So far in this editorial series, we’ve summarized three of the four public presentations given during the Upper San Juan Water Enhancement Partnership (WEP) Zoom meeting on March 31: an overview of Colorado water law by water commissioner Joe Crabb; an overview of the newly-approved Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation (PAWSD) Drought Management Plan, by PAWSD district manager Justin Ramsey; and an overview of potential improvements to Archuleta County’s agricultural ditch system, by San Juan Conservation District manager Cynthia Purcell.
We haven’t yet dug into the longest of the four presentations that evening — a 45-minute look at environmental and recreational water flows, presented by Seth Mason of Lotic Hydrological LLC.
According to the Lotic website, Mr. Mason received his M.S. in Land Resources and Environmental Sciences from Montana State University and his B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado, Boulder…
He specializes in hydrological modeling; stream characterization; deployment and operation of data collection and management systems; and development and coordination of water quality monitoring and assessment activities…
When he’s not finger painting, eating dirt or jumping in puddles with his two young sons, Seth enjoys getting outside on skinny skis, fat skis, mountain bikes and various types of river craft. A retired member of the U.S. Men’s Whitewater Raft Team, Seth still spends many summer days seeking out whitewater or floating through one of Colorado’s scenic river canyons…
Seth serves as a board member on the Mount Sopris Nordic Council and the United States Rafting Association — organizations focused on making frozen and liquid water sports more accessible and enjoyable to the communities they serve.
We might judge from this biography that Mr. Mason has a special place in his heart for recreation, and for the recreational opportunities afforded by frozen or liquid water. Much of Lotic Hydrological’s past work has focused, however, on environmental stream conditions — rather than purely recreational issues.
But water-related recreation is playing an ever-larger role in Colorado water planning, it seems.
This expanded role has a special relevance to me, as a volunteer serving on the San Juan Water Conservancy District board of directors. Over the past six months, the SJWCD has been considering the possibility of abandoning an older municipal water right that, back in 1967, would have allowed our community to build a 39,000 acre-foot reservoir on the West Fork of the San Juan River, in the middle of what is now the Bootjack Ranch in Mineral County. A previous SJWCD board agreed, several years ago, to try and move the water right to a new location… or to sell the water right… or to abandon it… by June 21, 2021.
This somewhat vexatious water right currently allows for a 24,000 acre-foot reservoir… but not on the Bootjack Ranch.
Note: Although I currently serve on the San Juan Water Conservancy District board of directors, this editorial series reflects only my personal perspectives and opinions, and not necessarily the perspectives or opinions of anyone else on the SJWCD Board.
SJWCD recently commissioned a study from Lakewood-based Wilson Water Group to sketch out the options — which, as it turned out, are basically ‘one option’. The reservoir location, they thought, could possibly be moved to the Running Iron Ranch, in the Dry Gulch Valley north of downtown Pagosa.
But SJWCD already holds water rights for an 11,000 acre-foot reservoir in that same location… and essentially promised, in 2011, not to build a reservoir larger than that size.
Would it make sense to move a 24,000 acre-foot West Fork water right to Dry Gulch? Apparently not. As part of their research, Wilson Water Group (WWG) determined that SJWCD would find it challenging to expand the Dry Gulch Reservoir project to 24,000 acre-feet based on municipal or agricultural demands. WWG calculated the future municipal water demand, in 2050, to be no more than about 4,000 acre-feet per year. They also determined that agricultural water use is on the decline in Archuleta County.
You can download the WWG report here.
I mention this report because the Wilson Water Group came to the following conclusions in their report:
Current information indicates projected demands for municipal, environmental, recreational, and irrigation uses through 2050 could be met most years with an 11,000 acre‐feet reservoir at the Dry Gulch reservoir site.
Current Dry Gulch water rights may be sufficient to cover future demands; however, they are not decreed to release for in‐channel environmental and recreational demands…
…Applying for a new junior water right in the future would provide the District time to work with CPW and CWCB to determine if increased environmental flows are justified and to develop agreements for reservoir use.
We note the references to “environmental and recreational demands” and “environmental flows” in the above conclusions. According to my reading of the new report, SJWCD would have a hard time justifying the need for an 11,000 acre-foot reservoir — to say nothing of a 24,000 acre-foot reservoir — based on projected municipal and agricultural needs.
The implication, here, is that a tax-supported water district can justify a new reservoir project by identifying unmet recreational and environmental demands.
In my opinion, there’s a slight problem with using recreational demands to justify a multi-million-dollar, taxpayer-funded water infrastructure project. Recreation is, by definition, something you do just for the fun of it, whenever the weather is suitable. It’s not a “need” in the same sense that treated drinking water is a “need’, or that agricultural irrigation is a “need”.
Or… have we come to a place, in American society, where recreation is actually “necessary”… and must be funded by taxes?