| Despite drought, Colorado has to
let water go
(Note: This is a fascinating story about water and the different places that parts of a river flow to, but notice the way that different entities are -- without coming right out and saying it -- seeking to withhold water and charge a great deal more money for it. This appears to be shaping up to become a bidding war, just like California and Oregon's water. Lastly, note the 'professional' comments by the USGS employee about goofed up flow readings.) March 10, 2003 By Kit Miniclier Denver Post Staff Writer The Denver Post 1560 Broadway Denver, CO 80202-1577 1-800-336-7678 303-820-1331 Fax: 303-820-1502 To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@denverpost.com Trillions of gallons of water flow out of Colorado every year to 18 other states and Mexico -- even though Colorado is in the midst of the worst drought in memory. Given the dry spell's severity, why doesn't Colorado simply turn off the spigot and keep the water here? For one thing, it's not physically possible -- because there aren't enough dams and reservoirs to hold it back. But more importantly, water experts say, the state has both a legal and a moral duty to let the water flow. Over the past 81 years, Colorado has signed 18 interstate compacts that guarantee downstream users water. "The idea that somehow all the water that rises in our state belongs to us and is free for our use is not well thought-out," said veteran Colorado water lawyer David Robbins. "Once the water leaves Colorado, it is not Colorado's water," added Robbins, who has been practicing water law for 28 years. Bob McLavey, Colorado's deputy commissioner of agriculture, agrees. "Obviously, because Colorado is the source of water for numerous other states, we do have a legal and moral obligation to live up to our previous agreements," he said. The Colorado River Water Users Association notes that Colorado has been called the mother of rivers. The North and South Platte, the Arkansas, the Rio Grande and the Colorado all begin in Colorado's mountains. Historically, the state exports an average of 10.7 million acre-feet of water annually through its 18 outbound rivers and streams, according to the Division of Water Resources and the U.S. Geological Survey. That's almost 3.5 trillion gallons. (There are 325,851 gallons in an acre-foot.) In times of severe drought, it isn't easy to let that much water flow out of the state when Colorado's own reservoirs are so low. For example, the John Martin Reservoir on the Arkansas River, 18 miles upstream from Lamar, has a capacity of 233,000 acre-feet but today contains only 36,000 acre-feet, McLavey said. But low reservoirs notwithstanding, the requirement to let water leave Colorado must be met. The highest-profile interstate water compact involves the Colorado River, the nation's fifth-longest. The 1922 Colorado River Compact divides the water of that river system, which includes Wyoming's Green River and many other tributaries. The Upper Basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and part of Arizona, and the Lower Basin states of California, Nevada and the rest of Arizona, plus a bit of New Mexico and Utah, are apportioned 7.5 million acre-feet annually, with an additional 1 million acre-feet annually for the Lower Basin. A subsequent 1944 treaty gives Mexico at least 1.5 million acre-feet a year. Among other compacts: New Mexico and Texas share the Rio Grande. Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas share the Arkansas River before it enters the Mississippi. After that point, Mississippi and Louisiana share it. Nebraska holds Platte River rights before its waters run into the Missouri River. From that point, Missouri and Iowa share its waters. When it reaches the Mississippi, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee share the waters. "We are not really exporting water. It originates here and runs out. Colorado, Wyoming and Montana have the distinction of being headwater states," said Ken Wahl, a recently retired hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. In years of normal precipitation, Colorado doesn't use anywhere near its legal limit of Colorado River water -- making it relatively easy to fulfill its obligations under that compact. But in drought years, the requirement may prove problematic because -- though in-state flows may be drastically reduced by the drought -- out-of-state obligations stay the same. It's still too early to say whether Colorado will be able to meet those obligations this year. Both McLavey and Rod Kuharich, director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, the state's water-policy agency, agree the snowpack in the mountains is much better than it was at this time last year, thanks in part to recent snowstorms. But the statewide average reservoir capacity at the end of February was just 52 percent, compared with a good-year average of 85 percent going into March, McLavey added. In that context, Kuharich warns, "it will take several years to fill the state's reservoirs," which have been drawn down dramatically over the last four years. "I have a funny feeling that water entities will continue water-use restrictions in an attempt to build up the reservoirs as much as possible," he added. State water officials also are looking at another option for getting water to thirsty Front Range users, an option that could someday have bearing on downstream users of Colorado River water. The so-called 'Big Straw project' would siphon water from a point near the Utah border and pump it back over the mountains. Legislators last month appropriated $500,000 for a study of the project, which -- if undertaken -- would not come into play for years. Meanwhile, it is about a month too early to accurately forecast this year's stream flows and this winter's impact on long-term drought relief, said Bill Horak, district chief for the U.S. Geological Survey in Colorado. The Geological Survey has had stream-flow gauges in Colorado for 30 to 100 years. However, during winter months, many of the gauges are under ice, "which goofs up the flow," Horak said. Although Colorado's yearly water "exports" to other states may seem high, they pale in comparison with those of Montana, which sends an average of 30 million acre-feet downstream annually via the Missouri, Yellowstone and Clark Fork rivers, hydrologist Wahl said. The last two major dry years in Colorado were in 1977 and 1980. Both were bracketed by wet years with above-average moisture. However, the state is now going into its fourth dry year, and experts say it will take two or three years for subsoil moisture to be replenished in drought-stricken areas of the Eastern Plains and southwest.
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