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•` .:~in_ ~cr r ..: n[ ai :hr ~quiier~e water .Iona^Ih -~P.=orzucalh: dzpl2ur.2 the aquifer •.~~ithin u huccxd }ear R'hat [hen? °U~e',-2 czr. concerned about that," says I,unes ~. Loc:i~zad, e.~ecutice director of Col orydo~- Dz~ :r:m2n[ of \aturl Resources. His aeenc~ t:Ja~ aiilses v:arnm~s on Douglas ~ounr•~ ~.c2f:] "Don't a~oec[ this water to ',acC a hun~rt:; ':2nfS 1~ a Cou~^ CI1nSldCton. Denver's infamous "brown cloud"-particu- latesthat include airborne road dust and combustion aerosols-mixes with ~Yest sixth Avenue traffic. M1ledical researchers link such fine particles to an increase in cardiopulmo- nary problems amottgresidents. Jteven A. Boand,~er mayor of Castle Rock and a consulting hydrologist, makes an analogy to the national deb[. "We're borrow- Ing against the future," he wazns. "There's not enough water for everybody, and who eels it? That's a major policy question." W hile a state task force mulls the problem, experiments to replenish the aquifer with suriace water have met with some success, but that leads to another conun- drum-most of the rights to Front Range surface water have already been claimed. In Colorado, water rights are property that can be bought, sold, or inherited. Senior holders have priority. If my forebears got here th 1861 and yours arrived in 1862, I get firs[ dibs. In a dry year when a river i; do:vn, 4~e law says I get the water. Confrontations can be serious. I was told of an argument over water rights along Fourmile Creek in which one rancher killed another with a shovel. Water districts from Fort Col- lins [o Pueblo abet the skimpy rainfall by diverting the flow of Western Slope rivers via giant tunnels bored through the Front Range. They include one of the world's longest water tunnels, a 23-mile-long, 10-foot-wide con- duit that connects a reservoir at Dillon with the ~outh Platte River Largest of the Front Range water districts, the Denver Water Depaztment gets nearly half its water budget from the Western Slope. Attarding[o the Denver Post, it went after this water with "the same sensitivity that God- zilladisplayed" rampaging through Tokyo, rubbing Western Slope folks raw. Dave ltiratten- berg, astate legislator from Wal- den, recalls that it wasn't until he came to the legislature that he discovered that the " 'damn Denver Water Department' wasn't all one word." "There's probably a good 50 yeazs of hos- tility," Chips Barry, general manager of the department, told me. "Both sides tended to send their lawyers off fora 15-year court bat- tle. But that is changing. We need to work National Geographic, November 1996 w'i[i the c tribe mos: with E: :vho W dCe ver ; wort. lion. 0 day c peop. ir. the Ranc after: Th mem highs sor, v patck as lac U.S. On way e goons Begin condo overp rest a: throw its :va moan highu nest i bores [unne I-.c o:va g nine r. [unne: vease cials c anoth~ aroun~ Fra in the of wat Tra Colors