The Runoff | Confronting scarcity with adaptation

Welcome back to The Runoff, Aspen Journalism’s Water Desk newsletter providing insider news and water-related updates you won’t read anywhere else. We are covering stories related to one of the hottest, driest years on record and how it’s impacting local communities and how water managers are scrambling to adapt. Find updates under The Briefing and catch up on the most recent reporting from our water desk, along with additional context and updates on these stories, under The Recap. 

Thanks for going deeper with us and for supporting our nonprofit, in-depth, investigative reporting.

– Heather Sackett
Water Desk Editor and Reporter

Ute Water implements drought rates

Ute Water, the largest municipal water provider on the Western Slope serving Grand Junction and surrounding communities, implemented drought rates for the first time since 1977. The increased rates are designed to reduce demand, encourage conservation and are targeted at the largest water users. Customers who stay below 3,000 gallons a month will continue to pay the residential monthly water rate of $28. The biggest water users (more than 30,000 gallons a month) will see their rates go from $11.75 to $58.75 per 1,000 gallons.

The Grand Valley has an interesting situation: Many residents irrigate lawns, gardens and landscaping with agricultural water directly from local ditches. If that water becomes unavailable due to the drought, residents will probably switch to using treated Ute Water. But Ute’s system is not designed to handle a large outdoor watering demand. The water provider prohibits selling taps for outdoor irrigation and customers must have a plan for water-wise landscaping if they will be using Ute Water outdoors. The drought rates will take effect in June and customers will first see the drought rates reflected in their July bills.

River District loans water

On Wednesday the Colorado Water Conservation Board approved a loan of 9,475 acre-feet of water offered by the River District. The River District owns water in Wolford and Ruedi reservoirs, which will officially be used to boost flows for the environment in reaches of Muddy Creek, the Fryingpan River and Colorado River where the CWCB holds instream flow water rights. But in reality, the water will have the effect of helping other downstream water users. A 66,000 acre-foot pool of water in Green Mountain Reservoir known as the Historic Users Pool won’t fill this year, which is creating far-reaching impacts. HUP water is released mainly to satisfy farmers and ranchers in the Grand Valley, whose group of senior water rights, which make up the Cameo call, are the commanding force on the river. When Cameo places a call for its water, it can force junior users all the way up to the headwaters to shut off. The River District’s goal is to protect junior water users known as “HUP beneficiaries” on the Western Slope, and loaning its water to the instream flow program is the mechanism through which it can do that. The CWCB will pay $585,592 for the water, which is expected to be used from late June through the end of September.

“The Colorado River basin is experiencing a truly historic drought and safeguards we put in place 80 years ago are failing at this point in time,” River District General Manager Andy Mueller told the CWCB. “This is a creative solution that I have to commend the staff at the CWCB for their willingness to collaborate and find solutions to prop up the river at a time when there’s just no flow expected during these months.”

Crystal River IGA

Five local governments have pledged to protect the Crystal River by signing an intergovernmental agreement saying they won’t support any new dams on the mainstem of the Crystal and will oppose any water rights applications that would remove water from the Crystal River basin. Pitkin County, Gunnison County, the town of Marble, the River District and the West Divide Water Conservancy District all signed the IGA, protecting one of the last free-flowing rivers in the state. The IGA was an outgrowth of the Crystal River Collaborative Steering Committee, which is exploring a few different ways to protect the river. The IGA doesn’t preclude a federal Wild & Scenic designation, the potential for which a subcommittee is still exploring. The IGA is a win for the river and speaks to the cooperation of the local governments involved, especially since some of them have been on opposing sides of past Crystal River battles. “This process shows that durable solutions are possible when communities come together in good faith,” River District Director of Government Relations and co-chair of the steering committee Zane Kessler said in an email. “The signing of this agreement also demonstrates that environmental conservation and protection of working landscapes, local agriculture, recreation and existing water rights are not mutually exclusive.”

Feds release some funding but not for Shoshone 

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released $47 million for four projects in Colorado aimed at addressing the Colorado River crisis. The money will go to the Southwestern Water Conservation District; the Southern Ute Indian Tribe; for drought resiliency on western Colorado conserved lands; and habitat restoration in the Gunnison River basin. This is part of the money that the Biden administration had promised through the Inflation Reduction Act to the Upper Colorado River Basin Environmental Drought Mitigation program, known as “Bucket 2E.” The Trump Administration froze the funding, but money for certain projects has begun trickling out. Left off the list is funding for the River District’s purchase of the Shoshone water rights, which it plans to convert to an instream flow to benefit the environment. The project has been promised $40 million in federal funding. Colorado Water Conservation Board Executive Director Lauren Ris mentioned the funding at the board meeting Wednesday. “We don’t have a whole lot of intel about what will happen with the remaining projects,” she said, “but we will take whatever funding we get to work with in Colorado.”

Coalition calls for $2B in funding

A broad coalition of more than 70 cities, farmers, businesses, municipal water providers and conservation groups are calling on congressional leaders to provide at least $2 billion in federal funding for drought mitigation during one of the worst water years in modern record keeping. The coalition includes some of the biggest and most politically influential water users and tribes in the entire Colorado River basin, including Denver Water, Grand Valley Water Users Association, California’s Imperial Irrigation District and many others. The letter says they also “urge the establishment of a long-term federal funding mechanism dedicated to improving the water outlook through continued investment in conservation efforts to stabilize the system, advancing innovation and new technologies, and — where appropriate — evaluating and advancing additional supply options.” (italics mine). Ideas for adding more water to the system have long been kicking around (KJZZ Colorado River reporter Alex Hager has covered de-salination, importing water from a different river basin and cloud-seeding). The letter seems to raise the question: are some of these ideas, once considered unrealistic or too expensive, becoming more feasible as drought conditions worsen? Only time will tell.

Confronting scarcity on the Colorado River

On May 6, Aspen Journalism held its first event in the Grand Valley: a panel discussion in collaboration with the Ruth Powell Hutchins Water Center at Colorado Mesa University. We had four water experts from different water-use sectors: Tina Bergonzini from Grand Valley Water Users Association; Raquel Flinker from the River District; Matt Rice from American Rivers; and Ben Hoffman from Ute Water. You can watch the recording here. Here are some takeaways from the event, according to our panelists:

Collaboration is key in this historically dry year.

Panelists highlighted partnerships with other water users, agencies and nonprofits in the Colorado River Basin to share water – and still make sure there’s some for endangered fish. “This is such a challenging year; there’s just no water,” Rice said. “We are not going to get out of a year like this unless we work together.” 

Everyone is suffering this year.

There can be a tendency for Western Slopers to point fingers at the Front Range, which diverts about 500,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water a year, and insist they share the pain by cutting back on these diversions. But panelists reminded us that some Front Range water providers are feeling the squeeze too. Denver Water, for example, already has mandatory drought restrictions, and is draining Antero Reservoir and moving the water downstream due to the drought. “They can always do more, but everyone is suffering and they are as well,” Flinker said.

Engagement is important.

In years like this, it’s crucial the public learns about and gets involved with local water issues, and panelists offered a variety of ways people can do this: attend the River District’s State of the River meetings; talk to friends, family and HOAs; support nonprofits working on water issues; attend meetings of local watershed groups and roundtables; and make sure elected officials know how important water is to local communities. “Only then does water and healthy rivers elevate to the political level I think they should be at,” Rice said.

Know where your water comes from and appreciate it.

Panelists stressed the importance of education and not taking water for granted. Bergonzini said that since the Grand Valley has been so blessed with incredible water rights that water doesn’t hold the value that it should. “When you lose sight of the value of such an important resource, that’s the first step to losing it,” she said.
Thanks to the CMU Water Center and our panelists for a great event, which was also covered by Aspen Daily News and the Grand Junction Sentinel.