The bill represents a continuing effort across the Colorado River basin to wring savings from municipal water use in the face of a warming and drying climate.
Author Archives: Heather Sackett
Heather Sackett is the managing editor at Aspen Journalism and the editor and reporter on the Water Desk. She has also reported for The Denver Post and the Telluride Daily Planet. Heather has a master’s degree from CU’s Center for Environmental Journalism and her reporting has been recognized by the Colorado Press Association.
Posted inWater
Future water conservation program almost guaranteed in Upper Basin
One is a Lake Powell Conservation Account that will store up to 200,000 acre-feet per year from conservation and from quantified but unused tribal water.
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Rare earth elements found in Lincoln Creek raise new questions
In addition to the potential for mining valuable rare earth metals, scientists are eager to learn more about their impacts to human health and aquatic environments.
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Forest Service presents results of beaver inventory
The information gleaned from the inventory will now help the Forest Service decide where to do prescribed burns and stream restoration projects in an effort to create more and better beaver habitat.
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Congressional delays cause uncertainty for water conservation program
But there has been a recognition in recent months by some Upper Basin officials that their states will have to participate in some kind of future conservation program — SCPP or otherwise — on a river whose flows have declined over the past two decades due to drought and climate change.
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Colorado has big dreams to use more water from the Colorado River. But will planned reservoirs ever be built?
In the era of historic drought, climate change and crashing reservoir levels, where users already see shortages in dry years, some say this amount of water for new development simply does not exist.
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River District talks water for the Roaring Fork at BOCC work session
Where the River District stands on the health of the Roaring Fork is relevant to another important water discussion: the River District’s plan to purchase the Shoshone water rights.
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Water managers deadlocked on Colorado River
The two basins have not moved any closer to a consensus during their nine-month-long standoff.
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River District asks for $40 million in federal funding for Shoshone water rights
A better estimate of historic use, the River District says, should be based on flows at the Dotsero gauge upstream of the plant’s diversion from the river, a calculation they call the “administrative flow.”
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Officials say water conservation program harmed Grand Valley irrigators
Norris said that GVIC’s system of nearly 100 miles of canals that serve about 40,000 acres between Palisade and Mack needs all of its water to function properly and that reducing the call harms all of the company’s water users.