BOARD00667 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . THE DENVER POST Monday, 'F.ebrual)' 23, 2004 Officials try to tap resid~nts' opinions on state water needs public meetings so far has been steady but relatively sparse.: Many of the participants came to digest the bighly technical infor- mation, Brown said. Bnt in Mayor June, when: dams, reservoirs and other water~ solutions get hashed out, he ex-: peets more input from residents. ' Before .the process is over,! study organizers will have held! more than 80 public meetings,! Brown said. . i Environmentalists will be a:: strong presence at the Wednes-': day meeting, said Amy Living-"j stan, water caucus coordinator.; for the Colorado Environmental; Coalition of more than 80 Colo~. rado groups with thousands of' members. . She said she is worried about' the meetings' low turnout, witb; the exception of those backing new dams and reservoirs. Living~ stan expressed concern that they will drown out tbose who would emphasize conservation and smaller-scale, cooperative solu- tions between water providers, lo- cal communities and environmen- talists. "\Ve've been doing massive. amounts of outreach to environ- mentalists, the recreation commu- nity and some of our elected lead- ers," Liyingston said. ," "We really ",ant more people to pay attention to this and get. involved in this to make sure con- servation and efficiency is a Tbe Statewide Water Supply large part of wherever this thing Initiative, as the study IS formal- is going." ly called, was flIDded by the legis-.- More information about the. lature last year after one of Colo- study is available on tbe Colorado rado's driest years in centuries. Water Conservation Board's web- Attendance at more than 27 site, \Vww.cwcb.state.co,us. . \ By Joey Bunch Denver Post EnvironmentWriter Everything from building new reservoirs to blending treated sewer water to make it drinkahle again will be up for discussion this week at a meeting about Col- orado's future water supply. Residents of lbe South Platte River Basin, which includes metro Denver, can learn about.an l8-month water-needs assess- ment and have a say in its out- come during the meeting Wednes- day from 2 to 8 p.m. at the North- west Water Treatment Facility in Westminster, 8995 W. 104th Ave., near Wadsworth Parkway. After a roundtable discussion by technical experts ahout water needs in the basin and potential solutions, the public can offer opinions and ideas beginning about 6:30 p.m., said Rick Brown, director of the $2.7 million state- wide study. "This is not a democratic pro- cess, meaning that because some- body talks louder or brings more people, their views are (not neces- sarily) going to win out," Brown said. "Every voice is equal, because this is a consensus-based project. You can.t have a success~1 out- come unless you consider ~nd ad- dress every view to l60k for corn- man ground, win-win solutions and evaluate all the trade-offs."