Water: Big questions hardest to answer in Colorado

The Pueblo Chieftain (Colorado): Should Colorado curtail growth in cities to avoid drying up farms? Should Colorado set aside water for energy development? Has growing corn become energy development? Should cities remove green belts or landscaping at shopping centers to conserve water?

Most importantly, does the state even have any say on issues like these or will the march of progress dictate future water development? Those were the types of questions members of the Colorado Water Conservation Board and Interbasin Compact Committee grappled with at a joint meeting last week. Without much resolution.

There is agreement that the state is headed for a train wreck if cooperative solutions cannot be found. The South Platte and Arkansas rivers have been overappropriated - meaning there are more water rights claimed than water is available for except during floods - for more than a century.

The Colorado River is not overappropriated, but California, Arizona and Nevada have grown more quickly and are already using their full share of the river. Climate change could mean the flows of the future are much less than historical flows. A call by the downstream states could reduce the amount of water Front Range cities depend on to fill out their supplies. In short, there is not enough water to go around…..

The South Platte River in Denver, shot by Tim Kiser (Malepheasant), Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License