Water Roundtable holds public meeting

Transbasin transfer and instream flows strike concern

The Gunnison Basin Roundtable held a public meeting last week to continue the discussion on water in Colorado, and like many of the talks that have come before, the meeting focused largely on how to protect water and water rights in the Gunnison Valley as the region and the state undergo changes to land use and population.

As part of a statewide effort to foster communication and local collaboration, the Gunnison roundtable is one of nine basin roundtables established by the Colorado Water for the 21st Century Act. Each roundtable has a set of designated members that include citizens, agency personnel and representatives from the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
While the roundtables share a common mission, each is charged with determining its own set of goals and priorities. In the Gunnison Basin that means protecting existing water uses within the basin itself.
According to Gunnison Roundtable spokesman George Sibley, the human population of Colorado is expected to grow to 8.5 million to 10 million people by 2050. While most of that growth will occur in the Front Range, projections show the Gunnison Basin population will likely double, growing from about 105,000 people to between 200,000 and 240,000 people, depending on the economy. Most of that growth is expected to occur in the Delta/Montrose corridor, but all of it could impact water needs within the valley.
“We foresee a possible shortcome in the amount of water we think we may need and what we are going to be able to provide,” said Sibley. “The gap could be as low as 200,000 acre-feet annually or as large as 600,000 acre-feet statewide. In the Gunnison Basin we anticipate a gap between 4,000 and 6,000 acre-feet of water. We do have a large shortfall in agriculture, but the municipal supply is okay.”
Several members of the public at the Gunnison roundtable voiced their concern not necessarily over the amount of water available here at home, but rather at the state’s possible ability to take water from conventional uses in the watershed and either keep it in the stream for environmental protection or send it to the Front Range, where the shortfall is likely to be much greater.
“We’ve been working hard for a long time with all sorts of different agencies and people to protect water in the Gunnison Basin,” said long-time resident and rancher Phyllis Guerrieri. “At a certain point we need to decide, how much more important are fish than food?”
Sibley then suggested that most of the water that flows in the basin’s rivers and streams is not actually ever removed by ranching and other forms of agriculture.
“A lot of water that we use here is simply slowed in its path down the river by agriculture,” he said. “Most of the water is actually being used in the environment… We have to look at how much the endangered Colorado River fish are our friends at this point.”
Members of the Gunnison Basin Roundtable meet on the first Monday of each month in Montrose. For more information visit the Colorado Water Conservation Board website at http://cwcb.state.co.us.