Laserfiche WebLink
PLANS AND STUDIES: THE RECENT QUEST <br /> FOR A UTOPIA IN THE UTILIZATION OF <br /> COLORADO'S WATER RESOURCES <br /> • D. MONTE PASCOE <br /> "The royal melancholy can only be dispelled by Questing <br /> Beast." T.H. White, The Once and Future King. <br /> INTRODUCTION <br /> The ethic that has dominated Colorado's utilization of its water <br /> resources for more than one hundred years has been severely chal- <br /> lenged in the last decade. The challenge has been so severe that the <br /> ethic, to develop water to the extent of available financing, has been <br /> altered almost beyond recognition. The chief financer of this develop- <br /> ment, the federal government, has withdrawn, and newly asserted <br /> environmental concerns have imposed a substantially enlarged set of <br /> restraints. As a result, a kind of royal melancholy has beset Colo- <br /> ' rado's state legislature and many of its agencies and citizens in re- <br /> cent years. Some, developers of water resources, hoped this melan- <br /> . choly could be dispelled by plans or studies that would guide <br /> Colorado water utilization through new and perplexing environmen- <br /> tal regulations and change, and soon have it back on course. Others, <br /> particularly the environmentalists, hoped the plans and studies would <br /> show that water development was unwise and not needed and that <br /> less environmentally damaging alternatives were available. Neither <br /> hope has been fulfilled. Both groups thought of the plans and studies <br /> as their Questing Beast. Instead, Colorado's framework for utilizing <br /> its water resources appears to have passed through its plans and <br /> studies phase and to be in the process of adapting to new rules. <br /> This article assumes, perhaps without justification, that a look <br /> at the recent plans and studies will help lawyers and policy makers <br /> understand how the old ethic has changed and what must now be <br /> done. The article will outline Colorado's historic caution toward <br /> state water plans and studies and will review the restraints imposed <br /> on the old ethic for utilizing Colorado water. It will also interpret <br /> Colorado's longstanding framework for utilization of water and the <br /> framework for making the state policy that guides this utilization. <br /> Lastly, it will explain why the plans and studies of the 1970's never <br /> 391 <br />