Colorado needs more water storage for a rainless day

With stormy weather on the Front Range this week, it’s easy to lose sight that the state is desperate for water. When water managers met for Colorado Water Conservation Board and Colorado River District meetings last week, the mood was grim.

Colorado Division of Water Resources Deputy State Engineer Mike Sullivan told the group, “I took a look at the river flows the last couple of days. About every river in the state is at least less than half its average. Many of them are at a quarter of their average flows for this time of year. It’s just awful out there. There is no water in the rivers.”

A very dry winter, little spring moisture, and hot summer temperatures have wreaked havoc on the state’s water resources. Rocky Mountain snow supplies the majority of Colorado’s water. At the end of last winter, the snowpack was at 66 percent of the average. Some parts of the snow-starved southern range held half the usual snowpack.

The lack of snow has adversely impacted the whole state. Dry forests full of beetle-kill have been tinder for fire. While late summer monsoon rains will help dowse the flames, the rain will wash burned soil and ash into already diminished rivers.

The rivers are perilously low and fish are at risk of going belly up. Colorado’s iconic trout are cold-water swimmers. Warm water holds less dissolved oxygen. As the rivers warm, fish get lethargic and then stressed when they can’t get enough oxygen. Wildlife officials are asking anglers not to fish certain streams in the afternoon when the river is at its warmest.

Thus the low water hurts the fish, the anglers, and the recreational businesses that depend on them.

The agricultural industry is also experiencing the downstream impacts of not enough water. In some parts of the state, crop yields are down and ranchers are selling off livestock because of lack of fodder.

Three fourths of the state is experiencing some level of drought and the southern range is parched dry by extreme and exceptional drought conditions. Summer rains cannot pull the state out of drought. We need a few very snowy winters to make that happen. Even then, drought will return at some point. It always does.

Unfortunately climate change projections predict more heat and less precipitation. And the state’s population is growing. Colorado is projected to grow to 6 million residents by 2025 and up to 10 million by 2050. That means more demand for an uncertain supply.

While the state has reduced water consumption since the 2002 drought, more can be done to conserve water. However, even maximum conservation will be insufficient. The key to mitigating drought is more water storage. “If drought teaches us anything,” Kent Holsinger, a Denverbased natural resources lawyer, told me, “it’s that the state needs to expand existing storage and to build new storage. The state can better capture water in times of plenty to use in times of scarcity.”

The Colorado Water Plan adopted three years ago acknowledges the need for more water storage: “When we lower demand (conservation) and increase supply (storage), we close the supply-demand gap.”

But can we close the gap before the next exceptional drought? Not without a fight. The main obstacle to increasing water storage is the federal permitting process which requires tens of millions of dollars and decades to complete, says Holsinger. Congress can streamline the system but is unlikely to do so without pressure from impacted states. State officials and Colorado’s representatives in Congress must demand change.

Drought impacts the lives of Coloradans, our wildlife, our economy, and our way of life. The current drought will end but the next one isn’t far behind. With a growing population and a warmer climate, the impact of the next drought is likely to leave us even thirstier, that is, unless the state can store more water for a rainless day.