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~r~J'l' ~." ij New weapons in C2!9~~~9;s wat~r wars ,j T he Ancient Mariner must have . an old tradition in ning for attorney general, is an ardent foe "I heen thinking about Colorado Colorado, they have of 15 and 16. Salazar regards the mea- when he wailed: "Water, water, taken an especially sures as deliberately intended to weaken . everywhere nor any drop to ugly turn this year Boyce's opponents so they will no longer drink.'" as two measures on be able to fight his water export schemes. In this state, water isn't something we the Nov. 3 ballot It remains to be seen whether Colorado drink _ that function is mainly reserved are aimed at rip- voters will really agree to plunder the " for Coors, thongh a handful of liberal pro- ping off San Luis San Lnis Valley to fuel still more subur- l fessors like Tom Noel and Dennis Galla- Valley water for han sprawl. But rural residents reeling 1. gher hold out for subversive mtcrobrews. the Denver suhurbs under the attack of amendments 15 and . No in Colorado we'd rather argue while simultaneous- 16 may be heartened to know that respon- . about water tban drink it. And sue each ly punishing the sible Front Range leaders want nothing ,0 other about it. And use it as a political Valley's residents to do with the scheme. I battering ram. BOB for successfully Instead, Douglas County water uSers I Water was the major weapon in the an- EWEGEN . fending off past wa- have created a Douglas County Water Re- . nexation wars that pitted Denver against ter raids. source Authority to negotiate an innova- the 'burbs in the '60s and early '70s. The Both measures tive "conjunctive use" project with the Denver Water Board sent out the not-too- are being promoted by Gary Boyce's Denver Water Board, which will be con- I subtle message to developers to "annex to Stockman's Water Company, which wants sidering the proposal in a few weeks. 1 Denver or drink sand." Passage of the to sell 150,000 acre-feet of water a year Frank Jaeger, district manager ofihe ;1 Poundstone Amendment in 1974 abruptly from the Valle~ to Denver suburbs. So Parker Water and Sanitati~n District, l ended that game, but water remamed a far, Valley residents have successfully stopped in last week to explam the plan. :l key weapon in the ongoing annexation defeated this plan, a successor to the ear- Basically Parker and other cooper- ~. struggles pitting suburb against suburb. lier and equally unpopular diversion plan ating districts would buy water from iI The new entity of Foxfield, for exam- by AWDI once promoted by former Gov. Denver in wet years when Denver has a $I pIe, was organized on the principle that Dick Lamm. The ballot measures thus surplus. That water would be storediii a 'j its residents didn't want anything to do are Boyce's idea of payback. small 55 300 acre-foot Reuter-Hess Res- ,',; with Aurora. But Foxfield neglected to Amendment 15, an initiated law, would ervoir three miles southwest of Parker '.1 secure itself a water supply and was soon require San Lu\s Valley farmers to install and used to recharge underground aqui- ~:1, reduced to asking its much-reviled neigh- expensive and unnecessary. water meters fers from which the Douglas County diS- i~, bor to sell it water. The request prompted of a type not legally reqUlred anywhere tricts would draw water in dry years. 2' much laughter in Aurora but little chari- else in the state. Amendment 16. a pro- By using Denver Water supplies only in ;j ty, and Foxfield is still i~ an. arid state. posed constitutional amendment. would years when Denver has a surplus. the con- "i Water wars are at theIT fiercest wh~n Impose a tax of $40 per acre-feet on San junctive use plan would avoid the need to ':' they involve effo~s to transfer the l~qUld LUls Valley water users. Agam, no otb~r seize water supplies from the Western ';1 gold from one baSI!, t? another. That s .be- water users m Colorado, rural o~ mumcI- Slope or the San Luis Valley. The environ- ., cause most water Isn t consumed the fITSt pal, would be reqUITed to pay this tax. mentally friendly aqnifer recharge ap- ::; .time you use it. Irrigate a mountain !h~se punit.ive me,asures cle~rly dis- proach would avoid the evaporation, 'exR I meadow on the West Slope and some of cnmmate ~gamst reSIdents of this haunt- pense and environmental disruptioll of :'j that water will re-enter the stream to mgly beautIful but economICally and eco- such huge storage projects as the late '1 flow on down to Grand Junction. But di- logically fragile area of Colorado. Thus, Two Forks Dam. And best of all it would {j vert tbat water to metro De~ver a~d they probably violate th~ 14th. Amend- be proof that metro Denver is finally '..j.. w.hat le.aves our showers and toilets Will ment to the U.S. Con~titutlOn, which guar- lea'Tning to cooperate withils neighbors. '. end up ill Nebraska, not on Western Colo~ antees equal protectlon of the ~aws.. Bob Ewegen (BOBEWEGEN@AOL.COM)ls clepu. ;: rado croplands. Ken Salazar, ODe of the state s saVVIest ty editorial page editor of The Post. He has written 1 And while inter-basin water wars are natural resource experts who is now run- on state and local govemment since 1963, > ',,-,