Colorado's Most Precious Resource August 16 2005

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DenverPost.com - OPINION Advanced Search CoOgle Search 9_M_M_�kl -co f REAL tines'. and Nevada and Arizona. Far away from the headwaters, there is clamor for more: Fifty -some tunnels divert the rain waters and snowmelt from west to east under the Indian Peaks, to hungry Front Range developments. Endless lawsuits filed fill libraries on the desert side of the Continental Divide. Water politics is now an art form. But the dry crunch of my Redwing boots tells another tale. Summer rain is less predictable, dry spells oddly longer, autumn Advertisement Yown FLIP for the Deals at Grand Automotive! Buick LeSabre suicK" snowfalls come later, spring thaw a month earlier, snow storms of 3 inches rather than 3 feet, weeks of mountain gray skies now punctuated by long stretches of brilliant sun. It's been that way for years. Now maybe there are some hopeful signs. There are still some thoughtful folks who think we need to change our tune about how we use and share water resources. Some even say the Colorado River Compact may have outlived its usefulness in our 21st century of unquenchable appetites. The compact was written in 1922, the last time we bothered to take a look at comprehensive water policy. The goal of a determined few is to solve this water problem rather than litigate it. We don't control the rain or snow in our community, that's for someone bigger. But we do control our destiny. The water we counted on when we were a state of fewer than a million souls won't magically multiply now that we are close to 4 million. So let's sit down, have a cup of coffee, listen more than we talk and think together about it. �.4 44, Page 2 of 4 \1� GETYOI FAMILY �1 http:// www. denverpost .com/opinion/ci_2947233 8/18/2005