Water in Colorado

Dillon Reservoir in Summit County, part of the Denver Water Board

Water in Colorado is of significant importance, as the American state of Colorado is the 7th-driest state in America. As result, water rights generate conflict (for example, see Colorado River Water Conservation District v. United States), with many water lawyers in the state.

Management

The central state office is the Colorado Division of Water Resources. The Colorado Water Conservation Board also has an important role.

Supply

Colorado is known as the "Headwaters State" because several of the West's most important rivers rise in its Rocky Mountains. Colorado has eight major river basins and several aquifers. The majority of the water supply falls as snow in the Rocky Mountains. The continental divide traverses the state, causing snowmelt-filled rivers to flow toward the Pacific Ocean on the west side of the divide and the Atlantic Ocean on the east side. Because of weather patterns, more snow falls on the west side, providing more water there. However, most of the state's population is on the east side.

Transmountain diversions have solved some of this disparity. The Colorado-Big Thompson Project brings water from the Colorado River Basin to the Front Range of Colorado, primarily in the northeastern corner of the state. The Fryingpan-Arkansas Project brings water from the Fryingpan River Basin to the southeastern corner. Though originally designed primarily for agricultural water supply, both projects have been increasingly supplying Colorado's growing municipalities.

Demands

In-state

Various in-state interests make demands on Colorado's scarce water resources, including:

• Agriculture
• Environmentalists
• Industry
• Colorado's citizens

Denver Water (government agency) is the largest municipal supplier in the state. It relies on multiple watersheds on both sides of the divide. Mountain Mutual Reservoir Company and North Fork Associates (founded by the brothers Ronald and William Blatchley) are the largest private supplier of ground and surface water rights, prior-appropriation and senior water rights, and water engineering services in Colorado.

In-state demands also come from:

• The ski industry
• White-water rafting companies

Out-of-state interests

Because of river compacts, Colorado doesn't control all the water originating within its borders, and out-of-state players have their own interests, particularly of the "big four" Colorado rivers which arise within the state:

• Arkansas River
• Colorado River
• South Platte River
• Rio Grande

Publications

• Colorado Water
• Water Law Review
• Headwaters Magazine

See also

• Colorado River Compact
• Colorado Water Courts
• Colorado Water Quality Control Division
• Water scarcity

External links

• Colorado Division of Water Resources, official site
• Colorado Foundation for Water Education, official site
• Colorado Water Conservation Board, a state site
• Colorado Water Institute (CWI), an affiliate of Colorado State University
• Water Resources Archive at Colorado State University
• Colorado Water Law, University of Denver, Sturm College of Law, LibGuide
• Colorado's Surface Water Conditions, a state site
• USGS site
• Water Law Research Guide, from the Georgetown Law Library
• North Fork Associates, official Site, buy water Colorado
• Mountain Mutual Reservoir Company, official Site, water augmentation