Aspen Journalism (https://www.aspenjournalism.org/category/water/page/2/)
Heather Sackett
The blue expanse of Ruedi Reservoir as seen from the air. Students with the Carbondale-based Youth Water Leadership Program took to the air with EcoFlight to see how people have modified water in the Roaring Fork watershed.
Reporting on water and rivers in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River basins in collaboration with Swift Communications newspapers and The Water Desk at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
The utilities, working together as Homestake Partners, are looking at building the reservoir in the Homestake Creek valley, south of Minturn, in an area that probably contains fens, which could hinder the project.
If the county’s aquatic ecologist determines, in future years, that the additional water usage is having a negative effect on stream health, the county could limit Skico’s water use to historical levels — about 200 acre-feet a year.
The money will go toward funding projects that align with the goals outlined in the water plan, as well as toward meeting interstate obligations such as the Colorado River Compact.
The goal of the Youth Water Leadership Program is not only to increase students’ knowledge of their local watershed and Colorado River issues, but also to create student-driven, call-to-action projects.
Some in Western Slope agriculture worry that Front Range water providers, backed by a reliable pot of money from their rate-paying customers, can simply pay ranchers to fallow fields without having to reduce their own water consumption.
“Here you have two terrifying holes,” said Kirk Baker, a local expert kayaker. “You should not have to go around. You should be able to go through.”
Taxes on gambling revenue will be given to the Colorado Water Conservation Board to fund a long list of water and river projects.
The historic drought late in the summer of 2018 illustrated some long-acknowledged problems with water rights on the Crystal.
“As the past becomes less of a good guide to the future, we really need to know in greater precision and accuracy what the current state of the snowpack is,” Deems said.
Water managers want to ensure that a demand-management program would spread the burden across different user groups and basins in the name of fairness. But that conflicts with the requirement that participation in any program be voluntary.