At such a late stage in the drying American West, water experts tell The Denver Post that creating another study group amounts to procrastination while time is running out
Colorado’s legislative leadership promised this year that the state’s water problems would be the “” of conservation efforts but their keystone proposal focused on the Colorado River and widespread drought plaguing the West is to study the issue further.
The bill would create a 16-member task force, plus an advisory member, consisting of a cross-section of water users including representatives of the Department of Natural Resources, the Colorado Agriculture Commission, members of the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute tribes, water commissions and environmental organizations.
“The Colorado River is certainly critical and of concern to everyone in the state,” McCluskie said. “But for me and my communities, it is the romance, the religion and the spirit of what it means to be Coloradan.” Officials in Colorado could be doing far more, though, than convening another task force, Dan Beard, a former U.S. Bureau of Reclamation commissioner, said. He lambasted the proposal.While Colorado isn’t the biggest water user in the Colorado River Basin, it could still contribute meaningful water savings, Beard said.
Farmhand Adrian Gonzalez irrigates a field of newly planted alfalfa in Calipatria, Calif., part of the Imperial Valley, on Dec. 29, 2022. The valley depends solely on the Colorado River for its surface water supply. The Imperial Valley has rights to more than 1 trillion gallons of Colorado River water each year. The valley’s water rights to the Colorado River are as much as Arizona and Nevada put together. Their rights are twice as much as the rest of the state of California.
There’s always some benefit to the discussions that would arise from such a task force but Jennifer Gimbel, senior water policy scholar at Colorado State University, agreed that this sort of thing has already been done, repeatedly.with 27 members who have held multiple roundtable discussions in recent years to discuss water issues. Roberts previously served on the committee.
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