WSP07836

• File Number: 8200.30.10.B
• Description: Roan Creek
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 1/1/1993
• Author: CWCB
• Title: Roan Creek News Articles
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: News Article/Press Release

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THE DENVER POST
J'IfEI!AWOF 'HER.VER.

Water bidding war feared

RIVER from Page 1 A
set the complex chessboard of wa-
ter law. Ultimately, this could af-
fect water rights that now are
keeping taps flowing on Colorado's
Front Range.
"If there were an interstate
market on the river, Las Vegas
could simply come into Colorado
:and buy up the GrandValIey and
,then transfer those agricultural
water rights down to Las Vegas,"
said Jim Lochhead, executive di-
:rector of the Colorado ~partment
of Natural ResourceS.
In negotiations with the other
states, Lochhead's department has
been quietly reasserting Colora- ;
do's rights to 3.8 million acre-feet
of water per year from the Colora-
do River system. As one of four
~'upper basin" states in the com-
pact, Colorado has yet to use all
the water allocated to It under the
1922 river treaty. That has ai- ,
lowed California and other "loweI'
basin" states to keep taps and irri~
gation sprinklers flowing.
Meantime, several Colorado--
based entities, sucp. as 011 compa- :
mes, are interested In sellIng or t
leasing theIr water rights on the .
river or its tributaries. The Colora:-
do Department of Natural Re-
sources is fighting those attempts.:
Nevada is pushing the limits of ,
its allocation of 300,000 acre-feet (l
year. The amount was established ~
when the river pae,t was signed 72 ~
years ago. Californla,has exceeded
;'its limits for years but has started~
programs - at ROI,ll~r's insistenc~
- to eventualiy halt that. {
Colorado's definition of water .
rights as private property is a con:l
cept so popular it may be polltics.!"
ly impossible to change. But, if a f
bidding war erupted, that would ;
leave Colorado in a more precari- ~
ous position than nelghboring.wa- ;
ter-richstates. :
In Wyoming, water is a state- 1
owned resource available to users {
by permit. Utah defines water as a~
salable property right, but It bars t
out-of-state sales. t
Essentially,if one holder of CoI- ~
orado water rights sells them pri- f
vately to a buyer in another state, ;
the interstate commerce clause of
the U.S. Constitution could kick in. ,-
That could require equal treat- ,
:-If. ment of other sell(!rs and create anl ';
open qlartet for water up and _Nt
dOWD the river system. ProtectlOIl&}
built lIito the compact for Colora- ,
do cities and lamia could be de- t
stroy~. ' ,
"Th~ state," Lochhead said, i
"woull;llose control of its water re-I
sources." "
One proposal - the Roan Creek - ,
project - has been the focus of
most recent concern, Nevada wa-
ter officials last, week toured the
site.
The Roan Creek plan calls for a
dam to be built on the Colorado
River near De Beque, between
Glenwood Springs and Grand
Junction. The dam would befi-
nanced by money out of Nevada.
Then that state would lease up to
175,000 acre-feet of water, using
rights now held by Chevron Oil and
Getty Oil, companies t~at original-
ly bought the rights to produce oil
from shale.
One acre-foot is about 326,000
gallons, or enough to meet the
needs of a family of four for a
year.
"Roan Creek is Dot a final solu-
tion for Nevada, but it certainly
can be part of the solution. And
we're willing to investigate that,"
said Janet Rogers, chairwoman of
the Colorado RIver Commission of
Nevada.
Roan Creek Is not the only pri-
vate-sale offeroD the table. A total
of 1.7 million acre-feet of water i
could be sold by Colorado holders
to Nevada. These include:
. The Dominguez proposal on
the Gunnison River, whlch wO\lld
offer 1 million acre-feet.
. The Paradise proposal on the
Colorado, 140,000 acre-feet.
. . The NaTec proposal on the
Colorado, 145,000 acre-feet.
'. T~e Oak Creek Power Co.
proposal on the Colorado, 200,000
, acre-feet.
, '., The Rocky Mountain Power
, proposal on the White River,
60,000 acre-feet.
, Without such Individual sales,
states could go to Congress in an
attempt to reopen the compact.
Many observers say a breakup of
the compact by Congress isn't like-
ly, even though the water-needy
lower basin states have 66 votes in
Congress, compared with 21 votes
in the uppe~basin states.
Like most states involved, Cali-
fornia has internal squabbles over

"

" LAKE MEAD

. The highest fountain in the world
sends water 630 feet above the
Sonoran Desert floor in Fountain
Hills,Ariz.

The Colorado River swells behind
Hoover Dam, shown here at sunH
set, to form Lake Mead, southeast
of Las Vegas in Nevada.

A PALM
SPRINGS

Verdant golf
courses such
as this one in
Palm Springs,
Calif., depend
on Colorado
River water to
stay lush In
their desert en-
vironment. Cal~
ifornia, which
was allotted
4.4 mililon
acre-feet of
river water per
year In the
1922 Colorado
River Compact,
has exceeded
Its limits tor
years.

The skyline of
downtown Las
Vegas, Nev.,
shimmers in
the distance as
homes go up In
'8 nearby hous~
Ing develop-
ments. People
are pouring In~
to town for ho~
tel and casino
Jobs, pushing
the metro ar-
ea's popula~
tion toward 1
million. That's
up from about
750,000 In
1990; 460,000
in 1980; and
275,000 In
1970.

water that could keep it from as-
sembling a bioc of votes in Con-
gress.
None of that eases anxiety.
"Each state, whlle generally
supportive of other states develop-
ing their apportionment, is fairly
suspicious of activities in other
states," says Sen, Ben Nighthorse
Campbell, D-Colo.
Romer, Lochhead and other up-
per-basin officials have urged that
the lower-basin slates work out
water trades among themselves to
help cover droughts and handle
growth. Such efforts have begun
informally in California and Arizo-
na though it will take years for
th~m to reach a scale that might
make the lower basin self-suffi-
cient.
Under new proposed regulations
from the U.S. Bureau of Reclama-
tion, which oversees the lower-ba-
sin through dam management,
enough water should be available

for 10 to 20 years, says Elizabeth
Rieke, assistant interior secretary.
Beyond that, well-planned shifts
from farming to city use may keep
lower-basin cities alive over the
next century, she said.
"The needs of urban users over
the next 100 years are less than 20
percent of the current deliveries to
agriculture in the lower basin. So
it should be possible to meet the
urban needs from existing uses,"
Rieke said. .
, But Nevada is so close to using
its full allotment that its officials
are demanding a "flexible" read-
ing of the compact and court opin-
ions interpreting it.
"If the states are unable to ac-
commodate each other, the Con-
gress will have to become in-
volved," said U.S. Sen. Harry Reid;
D-Nevada. '

As the West fills up, federal offi-
cials say they can pinpoint shifts
that have changed water needs in
the seven_decades since the com-
pact was signed.
"Agriculture, mining and timber
are no longer the dominant eco-
nomic enterprises," said reclama-
tion commissioner Dan Beard, who
oversees southwestern water proj-
ects for the Interior Department.
Fears that the upper-basin allot-
ment will be drained by changes
are unfounded, he said.
"Interstate transfers- are only
golngto take place when the states
agree that is what's going to take
place," Beard said.

But with urban water demand
surging, "The reality is, the worid
has changed."
Others believe what ought to be
changing is growth policies.
"At the end of World War II, the
West had about.16 million people;
right now we're closlng.in on 60
million," says Charles Wilkinson, a
University of Colorado Jaw profes-
sor who specializes in regional is-
sues. "If you read the letters to the
editor in papers all across the
West, in Reno or Boise or Jackson
or Denver or Phoenix, you see a
level of attention to growth that
we've never had before.
, "We're going to have to start
reining in growth. Because if we
don't, we're not going to have a
West anymore; we're going to lose
the distinctive qualities that
brought people here to begin
with."

Sunda , September 18, 1994

O>WRADO RIVEHi'
COMPACr FACI'S .

. Signed in 1922, it estab-
lishes set amounts of water
for Colorado, Wyoming,
Utah, New Mexico, Nevada;'"
Arizona and California.
These limits vary sharply J~
from state to state, and were
based on initial estimates oJ:>
likely future demand by eaen
state, .

. Colorado, Wyoming,
Utah and New Mexico also ,"
abide by a separate treaty ~:;
among those "upper basln"!~
states. Squabbles among the
ether three "lower basin"
states prevented, such an ,,;
agreement for them. As a rEi;.
suit, the federal Bureau of ~fl
Rec;:/amation plays a stronger
role,in the lower basin in brd~
kerlng disputes. The burea(t
also controls federal dam -,
use in both basins. u-I

. In 1944, the United ...
States also agreed to deliver
1.5 million acre-feet of Cold;'
rado River water to Mexico:~;
each year. ,,-'

',"
. ExplosIve growth In Call~
fornia has caused the stateJ.>
to exceed its limits on the ~:
compact many years. In '-"
1991, during a drought, Calf~;
fornia officials asked for the~
right to take 400~OOO acre~ "
feet more than the state's ail:'
lotment; Colorado Gov. Roy
Romer agreed on condition::;
~hat interstate talks begin to:,
meet individual needs but
stili uphold the_ ,compact.

"

. Though innovative steps
are helping with California's'-
problems, it may face
drought as soon as next "
year; and booming Las Ve- ~;
gas has become a new stick.
: ing point in river relations.

10 tribes
. may affect::
. water flow ~

_0

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Ten 4merican Ind1an tnDe8 ,.
,that hotd rIghts along the Color~
do River or its tributaries also >l
could affect how water is appoI":,~
Uoned. -'
They could open up a market '
for water sales from one state to
another, and some tribes have
expressed interest in doing just
that.
Colorado's two tribes, the .
Southern utes and the ute Moun~;
tain Utes, agreed in 1988 to be ;"
treated like other Colorado w,atef
users in a law approved by Con-_:',
gress. It states that those tribes~~:
can't sell their water unless other
private users in Colorado - such
as owners of the Roan,Creek '.~
rights in western Colorado -
start up a market first.
Leonard Burch, chairman of
the Southern Utes, says that's not
a fair restriction, especially with,
dliOl1ays in construction of the Ani- :
'mas-LaPlata water project. The:
$653 Illillion project is supposed :
to supply long-promised water to '
Colorado reservations In the :
Four Corners area. :
Animas-LaPlata has been ap- , :
proved by Congress, but is hung :
up over environmental concerns. ~
It also may be scaled back. An
Interior Department inspector
general's report in July called it
"economically infeasible" as
originally planned. The r.eport
suggested cash payments to the ,
tribes instead of the project being:
built at full scale. , :
If Animas-LaPlau.i.isn't built ~
soon, Burch said, the tribes may :
want to reassert their right to .
sell water rights to bring in some:
money to finance economic de- :
velopment. i
"Our patience is wearing pret~ :
ty thin now," he saId. "We .
thought we complied with all the :
necessary requirements" for en- :
vironmental issues in Animas- :
LaPlata. "Each time we finish '
with that, there's another road- :
block." :
If the Southern Utes dId sell :
water rights, Burch said, the
money would go toward "devel-
oping our natural resources on
the land we own."
- Jennifer Gavin;

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