Laserfiche WebLink
<br />...an event that successfully brought the key concems to the fare. <br />Like its previous Ideas Festivals, notably Affording Housing, this <br />one is likely to exert its influence well into the fUture as <br />participants take what they learned and apply it to their <br />pkmning. <br /> <br />Columnist Art Goodtimes wrote "what a marvelous event the Telluride Institute pulled off <br />this past weekend, bringing together the likes of Dr. Dewaj Sharma, attorney John <br />Musick, Dr. David Cooper and our own Dr. David Groeneveld for a fascinating <br />examination of our region's most precious resource. ...... <br /> <br />The afternoon's hot seat for the major water players was instructive, since even Idarado <br />Mining Company and The Telluride Company showed up to explain their positions and <br />everyone heard hydro-czar Eric Jacobsen plead for negotiated settlement of competing <br />water needs rather than for this community to succumb to the endless, costly cycle of <br />litigation that most basins experience." <br /> <br />The 1992 Ideas Festival consisted of a combination of seminars by scientific and legal <br />experts in the morning and debate among regional water users in the afternoon. Fluid <br />mechanic Dr. Devraj Sharma outlined exactly the questions needed asking and the data <br />that needed collecting to fashion a reliable model for calculating water issues in the basin. <br />Plant ecologist Dr. David Groeneveld with aerial photos of the Telluride Valley showed <br />how the river once flowed and how over a hundred years of human intervention has <br />damaged alluvial fans and riparian areas with roads, trails and development. Wetlands <br />specialist Dr. David Cooper spoke to the importance of wetlands in the hydrologic regime <br />and warned of the perils of dewatering the river in winter for snowmaking on the ski <br />mountain. Public policy expert and hydrologist Dr. Lee Brown put the event into <br />perspective by speaking to the larger topic of western water in transition. Water <br />conservation expert Jim Dyer outlined water saving techniques. Water attorney John <br />Musick spoke to the rudimentary "A's" that rule Colorado water alphabet, from <br />appropriation to abandonment. <br /> <br />The afternoon's main event "The Players Forum" provided a lively exchange between <br />water owners, developers and members of the audience. Every major water owner, <br />developer and project proponent on the upper mainstem of the San Miguel was seated at <br />the Players Forum. The panel discussion set the stage for an agreement to secure at least <br />minimum in-stream flows during the winter season. Of all the events and aspects of this <br />project, the Players Forum seemed to have the greatest impact on the predominately local <br />audience. For everyone but political insiders, the Forum provided the most graphic view <br />of future development plans likely to affect the river and hydrologic regime. Following, <br /> <br />2 <br />