This graphic summary of Pagosa’s water supply was last updated on November 8, 2024. This data is compiled and provided for SJWCD by Josh Kurz, PSHS science teacher, water scientist, and SJWCD consultant…
— from the San Juan Water Conservancy District (SJWCD) website
Speaking as a member of the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) board of directors, and as a journalist who has written dozens of articles about water policy in Pagosa Springs and Colorado, I found the above “graphic summary” created by high school science teacher, water scientist, and San Juan Water Conservancy District (SJWCD) consultant Josh Kurz to be reasonably accurate.
I would, in fact, feel comfortable if PAWSD shared this graphic on its website, although it’s now currently posted only on the SJWCD website.
But I don’t claim it’s easy to understand what it means, to an ordinary citizen seeking to learn about our complex drinking water infrastructure.
Disclosure: I currently serve as a volunteer PAWSD board member, but this editorial reflects only my own personal opinions and not necessarily the opinions of the PAWSD board or staff.
Josh Kurz attended the Thursday, December 12 meeting of the PAWSD board, and I’d like to quote some of the thoughtful comments he shared during the ‘public comment’ portion of the meeting.
Just before Mr. Kurz arrived at the meeting, the PAWSD board unanimously passed two motions. The first was to file a lawsuit in District Court, asking the court to clarify PAWSD’s right to sell the Running Iron Ranch “at its sole discretion”, according to a 2015 agreement between PAWSD, SJWCD, and the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB).
SJWCD, for whom Mr. Kurz has worked as a consultant, has publicly stated that PAWSD does not, in their opinion, have the right to sell the Ranch, and has pledged to make every possible effort to prevent the sale. SJWCD has also called for a robust community conversation before the Ranch is sold.
The second PAWSD action on Thursday was to formally and publicly declare the District’s intention to sell the Ranch. The board had not previously made that declaration formally, that I can recall.
These two board decisions had been made place following an hour-long executive session with two PAWSD attorneys.
PAWSD board president Jim Smith then invited members of the audience to address the board with any concerns. Mr. Kurz — who had not heard those two board motions — was the sole member of the public to address the board. He began by distributing a three-page essay to the board, and then summarized the essay verbally.
Mr. Kurz, speaking:
“I know some of you may have been on the board for a decade or more. I know Glenn [Walsh] has been on the board forever, so you’ve had a lot of time to get involved in studying this. Since I’ve lived here, we’ve had affordable access to clean water, so I appreciate the generosity that you guys put forth.
“In 2022, the San Juan Water Conservancy District hired me to do some educational outreach, and I created a graphic [shown above] to try to diagram the whole system, because I felt like, before we could discuss future projects, the community needed to understand our existing projects. Our existing infrastructure.
So I outlined some watershed principles and hydrologic measurements. I basically wanted to make sure that the community was able to make decisions about future water [needs]…”
Here, Mr. Kurz seems to be implying that “the community” is the body mainly responsible for making decisions about future water needs. This assertion reflects a certain philosophy about democratic government… that “the community” should not merely offer advice, but should actually be involved in making important decisions about Pagosa’s future direction.
There are, of course, certain problems with expecting “the community” to make these types of decisions.
When, in 2017, the SJWCD board asked “the community” to approve a slight increase in its property tax mill levy, to move the Dry Gulch Reservoir project forward, the ballot measure failed by a 3-to-1 margin.
From an article in the Pagosa Springs SUN, November 2017:
Ballot Issue 5A, the San Juan Water Conservancy District’s (SJWCD) request for an increase to 1 mill to help with the land acquisition for and support the San Juan River Headwaters Project reservoir, was soundly defeated Tuesday, with 75.44 percent of voters against the measure (2,697 votes).
Was this because “the community” was poorly informed about a dire water situation?
Or was it because “the community” was well-informed enough to make a sensible (and decisive) decision about a property tax increase?
I would suggest the latter.
Mr. Kurz continued:
“That was phase one. So my next phase was to provide some educational outreach about some pros and cons of different water supply options… of no reservoir, or a reservoir, or alternatives to a reservoir. I haven’t done that, so that hasn’t been accomplished.
“But despite all that research I’ve done, I still — personally — have a hard time understanding, like, whether the [Dry Gulch] reservoir is necessary or not. There are pros and cons on both sides.
“But regardless of the stance, I feel like we need to engage the public before we make any major decisions.”
I want to pause here, in Mr. Kurz’ comments — he has some additional interesting things to say — but I need to point something out. Mr. Kurz teaches environmental science at Pagosa Springs High School, and has led his classes through annual studies of Pagosa’s water systems and river conditions.
Additionally, he has been hired by SJWCD as a consultant with the job of educating the general public about our water systems. To that end, he developed an informative slide show to accompany his public lectures about the San Juan River and our community’s water resources, which you can view here.
It would be easy to suggest that Mr. Kurz knows more about water than 99% of people in “the community”.
Yet, he tells us that — after 25 years living in Pagosa, and 16 years after the purchase of the Running Iron Ranch — he still has “a hard time understanding, like, whether the reservoir is necessary or not.”
I will offer a couple of obvious conclusions, from that statement.
1. The Dry Gulch Reservoir issue is incredibly complicated, and even after years of consideration, even water experts cannot say whether it’s necessary or not.
2. To expect 99% of “the community” to become educated enough to come to well-informed final conclusions about the Dry Gulch Reservoir — which is to say, more informed and more certain than Mr. Kurz is currently — is asking the impossible.
Beyond that, I would propose that no one can ever say whether the Dry Gulch Reservoir “is necessary”. Pagosa has grown, since 1880, from a population of zero to a population of 14,500 that also serves thousands of tourist visitors, without the “need” for the Dry Gulch Reservoir. The original plan for the reservoir, in 2009, would have served a population of 160,000 people at current water demand.
That being said, I think some of Mr. Kurz’ other comments are well worth sharing…
Read Part Four, tomorrow…