Welcome back to The Runoff, where Aspen Journalism’s Water Desk provides insider news and water-related updates you won’t read anywhere else, with additional context and updates on our most recent reporting.
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– Heather Sackett
Water Desk Editor and Reporter
Aspen Journalism
Three new CWCB reps
CREDIT: Courtesy of Taylor Hawes. Credit: HEATHER SACKETT/Aspen Journalism
On March 6, the Colorado Senate Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee approved three new representatives to the Colorado Water Conservation Board, whose confirmation will soon be decided by the full Senate: Taylor Hawes for the Colorado River Basin; Denver Water’s Greg Johnson for the Denver metro area and rancher Mike Camblin for the Yampa-White-Green river basins.
Hawes replaces Kremmling rancher Paul Bruchez, who served one three-year term on the board. Hawes is the Colorado River Program Director for The Nature Conservancy and recently served on the board of the Colorado River Water Conservation District. She lives in Summit County and will represent what’s called the “mainstem” of the Colorado River, from the headwaters in Grand County to the state line in Mesa County and all the major tributaries in between, including the Blue, Eagle and Roaring Fork rivers.
Aspen Journalism interviewed Hawes about her new role on the state water board. Here are some excerpts, edited for length and clarity.
Aspen Journalism: What do you think are the biggest water issues facing the state of Colorado as a whole and also locally in the Colorado mainstem?
Taylor Hawes: I think water users throughout the state will tell you that it is hotter and it is drier, and we’re seeing more erratic weather that is changing water patterns and hydrology patterns. So I think one of the most important issues that the state and the CWCB can address is helping water users as well as nature adapt to the changes we’re seeing on the ground. And so for me that involves innovation and creative solutions and finding the win-win solutions and ensuring that every drop of water works really hard to meet all the different needs here in Colorado. I feel like that’s something that can play out through the state water planning process and through the grants process.
And then here in the Colorado River basin obviously the big issue is the Colorado River Compact issues and the interstate negotiations. I’ve spent 27 years working on Colorado River issues, so I definitely have lots of thoughts and ideas for solutions, but it will be interesting for me to kind of put on a state hat and try to see it from all those different perspectives, and bring the perspectives of the Colorado River basin into those bigger conversations and help the state find that balance.
AJ: How will your background working for an environmental organization help you in this new role?
Taylor Hawes: A healthy environment is the foundation of the entire river system and therefore the foundation for our water management system. To me, they’re inextricably linked; they’re mutually dependent on each other. We need to have a healthy environment to ensure that we have healthy flows so I see them as connected. The Nature Conservancy is focused on finding solutions that work for the environment, work for communities, for agriculture and for tribal nations, and we have a track record of that. I think it’s a false choice to say it’s either solutions for agriculture or for rivers. To me, they can live together harmoniously.
AJ: What will be your priorities as a CWCB board member?
Taylor Hawes: One thing that’s top of mind for me is just that we are in a changing situation, with climate and hydrology and weather patterns, as well as political climate. To me, it’s about finding solutions that work for Coloradans and being able to listen to each other and focus on actual solutions and that’s the part I’m excited about and looking forward to.
Upper Basin hydrologic shortage
In a continuing effort to shape the narrative and public opinion in the Upper Basin vs. Lower Basin water wars, the Upper Colorado River Commission has put a number on hydrologic shortage experienced in the Upper Basin. They say on average, there is a 1.3 million acre-foot shortage per year relative to demonstrated demands, due to hydrology and mandatory cuts. The UCRC released an infographic, primer and vignettes of people impacted by shortages, which lay out the following points:
There are more than 125,000 Colorado River water rights and 20,000 points of diversion in the Upper Basin, which is a huge and complicated system to administer according to prior appropriation, unlike in the Lower Basin, which has just a handful of big water users who simply tell the federal government to release water from upstream reservoirs when they want it.
Colorado Commissioner Becky Mitchell has been saying for years that Upper Basin water users take cuts because the water simply isn’t there. Most water users take surface diversions directly from streams and in dry years streams dry up. These cuts vary annually depending on local conditions, and are involuntary and uncompensated (again, unlike in the Lower Basin, where water users expect to be paid to voluntarily reduce their use). Colorado officials have said that since the Upper Basin takes these involuntary cuts, the Lower Basin should take a corresponding proportionate cut.
These are all valid points. But the 1.3 million acre-foot figure doesn’t tell the whole story.
That 1.3 million acre-foot shortage is not evenly distributed across water users or basins, and many senior water rights holders get all of the water they are entitled to every year. Some junior water users rarely get all their water, but it’s by design because of the foundation Colorado water law: the prior appropriation system that gives oldest water rights first use of the river. So should this really be considered a “cut?”
Not everyone who has a water right deserves full priority all the time; that’s not how the system works. Many streams are over-appropriated (meaning there are more water rights on paper than there is water in the river) and junior water rights get cut off so that senior water rights can get their water.
“It’s hard to say (shortages) aren’t real because they’re real,” said Colorado River expert Eric Kuhn. “But when you knowingly appropriate a junior right knowing you’re not going to get water except in wet years, now to come along and say it’s California’s problem, well, that’s crazy.”
Funding for beavers paused
CREDIT: Heather Sackett/Aspen Journalism. Credit: HEATHER SACKETT/Aspen Journalism
In recent years, Pitkin County has gone all in on beavers as a means to restoring ecosystems. The county funded a two-year inventory, completed by U.S. Forest Service technicians of beavers and their habitat throughout the headwaters of the Roaring Fork River. The next step is constructing beaver dam analogs (or if you prefer a wonkier term, low-tech, process-based projects) on Fourmile Creek, Middle Thompson Creek and Fryingpan River. The U.S. Forest Service’s Clay Ramey applied for a $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to fund this next phase of the project.
On Jan. 17, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced that it would fund this project (and 41 others across the Upper Colorado River Basin) with money from the Inflation Reduction Act. But just days later, an executive order from the Trump administration froze all federal spending from the IRA. The next phase of the beaver dams project is one of 17 in Western Colorado aimed at drought and environmental issues that are now uncertain.
Most water managers still want to believe that Colorado River issues transcend partisan politics and that the promised grant money will flow after a new Reclamation commissioner is chosen. I guess time will tell.
River District gives grant to CMU Water Center
In January, the Colorado River Water Conservation District board approved a $300,000 grant to reinvigorate Colorado Mesa University’s Ruth Powell Hutchins Water Center. The money will support the center’s growth over the next three years, including hiring an executive director and creating a long-term strategy for the center.
The River District funding, which comes from its Community Funding Partnership, will be matched by $300,000 from Colorado Mesa University.
According to the River District’s meeting packet documents, Executive Director Andy Mueller will sit on the hiring committee and advisory committee for at least the first year, and the River District will have a standing, voting seat on the Water Center’s advisory committee.
Money is flowing the other way too: The university has committed $500,000 toward the River District’s campaign to buy the Shoshone water rights for $99 million.
Water supply measurement program bill advances
A bill that would authorize the state water board to administer a water supply measurement and forecasting program was unanimously passed by the House Agriculture, Water & Natural Resources Committee in February. The program would require adding one full-time position at the Colorado Water Conservation Board, who would help collect and disseminate data on snowpack levels and investigate technological advances in snowpack measurement and water supply forecasting.
Currently, the most state-of-the-art way to measure snowpack in remote mountainous areas (and thus predict spring runoff and water supply) is with remote-sensing lasers on airplanes known as LiDAR, which stands for light detection and ranging, to precisely measure snow depth and density.
Jeff Deems co-founded the Airborne Snow Observatory, which uses LiDAR flights to map Colorado’s snowpack. The ASO program has been growing in recent years, and local entities formed the Colorado Airborne Snow Measurement Program, which has been working toward implementing a statewide program. But flights are expensive and participation by local water districts, water providers and governments has been scattered.
“I think it is the next logical evolution of the program for the state to really take the initiative and the momentum that the CASM stakeholder program has built and run with that and help assume some of the burden the stakeholders have been shouldering,” Deems said. “We’re looking at this as the next big step forward for this to become a statewide program and to serve everyone in Colorado.”
House Bill 1115 is now awaiting consideration by the Senate.
Lincoln Creek update
CREDIT: Elizabeth Stewart-Severy/Aspen Journalism. Credit: Elizabeth Stewart-Severy/Aspen Journalism
The Pitkin County Healthy Rivers Board voted in February to allocate more money toward figuring out a plan for contamination on Lincoln Creek. The board added another $57,000 to the $150,000 already allocated toward work by consultants LRE Water for Phase II of the project, which includes a water sampling and monitoring plan; a literature and data review; a database and dashboard; modeling to understand flows in the watershed and the effects of potential mitigation options, and a summary report. The county also plans to apply for funding from the Colorado Basin Roundtable, pending approval by the BOCC.
Pitkin County officials, along with state agencies and local environmental nonprofits, have been working to address contamination on Lincoln Creek, a high-alpine tributary of the Roaring Fork River. Water quality sampling has shown high levels of iron, aluminum, copper and other metals, and concentrations may be increasing due to climate change.
“I think ultimately, we need to answer: How far are we willing to go?” said Pitkin County Environmental Health Manager Kurt Dahl. “With the modeling, we can see what the end result is if you do some of these ideas of remediation, what does that mean to the overall system… And then you can start to ask: Is it worth it to spend the money to do XYZ?”.
This newsletter was updated to reflect that the Senate Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee approved three new representatives to the Colorado Water Conservation Board; their confirmation is decided by the full Senate.
Federal funding pause includes 17 water projects on Western Slope
The uncertainty surrounding B2E funding comes at a crucial time for the Colorado River basin, which has been plagued by drought and dwindling streamflows due to climate change for more than the past two decades.
Upper Basin water managers want monthly drought meetings with feds
This is a critical time for Colorado River management as the Upper Basin states are in talks with the Lower Basin states (California, Arizona, Nevada) about how the nation’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, will be operated and cuts will be shared after 2026 when the current guidelines expire.
Colorado lawmakers take aim at turf — again
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
