Colorado River District looking to engage state lawmakers on water efforts

Looking at rural issues of funding and infrastructure challenges

By Katherine Nettles 

Colorado River District representatives met with Gunnison County commissioners in a work session on Tuesday for an annual update and discussed a range of topics, from drinking water and wastewater treatment funds, to the costs of maintaining and updating rural water infrastructure to gap weather radars and LIDAR (light detection and ranging) flights. 

Zane Kessler, director of government relations for the Colorado River District, said the district has been focusing in the past year on drinking water source redundancy to give communities aid in case of drought or fire, as well as how to handle diminishing state funding for specific infrastructure and restoration projects.  

“There is a lot of money being put out there for wildfire-ready watersheds and community wildfire protection,” said Sonja Chavez, the Gunnison County representative for the river district and also Upper Gunnison River Water Conservation District (UGRWCD) manager. “What we’re lacking is the next step to be able to get things done in the forest system.” 

She said her understanding is that the Grand Mesa Uncompahgre and Gunnison (GMUG) national forest district is understaffed and unable to make new hires due to major budget shortfalls and affordable housing issues.  

Chavez said she has advocated for U.S. Forest Service employees in the GMUG to receive incentive pay, as they do in Denver. 

“Something needs to change with that formula,” she said, about which she said she had talked with U.S. Senator Michael Bennet last week. 

Kessler agreed that incentives, even for those working through local initiatives, would be beneficial. He encouraged commissioners and Chavez to continue engaging in such conversations at the state capitol and representing the community even at the federal level. 

Another topic of discussion was how the state puts federal money into generalized funds for water infrastructure and restoration projects based on population, so more rural areas are at a disadvantage. Chavez lamented that congressional delegates then also earmark funds for specific projects in a community, and while the projects themselves are worthwhile, they also deplete overall state funds that are pooled to general water resource/quality control. An example is the city of Gunnison’s water treatment plant project, which is being partially funded through the state. Commissioners and district representatives discussed the importance of letting delegates know that earmarking funds is running down the state’s budget for important water quality efforts and low interest loan programs. 

Commissioner chair Jonathan Houck said he sees rural communities, particularly with large swaths of public lands, getting further behind on vegetation management, fire response, cheatgrass mitigation and other needs due to lack of funding resources. “The federal government is a major employer in communities like ours, yet not players financially, strategically, and in housing,” he said.

The discussion focused on how to find funding to advance these efforts. 

Kessler acknowledged that a lot of the river district’s investments have been made locally in agricultural efficiency projects, which improve drinking water and river health, and asked what else is needed.

“We really appreciate your support for the LIDAR snow flights,” said Chavez, which she noted are expensive and require several funding sources. She said it was a struggle to get the county’s gap weather radar installed, but reported that installation is now in progress and other communities interested in getting radars need support to build a network that strengthens the district’s forecasting and management ability. “Anything targeted toward the Colorado River Basin …could be really beneficial” she said. Other ideas were focused on discussions around the ongoing Crystal River protection efforts, water augmentation measures, water quality testing for heavy metals and how to ramp up contaminant detection and treatment in the future.

Chavez said she is working hard to get a Colorado River District and lawmakers meeting on the Western Slope in which staff and constituents can attend, since so many are held on the Front Range.