DENVER—Two men who helped stop some of southern Colorado’s water from being siphoned off to supply growing cities have died following a freak accident at a cabin near Creede.
Fifty-six-year-old Ray Wright, board president for the Rio Grande Water Conservation District, and 53-year-old Doug Shriver, chairman of the Rio Grande Water Users Association, died Friday after more than 2 feet of snow slid off the cabin’s roof and buried them, Mineral County coroner Charles Downing said. The cabin belonged to Wright and the men had apparently been cleaning snow off the roof when the slide occurred.
An autopsy was planned for Monday.
Wright and Shriver were both farmers in the fertile San Luis Valley, where residents successfully fought two efforts in the 1990s to export water from under one ranch to Denver’s suburbs.
Shriver and his wife Karla helped organize opposition to the last effort in 1998. Wright was president of the water conservation district during the fight.
“Those two guys have been the glue of the valley water interests for the last several years,” said Steve Vandiver, director of the conservation district. “They’re just involved with everything that has to do with water and trying to make things work.”
Vandiver said they worked well as a team. He said Wright was a creative thinker but could be pessimisitic and Shriver was more of an optimist.
Colorado Water Congress executive director Douglas Kemper said both men were hard-working and knowledgeable.
“Both had agricultural backgrounds and both were strong supporters of the valley when dealing with complex issues,” Kemper said.
