Federal Court forces agreements between Denver Water and Colorado Western Slope

Mortgage-Monster.com/Grand-Junction


Federal Court forces agreements between
Denver Water and Colorado Western Slope

It seems that kum-ba-ya is coming to the long lasting
Continental Divide water wars in Colorado. Denver Water and its
longtime Western Slope adversaries are close to resolving a
series of disputes in ways that will make it easier for water to
flow out of faucets on both sides of the Continental Divide. The
Colorado River Water Conservation District’s annual water
seminar at Two Rivers Convention Center in Grand Junction,
Colorado outlined a broad-stroke “roadmap” to the settlement of
water disputes that long have separated Denver and the Western
Slope.
One minute after Colorado acheived statehood it would have
been recognized that water rights were going to be a central
issue in Colorado. Kinda like barbed wire on the rest of the Great
Plains in the central U. S.
Denver Water and the Western Slope face increasing water
demands and pressing court dates in long-lasting litigation.
Attorneys for Denver Water and other water organizations won a
weeklong stay Wednesday in the beginning of a trial on a case in
federal court in which Denver Water’s handling of its Blue River
decree is at issue. In addition to completing the Blue River
decree, which refers to the stream that fills Dillon Reservoir, one
of Denver’s largest water supplies; the agreement would limit the
size of the Denver Water service area. It also would offer the
Western Slope assurance that Denver Water would take no action
to obtain more water without cooperation from the Western
Slope.

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Denver Water serves 1.3 million people and is the state’s oldest
and largest water utility. They need the flexibility to move water
around its system. It’s looking to the settlement to offer Denver
Water the kind of flexibility it needs to manage its system.
The agreement will give the Western Slope, primarily the River
District, a greater voice in the operations of the Shoshone Power
Plant. The Shoshone plant generates 14 megawatts of electricity
from turbines spun by the Colorado River, and its 1902 water
right ensures water will flow from the headwaters of the river to
Glenwood Canyon and below.
If the Shoshone plant was unable to call water downriver, the
Grand Valley’s domestic, agricultural and industrial needs, not to
mention those of four endangered fish species, would have to be
met by other sources, notably the Roaring Fork and Fryingpan
rivers. They join above Glenwood Springs, and those waters flow
into the Colorado River in Glenwood Springs, below the Shoshone
plant. Plateau Creek in De Beque Canyon also could be called
down to meet the Grand Valley requirements, leaving some of
those junior water rights to go unfilled.
Exactly how the Western Slope protections afforded by the
Shoshone Plant’s water right can be continued indefinitely wasn’t
immediately clear. Those negotiations are confidential, Grand
Junction attorney Mark Hermundstad said.
Details of the agreement eventually will be included in court
filings, and several agencies will have to sign off on them.


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