From the Desk of State Representative Mary Hodge (HD 30):
Earlier this month the Water Legislative Review Committee joined the Colorado Foundation for Water Education on a tour of the South Platte and was able to see some of the challenges involved in maintaining adequate water to supply the continued growth along the Front Range. It's generally accepted that much of the water for this growth is going to come from agriculture. Agriculture owns nearly 85% of the water rights in Colorado, and the bulk of our water is on the western slope. Much of the water currently being used by eastern Colorado agriculture will need to be reallocated.
A question we asked was: should municipalities just "buy and dry," meaning buy all the available water and dry up the land? Communities dependent upon the agriculture economy can suffer greatly when that economy is crippled. This affects the implement dealers, the grocery stores, the schools, and the restaurants.
Or is there a softer landing in which a municipality buys or leases just some of the water from the land and asks farmers to lay fallow some fields? I passed legislation in 2006 making this an option.
How much can water conservation effect this equation?
What effects will there be to the river as we reuse more water?
We started our tour at Metro Wastewater Reclamation. The South Platte River downstream of this plant (64th and York) is largely treated effluent discharged from the plant. Increasing quality standards and how Metro Wastewater is meeting that challenge was the focus of this part of the tour.
From there we went to Barr Lake State Park. Barr Lake, until Metro Wastewater started secondary treatment of wastewater in 1965, was filled largely with raw sewage. Three miles away in Brighton, the stench was so bad that a lawsuit was surely eminent. The lake is still not pristine and is a focus of much testing by Metro Wastewater to continue to improve the water quality. We also learned of the expense involved in treating this water to get it to drinking water standards (reverse osmosis was the treatment of choice, however it creates its own waste concerns).
On to Pawnee Power Plant, a coal fired electrical generating facility, near Bush, Colorado. It is highly dependent on a secure source of water because steam is required to turn the turbines that generate the electricity. The 2001 drought caused Xcel, the owner of the plant, to add more water to their portfolio, a difficult task on the high plains.
Along the bus route we were shown examples of "buy and dry" land and some of the results of wells shut down because of a lack of augmentation water. In response to "buy and dry" concerns, Parker Water and Colorado State University have set up an experimental acreage to measure how much water certain crops need to remain viable when involved in rotational fallowing. They had plots of soybeans, corn, and sunflowers under an elaborate sprinkler system that could be programmed for a variety of situations.
We also heard speakers who discussed the effect of increasing urbanization on wildlife. We also learned about conservation gardens, water development by Northern Water, dual water systems, how diversion dams work, and meeting our endangered species compact.
Our next meeting will be July 21 at Western State College in Gunnison where we will consider cisterns, hydroelectricity, and the pros and cons of a collaborative effort by Northern Water Conservancy and Central Water Conservancy to provide more augmentation water to the river.
If you would like to learn more about Representative Hodge, or read her future newsletters, please visit
www.maryhodge.com. Also after eight years in the State House, Mary is now running for SD 25 to represent Thornton, Brighton, Commerce City, and Eastern Adams County.