake of our energy production and
greenhouse gas output. Water takes energy; energy takes water. Conservation of
both is warranted.
• We need to recognize the value of Colorado's natural environment to our economy
and get serious about keeping at least enough water in our rivers to maintain
healthy native and wild ecological communities.
• The Front Range must stop assuming that the West Slope will supply all of its
additional, future water needs. For economic and environmental reasons, the West
Slope needs to maintain healthy rivers. More aggressive conservation and sharing
water between users (with agriculture using 80 percent of Colorado's water under
typically senior water rights, temporary transfers between agriculture and the cities
is imperative) must be taken seriously.
• If the State wants to help enable this vision, as opposed to the status quo, the State
should adopt statutory amendments, regulations, and new policies, including
regarding use of construction fund and severance tax moneys, that
- Require target levels of urban and suburban water conservation (e.g., as a
prerequisite to obtaining state funding). Not only should the State build
conservation alternatives at different levels of savings to jump start this
conversation, but the State must also encourage, and make it easy for local
governments to implement efficiency programs.
- Encourage energy conservation and choice of low-water energy supplies.
- Integrate land use and water planning. State studies looking at how to preserve a
critical mass of agriculture in some areas, while making room for our millions of
new residents, without sacrificing our most productive agricultural lands.
- Encourage sharing of water supplies between haves and have-nots.
- Make temporary transfers of water between users easy and secure enough that
water supplies can count on them as safe yield, and that address long-term
issues (e.g., changed circumstances in the midst of a 50-year fallowing contract).
- Require the preservation of environmental flows by expanding and more
aggressively funding the state's existing instream flow protection program, as
well as making river restoration flows a required part of every project seeking
state funding.
- Encourage the maintenance of recreational flows.
- Promote less water intensive cropping patterns (i.e., corn grown for ethanol will
not only take lots of water, but according to recent articles in Science magazine,
14
I:\INTERBASIN COMPACT COMMITTEEWISIONS FOR COLORADO WATER SUPPLY FUTURE\RESPONSES TO VISIONING AND MARCH MEETING\IBCC REPRESENTATIVE COMMENTS.DOC