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Water conflicts predicted
It is highly likely that the Front Range area of Colorado will see people in conflict over water by the year 2025.
By By:Sean Hadden
It is highly likely that the Front Range area of Colorado will see people in conflict over water by the year 2025.
This is the conclusion of a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation report titled "Water 2025: Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West."
There are a number of factors causing this situation, including explosive population growth in arid areas, aging water storage and delivery systems and the allocation of more water than what exists.
The report is not meant to trigger panic and alarm, said Mark Anderson, manager of the bureau's great plains region.
Its purpose is to begin discussion of real ways to solve problems now to avoid inevitable conflict in the future, Anderson said.
"If people don't start thinking and planning many years out, we will have problems," he said.
The bureau and the U.S. Department of the Interior have recently concluded nine conferences that discussed the growing water crisis in the western U.S., Anderson said. A report detailing the conclusions that came from those nine conferences, held throughout the west from Denver to Austin, Texas, will be available soon.
The recent severe drought in Colorado is only a precursor to how bad things could get if nothing is done, the report says.
Current thinking is to deal with such an event as it occurs. This is known as crisis management and is not effective, the report concludes.
There are a number of measures western states can do now to begin the process of bypassing bitter water conflicts of the future.
Improvement of antiquated irrigation systems can have a drastic effect on water wasted through poor management.
Old equipment can be updated to better manage water delivery systems to save millions of gallons per year, the report says.
Another important method for conserving water is to line canals.
The report says that for every $1 spent lining canals, $10 worth of conserved water can be achieved.
Water banks are another method by which water crises can be alleviated.
The report cites a system operating within the Colorado-Big Thompson Project in Colorado's northern Front Range that has been effective for 50 years.
Water can be rented back and forth between municipal and agricultural water users served by the project.
This way, municipalities can get water for their growing populations and in normal precipitation years, farmers can get water stored by municipalities to keep their agriculture growing, the report said.
And in 2000, a five-year water banking program in the Arkansas River Basin to help farmers receive revenues for temporarily leasing their water to others with the water rights remaining agricultural.
The report also advocates groundwater monitoring and stream flow measurements for critical watersheds, and improvements in the collection of snow pack and runoff data to better predict droughts.
This is the conclusion of a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation report titled "Water 2025: Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West."
There are a number of factors causing this situation, including explosive population growth in arid areas, aging water storage and delivery systems and the allocation of more water than what exists.
The report is not meant to trigger panic and alarm, said Mark Anderson, manager of the bureau's great plains region.
Its purpose is to begin discussion of real ways to solve problems now to avoid inevitable conflict in the future, Anderson said.
"If people don't start thinking and planning many years out, we will have problems," he said.
The bureau and the U.S. Department of the Interior have recently concluded nine conferences that discussed the growing water crisis in the western U.S., Anderson said. A report detailing the conclusions that came from those nine conferences, held throughout the west from Denver to Austin, Texas, will be available soon.
The recent severe drought in Colorado is only a precursor to how bad things could get if nothing is done, the report says.
Current thinking is to deal with such an event as it occurs. This is known as crisis management and is not effective, the report concludes.
There are a number of measures western states can do now to begin the process of bypassing bitter water conflicts of the future.
Improvement of antiquated irrigation systems can have a drastic effect on water wasted through poor management.
Old equipment can be updated to better manage water delivery systems to save millions of gallons per year, the report says.
Another important method for conserving water is to line canals.
The report says that for every $1 spent lining canals, $10 worth of conserved water can be achieved.
Water banks are another method by which water crises can be alleviated.
The report cites a system operating within the Colorado-Big Thompson Project in Colorado's northern Front Range that has been effective for 50 years.
Water can be rented back and forth between municipal and agricultural water users served by the project.
This way, municipalities can get water for their growing populations and in normal precipitation years, farmers can get water stored by municipalities to keep their agriculture growing, the report said.
And in 2000, a five-year water banking program in the Arkansas River Basin to help farmers receive revenues for temporarily leasing their water to others with the water rights remaining agricultural.
The report also advocates groundwater monitoring and stream flow measurements for critical watersheds, and improvements in the collection of snow pack and runoff data to better predict droughts.
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