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Lake Mead photo by Time Magazine
By BARRY NOREEN, THE GAZETTE
There is a tendency to think of the Colorado River as a raging torrent, but the truth is that for years it has been slowly drying up.
In Colorado Springs there is a tendency to think the river is far away, even though 70 to 80 percent of the water city residents use comes from the Colorado River Basin.
If you put those two realities together the inescapable conclusion is that the city must promote conservation while developing other sources of supply. The same is true for the Denver metro area, where some customers depend on Colorado River water while others pump from groundwater supplies that eventually will be gone.
When finite aquifers are pumped away the competition for surface water will become more intense than it already is.
The tenuous situation for the river and those who depend on it was the topic for a Colorado College event Monday called “The Colorado River Basin and Climate: Perfect Storm for the 21st Century?” If you wanted sunshine and lollipops, it was the wrong event to attend.
But gradually rising temperatures in the landscape drained by the Colorado, combined with dramatic increases in water use, mean the river is under a lot of pressure.
Whether you believe, as reputable scientists do, in global warming, there is no debate about some hard facts: Major reservoirs on the Colorado, Lake Meade and Lake Powell, have been drying up for decades and there is little chance they’ll ever be full again.
High temperatures mean a higher evapo-transpiration rate, so whatever precipitation there is has less impact. And there are legal limits placed on Colorado for the river that bears its name, because in 1922 the state entered into a seven-state compact that divvied up the water.
“The system is being run very close to the edge already,” said Jeff Lukas of Western Water Assessment, an organization that has focused on the Colorado. “What lies ahead for the Colorado River? Lower average flow is likely.”
Dismiss the impacts of global warming if you wish. Utilities, including Colorado Springs Utilities, have pooled money to study it.
Gary Bostrom, chief water resources officer for Springs Utilities, agrees there have been impacts from global warming and it will be difficult to obtain more Colorado river water.
“This is one of the reasons, given the realities, that SDS (the Southern Delivery System water project) is so important,” Bostrom said. “It allows us to diversify into another river.”
If you doubt the mighty Colorado could be fully tapped, drive to Garden City, Kan. That’s where the Arkansas River runs dry. And if you doubt that global warming can affect your own water supply, it’s time to listen to scientists instead of politicians.
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