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Water wars out West: Keep what you catch!

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 2, 2009 at 7:53 am

From NPR’s Morning Edition:

The West remains one of the fastest growing regions of the country, and that continues to put pressure on scarce water supplies.

So, Colorado recently made it legal for some homeowners to capture and collect the raindrops and snowflakes that fall on their own roofs. That had been considered stealing because the water would flow into a stream or aquifer, where it belonged to someone else; Utah and Washington state have similar bans.

The change in Colorado may seem minor, but this could signal the beginning of a water-law revolution.

Many people think water-rights need to be revamped, while others disagree:

“Western water-rights laws were done in the 1800s, and they need some serious overhaul,” says Pope. He says the first-in-line basis is inefficient. “It needs to be based on need — it needs to be based on proper use of water. We don’t need to be using drinking water to wash cars and water lawns and gardens and flush toilets,” he says.

Those near the front of the line disagree. Western tribes guard their historic water rights, as do municipalities like Denver. “You have a basic foundation for how water is owned and administered in Colorado, and a wholesale change — to say, ‘Oh yeah, take all the water you want off your roof,’ — is actually a fundamental change in that,” says Chips Barry, general manager at Denver Water.

Read more from NPR’s Morning Edition by clicking here.

June 2, 2009 · Filed Under Water Rights

Comments

One Response to “Water wars out West: Keep what you catch!”

  1. WaterSource on June 2nd, 2009 8:17 am

    Previous to the new legislation, Colorado did not exactly forbid the harvesting of rainwater.

    At those times when streams are high there can be plenty of water available for everyone, even those without paper water rights.

    There are areas in CO where this is never true due to all sorts of complicated Compacts and storage arrangements. However, there are certainly many areas particularly in Western Colorado ( West of the continental divide) where water is available AT TIMES each year without any paperwork. The reason this is possible is because in CO, the state constitution provides that the unappropriated water shall never be denied.

    During those times when everyone with a paper water right has all they are entitled to according to their written documents, others, including those who want the water off of their roofs, can collect all the water they want. As soon as the senior (old) water rights are again short of water, the capture of water off of the roof was not allowed EVEN IF THEY HAD A WRITTEN WATER RIGHT because it is not old enough in PRIORITY to be entitled to any of the less than ample supply.

    Here is another problem … it can be very difficult to find out when the senior water rights are “calling”/requiring that junior water rights be shut-off/curtailed. The State Engineer handles this aspect and does so with area water commissioners for each of the small drainage basins. The information regarding “calls” is not always available. It would be easy to provide via the internet, but after years of requesting this simple procedure, it is still seldom available.

    Such information is available for the CO River and some of its main tributaries. It would be incredible if thousands of homeowners tried to telephone the local water commissioner to find out when they can legally collect rain water. However, that is exactly what they had to do prior to the new legislation.

    There is another exception to the rule that can come into play. The State Engineer can declare ( through his Division Engineer) that it is futile for the senior to “call” for his water and ask that the junior water right curtail usage because even if the junior shut-off his diversion, the water would never reach the senior water rights point of diversion.

    Visualize a dry stream bed between the upstream junior water right and the downstream senior water right. If the junior water right releases the water he is using, it can’t reach the downstream senior because of evaporation in the stream bed. With all of the interconnections between groundwater and surface water, “futile calls” are possible, but seldom declared by the water officials.

    There are often solutions for those who want to capture rain water when they would not otherwise be in priority to do so. Water from others can be purchased to give to the seniors so that a like volume of water can be captured from the roof. This is a simple exchange, but it requires the necessary contracts, paper work and payment. It is usually accomplished through water conservancy districts.

    WaterSource waterrdw@yahoo.com

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