The value of water

By The Daily Sentinel
Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Western Slope leaders were frothing this week over an economic study that claimed almost 20 times the economic benefit from an acre-foot of water if it is used on the Front Range, as compared to water used on the Western Slope.

Little wonder that tempers on this side of the Continental Divide were near boiling. By the logic of that study, the most sensible thing to do would be to make the Western Slope bone dry and send all our water to the Front Range, where the state could extract greater economic benefit from it.

But wait a minute. There’s another option, as Mesa County Commissioner Steve Acquafresca pointed out during a meeting on the water study Tuesday. If economic return is the sole criterion to be considered, then the best alternative is to let all of Colorado’s water run down the Colorado River to where the dense population and intense agricultural operations of Southern California can generate an even greater economic return from it. If we do that, so long transbasin diversions that currently take water from this region to the Front Range.

Of course, the value of water doesn’t rest entirely on the economic return it generates. There is intrinsic value in having streams flowing with sufficient water to support aquatic life and river habitat. That intrinsic value supports an industry that is critical to this part of Colorado — tourism. And activities such as river rafting, hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation that depend on healthy river habitat coincidentally also attract large numbers of Front Range residents to the Western Slope.

Irrigated agriculture, including raising livestock, fruit and wine, may not generate the same dollar-per-acre-foot return on water as industrial operations on the Front Range, but it is crucial to the economy, not just of the Western Slope, but the entire state. Some Front Range industries would be feeble or non-existent without the support of irrigated agriculture in this region.

The energy industry, municipalities and others on the Western Slope also derive significant value from the use of our water.

Front Range water entities that solicited the study were apparently unaware of the rough waters they were sailing into when they released the study with the economic comparison.

Greg Fisher, with Denver Water, said the Front Range Water Council was trying to illustrate the interdependence of various regions of the state, but that message was “diluted” in the report.

Perhaps so, but then people on the sunset side of the Continental Divide have good reason to be wary. For a century or more, folks on the Front Range have been telling people here why they need Western Slope water more than we do.

When the latest study purports to show much greater economic benefit from using water on the Front Range, it sounds like it’s time to guard the headgates over here.