Water Rights: Laws, Guns, & Money

Alexandra Davis – Aurora Water Department
·        Water rights as a commodity
·        Speculation drives up prices
·        Fear of out-of-state sales
Ag water rights sales creates fears
·        Issues between selling farmers and local community
·        Reasons for the decline of small towns

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Water – the great dissolver or great conveyor?
·        Conveyance of waste
·        Creation of the Clean Water Act
Properties of water
·        Seawater vs fresh water
·        Silly facts for fun

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Funding Sources
·        State
·        Federal 
·        Private
Examples
·        Dove Creek – grants & loans
·        Parker W&S –  stimulus money?
·        Renewable Water Resources – stimulus money?

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One of the pathways to the Rocky Mountains
·        Platte waters shared
·        Stories of the past
South Platte Compact
·        Only with Nebraska
·        Restrictions/Uses by Colorado

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East Troublesome Fire 200,000 Acres
·        Esther Vincent, Environmental Services Director, NCWCD
·        Post fire watershed restoration efforts
Impacts and Recovery
·        Physical Impacts
·        Quality Impacts
·        Funding

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Lucky to be Americans
·        Hard working, honest, friendly
·        Work on podcast
Three recent newspaper articles
·        Colorado River Compact should be changed
·        Yuck factors comes back into play
·        Maybe Gross Reservoir not needed

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Colorado straddles Continental Divide
·        Gives rise to four great rivers
·        All water arising within our borders is ours
Not so fast
·        Supreme Court decisions affect Colorado’s stubbornness
·        Start of the Colorado River Compact Commission

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Well design and evaluation
·        Terry Ranch more complicated than originally thought
·        Groundwater planning similar to water resources planning
Water Information Technology – SCADA
·        Growth area for water engineers
·        Real time planning and reaction
Banks 
·        Money in, money out
·        Water in, water out

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LRE Water - largest water engineering firm in Colorado
·        Cortney Brand, President
·        River basin and water supply planning
Water rights evaluations
·        Water Court support
·        Locating water rights for purchase

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San Antonio and the Edwards Aquifer
·        Joe Krier, Ex President of Chamber of Commerce
·        Groundwater conservation district
Setup for intra-state squabbles
·        San Antonio raids other aquifers
·        Federal control of level based on threatened species

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