SanJuanDoloresSanMiguelComments10

• Basin: Southwest
• Title: Comments 10
• Date: 5/18/2004
• SWSI - Doc Type: Comments

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Statewide Water Supply Initiative Remarks, 18 May 2004 .

.. M~narite is Richard White; I live at 575E. gt!t Street in Durango. 1 am speakingasa
.. citizen who.is:concerned about the sustainability C?fmy community, of the society in..

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which we live, and orthe natural world that sustainsthe human economy. I am grateful

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. forthe opportullityto speak to the Colorado Water Conservation Board fcorrectas
neededl about my concerns. . I wish to make two major points, one about water-supply, .
~ the other about deman"d. .

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-- On the supply side,.1 believe that. it is imperative to maintain adequate river flows,to
sustain the ecOlogy of Out riparian environmeots and the recreati~nal activities they ,

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. . suppo~.When I was growing up, we kids would queue up .ata water fountain in the park '

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after a baseball game and someone would always take an unacCeptably long driJ1k,

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. prompting others to demand that he "leave some for the fisltes." The remark always
. seemed odd, cO~sidering that our water came from Lake Michigan. In this arid region,

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. however, it seems particularly apt when wediscuss escalating demands on our limited

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water supply. The fishes can't come totestif)rhere,much less the diverse array 'of

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organisms further down the food chain. Now, these organisms may seem insignifica,nt,

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.. . but t~e threats to their survival from habitat destniction arereal. The threats mirror
. ,~obal trends that promise the extinction of tens of percent o~aJl species in this century,. a '
... devastati,on of life unmatched in the 65 million years since a meteorite impact wipedout

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. the dinosaurs.an~.most of the other creatures on earth_ Biodiversity loss is not happening
only in the rain forests. . Our rich riparian envirOnments fonn part. of theoaturalherit~e
of this state. Moreover, they underpin a significam portion of the state' economy".. .. .
espegaJly here on the Western. Slope. Th~ muSt be preServed... Specifically ,inttita ~
cOnt~~~~Ofadequate instream flows. must form Part.Qf the p1annirtg for
., stateWide water supplies, on a par with meeting direct human needs. I urge the Water.
. > Conservation Board to adopt the, Conserve, Protect,'and Restore program for Colorado's .

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rivers as atilter for evaluation :a11 SWSI-relat~pr~jects.

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