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

1993 Colorado Water Convention

THE ROLE OF THE STATE OF COLORADO ON
FRONT RANGE WATER. CD T.T.RlI1GES

Governor Roy Romer

Good morning. Thank you for joining with us as we seek to find
solutions to some of the key water resource issues of our time.

For the last six years, my administration has focused on jobs,
the environment and education. In the arid West, water obviously is a
key ingredient in that agenda. Colorado's economy depends upon the
vitality of our agricultural economy, and the attractiveness of our
recreation and tourism opportunities. Water is essential to the
economic prosperity of the Front Range metropolitan communities and is
important in maintaining the environmental quality that makes Colorado
the most beautiful and attractive state in this country.

I know that some of you have recognized that this Convention has
been called on short notice, and some of you are probably waiting now
to identify some hidden theme or veiled agenda in my remarks.

Well, there is no hidden agenda. These are the same issues we
have been discussing for years. We all recognize that we can do a
better job, and that we need to cooperate more, conserve more, and
plan better.

I want to be very candid in telling you why we are here today.
In the last 5 to 10 years, we have invested many millions of dollars
in highly publicized and polarized fights over Two Forks, AWDI, Union
Park, the Collegiate Range project, the transfer of Rocky Ford Ditch
rights, the proposed Poudre River transfers and many other proposals.

This polarization cannot continue if we expect to assure that
adequate water supplies will be available for our future needs. Nor
can we expect to resolve our water-based economic or environmental
concerns if we are not talking to one another and sharing our ideas.

Although our institutions and our leaders are strong, we need to
blow the whistle on what has become an unacceptable level of
administrative gridlock, litigation, expense, and delay whenever water
development or transfers are proposed.

Many of you probably saw the headline in Saturday's Rocky
Mountain News, concerning the state study indicating that the metro
area has enough water. To be sure, many communities do have a surplus
of water, while others are at risk of a shortage. My purpose here
today is not to embrace the conclusion of this study -- it may be
accurate, and it may not. But I think it ought to be part of the mix
of information we consider.

I want you to know that I do not have the solutions for these
problems. But I do know that solutions exist and can be found by
those in this room.

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