Colorado and the West is running out of water . . . (Pueblo: gated, subdivisions)

[Josseppie]

Is Colorado running out of water and if so how will that affect the cites that have plenty of water?

[lone sailor]

http://www.city-data.com/forum/color...out-water.html

[Josseppie]

Thank you!

[Josseppie]

What does everyone think of the Southern Delivery system? This was in today's Pueblo Chieftain.

http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2008/12/31/news/local/doc495b279d4f3f2110912577.txt

[McGowdog]

Oh yeah. The Search function and using the Go Advanced option and then putting a few words in the top left such as "Colorado" and "running" and "out" and "of water", then put Jazzlover in the poster search on the top right, then select the Colorado subforum and hit enter and there ya go...

You asked me a question in a DM, my quick answer is that I'm learning and haven't got enough of the facts yet to form a thought or opinion on it yet; but Jazz and some others on here have got a bead on it. I've thrown my limited experience and thoughts on the subject in there too, but you'll have to dig a bit.

Your whole

and if so how will that affect the cites that have plenty of water?

comment takes us back to either the 1st, 2nd or maybe 3rd response I ever directed to you.

Let me ask you this question; what "cities" that are not of the Western Slope do you consider to have plenty of water?

I think God will supply us with the water we need (not want) and that's not up for debate. But, we can't predict how that's all gonna go. If you don't agree with me on that, then cry me a river.

Add: oh, just fyi. I try to respond to the OP upfront out of respect. Then I get down to business. Then when I make a closing comment, it's not necessarily a comment back to the OP such as is the case here, but directed back towards comments or thoughts popularized by others' from the past- such as is the case here.

[Josseppie]

MCGowDog.

On your question of which cities, not on the western slope, have plenty of water?

There is one for sure, Pueblo. We have enough water for a city of close to 500,000 people and now buying the majority rights in the Bessemer ditch, not sure how much more water that will give, but that combined with water rights we get from annexing more land should be enough for a city close to 750,000 people.

Given even the most optimistic growth projections on gorwth for Pueblo over the next 100 years, that will be more then enough for us.

[Katiana]

I never thought I'd be doing this, but I'm going to recommend a thread of jazzlover's for those who don't seem to understand the CO water situation.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/color...out-water.html

[McGowdog]

Spare me please... But anywho... it is true that a river runs through it. But that don't mean all that water belongs to you and me. Some of it belongs to Kansas. Some belongs to some farmers throughout the Ark Valley. There's irrigated farming down through there, ya know? Some of it belongs to the fishies. Some of it belongs to industry, etc.

Now moving up the river a bit, some of it belongs to Colorado Springs, some of it belongs to Aurora, the recreation industry, etc.

You can water your lawn 2 times a day in the summer... so long as there isn't a restriction like we had a couple of years ago. The only time I watered my lawn more than a few times to several times a week and either once in the early morning or once in the evening was during the first 30 days that it was seeded; Taravella hydro-mulch.

[Josseppie]

I understand that about the river, just because it comes through Pueblo does not mean we have all the water but my point is Pueblo has enough water rights for a city close to 500,000 people and the board of water works is buying the majority rights to the Bessemer ditch which will gives us even more water.

As far as Aurora, they lease water from Pueblo, that is one reason we have such low water rates.

Agreed during the last drought Pueblo was on restriction for about a month or so but that has been the only time in my life since we do have so much water. In fact I just looked at my bill and I use about 50,000 gallons of water during the summer months and the highest was 85,000 gallons of water for one month during the summer. Seems high, but that's what the bill says.

[tfox]

Actually, I think most of the older cities and water boards, like Pueblo, do have ample water supplies. Denver Water has managed to steal enough western slope water to serve its customer base for, well... pretty much forever, considering that the population that Denver Water serves is stable (Denver Water doesn't serve the newer suburban areas). I know that the cities of Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont, and Boulder are have quite a bit of water storage and are also stable in population -- that is, if someone doesn't try to "steal" their water to hand over to sprawl interests -- and in the case of Poudre River water, that's exactly what water boards are fighting to do as we speak.

It's the new "boomburgs" that are the problem. Practically all of Douglas County relies heavily on non-renewable groundwater supplies -- and when the water's gone, it's gone. The huge population influx in Weld County is mostly fueled by purchased agricultural water rights (in addition to the aforementioned "water war" over Poudre River water). Aurora is having to flex its (now considerable) political muscle to satisfy its thirsty population. As you know, Colorado Springs is wrangling with Pueblo over its share of Arkansas River water.

What's going to happen, sadly, is the exact thing that has already happened in Phoenix, Arizona. There, the exploding population growth long ago sapped up surface water rights, so development simply dried up agriculture to feed the sprawl machine there. Today, much of the agricultural heritage of the valley of the sun (citrus, cotton, etc) has disappeared as the farms and orchards have been replaced by subdivisions. Only a few short decades ago, agriculture was the primary industry of the Phoenix area. Now, it's on the way to extinction.

What SHOULD happen here is conservation. Our predicament really isn't all that dire, when you consider that MOST of our municipal water use goes to lawn watering. As I've said before, one easy way to save water is to regulate this. We need not eliminate grass altogether, but simply regulate how much of the lot can be covered with grass (making an exception for native and ornamental grasses, of course). There's no reason to carpet the property end-to-end in bluegrass anyway. These few simple steps could stretch our water supply a LONG way.