Laserfiche WebLink
<br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Every Thursday Since 1886 <br /> <br />Letters to the Editor - <br />. Colorado needs to start keeping its share of runoff <br /> <br />Dear Editor: <br />Denver Post reporters David <br />Olinger and' Chuck Plunkett <br />deserve great credit for their' <br />investigative November 20, <br />21, 22 and 23, 2005 articles on <br />Colorado's escalating water <br />management crisis. <br />Coloradans should be <br />shocked to learn their state's <br />water costs are the highest in <br />the West. Something is <br />fundamentally wrong when a <br />new home buyer pays $24,424 <br />for a water tap in Broomfield, <br />as compared to $1,606 in <br />Tucson and $5,435 in Las <br />Vegas. This growing water <br />cost disparity is scandalous - <br />especially when Colorado's <br />high mountains produce most <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />of the renewable water us cd by <br />all southwestern states. <br />Coloradans should also be <br />alarmed that all competing <br />Front Range growth proposals <br />. would further dewater <br />Colorado's vital farming and <br />tourist arcas. This artificial <br />shortage and dry-up strategy is <br />unnecessary and inexcusable. <br />Colorado's entitled Colorado <br />River Compact and Aspinall <br />Pool losscs to California, <br />Arizona, and Nevada could <br />easily support several million <br />morl>' people in Colorado. <br />Colorado could quickly <br />correct its self-defeating water <br />management crisis with a <br />cooperative emergency <br />progr~m to pump its wasted <br />Colorado River and Aspinall <br /> <br />Pool cntitlements into high <br />altitude reservoir sites. These <br />conserved state waters would <br />then be available for efficient <br />gravity deliveries to urban, <br />rural, and environmental users, <br />when needed throughout both <br />slopes. Tap and user fees <br />would decline, instead of <br />escalate. <br />Incredibly, Colorado's <br />advanced pumped-storage <br />options have been improperly <br />shunned by state and Front <br />Range water leaders since <br />1990. Political pressure5 from <br />a few misguided activists have <br />replaced normal 'sttategic <br />water planning practices used <br />by all other western states. <br />Dave Miller <br />Strategic Water Planner' <br />