Whenever folks on the Front Range and the Western Slope can find a piece of common ground on water policy, it’s reason to take heart.
That’s certainly the case with an expansive new water-use agreement, the details of which have been trickling out in the last few days.
The Colorado River Cooperative Agreement has the potential to equitably address issues surrounding the scarce resource and perhaps end the century-old water wars between the regions.
That would be quite an accomplishment. The big task ahead will be for each of the parties involved to sell the agreement to their individual constituencies.
Given the depth of hostility that water disputes have engendered over the years, finding broad consensus may not prove to be the easiest thing to do.
The agreement, reportedly being called a “peace pact” by those involved, would allow Denver to move forward with additional water diversions from the Winter Park and Dillon areas.
Western Slope interests would pledge not to engage in legal action to stop such activity.
But the deal also would limit future diversions by Denver Water, require the utility to keep Dillon Reservoir nearly full except in specified drought conditions, and pay for $22 million in water plants and mountain ecosystem improvements.
Perhaps the most important tenet of the deal — at least from the perspective of the Front Range — involves provision of water for communities in the South Metro area, such as Castle Rock and Centennial. Those communities tend to rely heavily on groundwater and face the prospect of seeing wells go dry in coming years.
In exchange, South Metro water agencies would have to promise not to attempt to divert water from an area that stretches from Grand Junction in the west to Summit and Grand counties in the east.
No party is going to be entirely satisfied by the pact, but such is the nature of a compromise.
The deal is a long time coming. Tensions over water have been festering for decades, a function of demographics and climatology. While most of the precipitation in Colorado falls on the western side of the Continental Divide, the majority of Coloradans live east of the divide.
Denver Water took early and prescient action to secure water rights, which put Denver in good position to satisfy its customers but left mountain residents embittered as they saw available water diverted and river levels fall.
Part of the proposed agreement would address the environmental impacts of declining river flows — an important consideration.
The details of the deal, which have been negotiated for years behind closed doors, will become public on Thursday.
Gov. John Hickenlooper will stand with leaders of six key parties to the agreement and hail what they’re already calling an “unprecedented” pact.
We hope affected constituents will put the agreement in historic perspective and consider the breadth and depth of the conflict that would be ended before passing judgment on whether the sacrifices they’re being asked to make are acceptable.
