Colorado Water Feb 2006

• Year: 2006
• Title: Colorado Water
• Author: Water Center of Colorado State University
• Description: February 2006 Issue
• Publications - Doc Type: Newsletter

• Do I see commonalities I did not know or had
not considered before?
Do I see differences between myself and oth-
ers that I can better appreciate, even if I do
not agree with them?
How can this information help me /my region/
my basin as we deliberate about the future of
water?
Facing our challenges
The second survey addressed perceptions of the
water challenges Colorado and the Rocky Moun-
tain West face today and will face in the future.
Survey respondents articulated three distinct
views of current and future challenges:
Balancing consumptive use needs, which include
the following priorities:
• Accommodating municipal growth without
harming the long -term viability of agriculture.
• Solving problems through effective partner-
ships-- local, regional, basin, federal, private,
and public.
• Increasing cooperation among basins and
states where water is a shared resource.
• Preparing for future severe droughts.
• Balancing private property rights and public
interest.
• Protecting water quality.
Water sustainability, which include the following
priorities:
• Maintaining water quantity and quality while
the population continues to grow.
• Incorporating conservation and efficiency in
existing water user operations.
• Integrating water supply for consumptive use,
environmental use, and recreational use.
Institutional streamlining, which include the fol-
lowing priorities:
• Developing institutional responses to political
and legal barriers for better management of
water.
Addressing federal regulations that are im-
pediments to solving state problems.
• Streamlining the water development process.
• Solving problems through effective partner-
ships— local, regional, basin, federal, private,
and public.
• Preparing for future droughts.
• Incorporating conservation and efficiency in
existing water user operations.
Overall, very few commonalities emerged across
these challenge types. If we primarily focus on
perceptions of the challenges we face, oppor-
tunities for cooperation are limited. In taking
positions on the existing water problems of the
West, we align within groups more associated
with battles than with the interconnected issues
of today. Fortunately, we know that these posi-
tions stem from some of our common values and
beliefs.
Figure 1 shows the complex relationship be-
tween beliefs and challenges. The lines between
the belief types and challenge types indicate
that a significant proportion of people who hold
certain types of beliefs identified certain chal-
lenges. Here we see that there are multiple paths
groups can take to get to the same position. For
example, all but one group identifies Balancing
Consumptive Use Needs as the major challenges
we are facing. If the conversations begin with
and periodically come back to values and beliefs
throughout deliberations of the problems we face,
common values can emerge along with an appre-
ciation of differences, thereby allowing a wider
range of positions to be accommodated.
Taken together, the surveys reveal overlapping
and diverging beliefs and values within the water
community, which are linked in complex ways to
the challenges we face. If conversations within
the water community begin with and periodically
come back to values and beliefs, common values
can emerge, allowing for a wider range of posi-
tions and, ideally, more enduring solutions.
When we think about water in the West, our
minds often turn to images of conflict. It is dif-
ficult to identify a river, dam, aquifer, or c,
that has not been at the center of a bitter c<