7777

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7777
• Author: Ward, R. C.
• Title: Proceedings 1993 Colorado Water Convention, Front Range Water Alternatives and Transfer of Water from One Area of the State to Another, January 4-5, 1993, Denver, Colorado.
• USFW Year: 1993.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

conceptual level. It had a very modest level of effort and budget
associated with it, but it was meant to catalyze discussion and to
illustrate an approach to water supply that may be of value to the
region -- that I think will be of value to the region in the future.
Where do we go from here? None of these are radical new ideas. Most
other water providers, the technical people involved in water
utilities, recognize a number of these ideas and are actively
implementing a number of them. The question is, what level of
cooperative planning might be needed to recognize these ideas and
decide which ones we might want to do together and which ones we might
want to wait and do later? Which ones might involve 15 or 20
providers, and which ones might be appropriate for only one or two?
Taken together, all these ideas have considerable potential.

We did not provide any numbers in the report as to how much water
is available to the Front Range under these ideas. The headline in
the article saying the region has enough water, everybody relax and go
home, you don't have to be at this conference, wasn't quite right.
There is certainly the potential for enough water out there to be
sufficient to meet our needs for the next 40 years if we were to
implement a number of these projects and concepts; if we were to build
enough additional structural projects that would be needed to fit in
the holes to allow for systems integration. We are not there yet --
the potential exists.

They all imply coordination. They all imply cooperation. That is the
essence of what can be gained through systems integration. That
involves the active participation by individual water providers and, I
believe, by the state as well. Most of the technical information and
the understanding of these systems exists in the hands and the minds
of the people that operate the water.systems. I would look toward
people like the Denver Water Department with their excellent technical
planning staff, and the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District
as the equivalent in the northern part of the Front Range, to become
actively involved in a cooperative planning process that would allow
for people to leave their knives and grenades at home and come
together and talk about what might work better on a cooperative basis,
and do it in a nonhurried, nonstructured approach.

I was talking to Ed Pokorney about this the other day and he said
an interesting thing -- Denver was busy building Dillon Reservoir in
the '50s and '60s; then we were immediately busy building Foothills
and Strontia Springs in the '70s; then we were up to our ears trying
to get Two Forks in the '80s; maybe the '90s is a time for us to sit
down and examine how we might get some of these other ideas working
that involve our system and may involve other systems as well. I
found that very encouraging. I don't know what sort of vehicle is
needed. I don't think it needs to be a largely political one. I
think time is needed so that technical people can begin to explore
opportunities. There is a lot of information and knowledge and ideas
out there. I think there needs to be something convened, facilitated,
possibly hosted by some of the more major water providers in their
facilities, to allow for an exchange of ideas and development of
possibilities that may then merit further study.

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