Gov. John Hickenlooper on Wednesday received the first draft of Colorado's very first statewide water plan, launching another year of discussion over how the state can best meet the needs of a growing population.
Water experts across the state have called the draft plan a good "first step," and Hickenlooper echoed that assessment in his remarks at a press conference at the state Capitol Wednesday afternoon.
"This is the first draft fo the first water plan in Colorado's history," he said, thanking the "thousands of people who participated it."
> Download the 419-page draft plan here.
> Click here for the state's website presenting the plan.
Hickenlooper called the plan "a good first step in securing Colorado's water future."
The draft has another year, until December 2015, to be completed to comply with the executive order Hickenlooper issued in 2013.
The plan aims to address the gap in water supplies — estimated at about a 500,000 acre feet, about 163 billion gallons of water per year, or more — that's expected to exist by about 2050, when the state's population will have nearly doubled to about 10 million people.
The plan doesn't focus on specific projects, but outlines how various interests across the state can work together to garner support for projects and also present that united support to federal agencies that oversee the permitting process for those projects, according to state officials.
The plan also doesn't change anything in regard to water rights being a property right, or prevent the buying and selling of those rights, state officials said.
"This allows us to look at how Colorado can secure its future and not pit East Slope against West Slope, against municipal water use," Hickenlooper said, adding that the plan is a path for how competing interests — growing cities, agriculture, environment and recreational needs — can strike a balance.
Already, the plan has identified about $20 billion in infrastructure projects that are needed across the state between now and 2050, Eklund said.
"We have to have a plan to pay for those projects," he said, noting that voters approved new taxes in California and Texas to pay for water projects because those two states had "made the case" for the need for more money.
"This plan is a platform to have that discussion," Eklund said.
As for concerns that the plan will lead to more water being shifted from the rural and wet Western Slope to the more populous and dry Eastern Slope, Hickenlooper shied away from saying that won't happen in the future.
But if all sides "work hard enough at it, it won't dramatically increase the need for more water diversions," the governor said.
However, others said the plan, as it undergoes another year of revisions and comments, need to focus on other aspects of the state's water supplies.
Trout Unlimited said it wanted to see more emphasis on conserving existing water supplies, modernizing irrigation technology, and a thorough assessment of the water needed to keep Colorado's rivers and streams healthy.
"Healthy rivers and the habitat provided by Colorado's working agricultural lands are vital to Colorado's fishing and hunting heritage and economy, and Colorado's Water Plan should protect those values," said David Nickum, executive director of Colorado Trout Unlimited.
Six large environmental groups issued a statement praising the existence of the draft plan, but said that it fell short in several areas, such as providing real, actionable steps that protect Colorado's natural resources, and making a priority list of options that would avoid the need for diverting more water across the Continental Divide to the Front Range.
The groups said they hoped the plan would include a statewide goal of reducing water use by 20 percent by 2030, which they said was "in line" with the goals of other Western states.
The groups were the American Rivers, Audubon, Conservation Colorado , Environmental Defense Fund, San Juan Citizens Alliance and Western Resource Advocates.
