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‘Wet Water’ Vs. ‘Paper Water’: New Eric Kuhn Study — Colorado River with Only 150,000 Acre Feet (AF) of Additional Water Left for Colorado Itself, According to the Colorado River Compact; 10% of ‘Paper Water’ Lies!!! — “I’d Rather be Upstream with a Shovel and a Ditch than Downstream with a Decree.” (Aquadoc, WaterWired)

Mar.04, 2009 in Public Works, Water Crisis, Water Industry, Water Management, Water Rights

(March 4, 2009, Aquadoc, WaterWired)

The current issue (2 March 2009) of the High Country News has a revealing article by Matt Jenkins, “How Low Will It Go?”. Jenkins describes the mission of Eric Kuhn, an engineer and former submariner who now runs the Colorado River Water Conservation District in western Colorado.

So what is his mission? Simple. Figure out exactly how much Colorado River water the state of Colorado really has left for future growth, which everyone knows is coming, mainly in the Front Range (Denver, Colorado Springs, etc.) area.

You are no doubt wondering, “Doesn’t Colorado know how much additional water it is entitled to according to the Colorado River Compact?” Sure – it’s something like 1.5 MAF, enough for maybe another 12 million new residents, which Jenkins says is four times the projected increase over the next 25 years. At least that’s what the water managers say is available. No sense is scaring away potential residents and businesses.

Kuhn’s curiosity got the best of him, so he dug into every record, report, etc., he could find, and after months of studying and calculating, came up with a number: 150,000 AF, or 10% of the ‘conventional wisdom’. That is ‘wet water’, as opposed to ‘paper water’, two curious concepts in Western water law. The former is what is actually available; the latter is what some decree, document, or compact says you have the rights to. Big difference!

Reminds me of the saying, “I’d rather be upstream with a shovel and a ditch than downstream with a decree.”

The interesting thing is that the State of Colorado, during a trial, admitted that there are only about 159,000 AF actually left for development, pretty close to Kuhn’s number.

WaterWired’s Take: Who knows whether Kuhn is correct, but my money’s on him. It is refreshing to see a Western water manager “tell it like it is”, willing to risk ostracism and criticism by those who cling to an optimistic Pollyanna mindset.

If the Front Range wants to grow, there will likely have to be some ferocious water conservation measures required, as well as some purchases from a lot of senior water-rights holders.

And we haven’t even discussed oil-shale development in western Colorado.

Perhaps it’s time to take Ray Walker seriously.

(Original Post Here)