[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Update on water issues

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Appelbaum, Matt


Colleagues – Hi.  Here’s a rather overdue update on several water issues I’ve been working on.  Some additional updates on other issues will follow shortly (I hope).
 
Colorado Water Plan (CWP): As you may know, Colorado is undertaking the creation of a statewide water plan; you can access this effort at www.coloradowaterplan.com .  The Metro Mayors Caucus (MMC) has a committee following this issue and I’ve been a member since its inception (and I believe I sent a Hotline report earlier this year). The CWP is Colorado’s first attempt at aligning the interests of the various basins and creating a statewide plan that will provide sufficient water for all uses for decades to come.  It includes conservation, agricultural issues, transmountain diversions, storage, etc.  And it includes voluminous information on Colorado’s water system, so if you want to get an understanding of where the water is and where it goes, this is a great source (a key fact: 89% of water consumed in Colorado goes to ag and only 11% goes to municipal and industrial use).
 
Not surprisingly, the current CWP draft leaves many questions unanswered and also includes quite a few inconsistencies among the various basins, since there is considerable disagreement. The MMC committee has tried its best to educate ourselves on all of these issues and stay reasonably current with a very large and moving target.  We just sent in our comments on the draft CWP, and I’ve attached them to this report.  I think it’s safe to say that most of the references to environmental protection are included due to my efforts, which is why I think it’s important to be part of this committee.
 
There’s much more to come as the CWP moves toward a final report.  While it’s unlikely all of the disagreements will be resolved, it is quite likely that statewide legislation of various
sorts will result from the plan – and we’ll need to pay close attention to that as it occurs.  I’d be happy to discuss this further with anyone who would like a more detailed account of the MMC’s efforts as well as my concerns; while I’m not quite an expert on Colorado’s arcane water laws, I know far more than I should and I remain particularly troubled by ongoing efforts to increase water supply and storage that cause significant environmental damage.  I’ve also checked in several times with Boulder’s water staff to ensure that I’m appropriately representing us and raising all of our issues.
  
WaterNow Alliance: Last year I was invited by the National League of Cities (NLC) to join a small group of elected leaders who were selected to work with a non-profit, WaterNow, that was investigating the creation of an organization that would work on the challenges water providers face.  This preliminary effort was sponsored by the Walton Family Foundation and included NLC, a representative from the American WaterWorks Assoc (AWWA), and elected folks from several states, all in the Colorado River basin.
 
The intent of this new group would be to assist water leaders in educating their water users about a variety of water issues and challenges including conservation, provide assistance in getting funding for conservation efforts, and create a group of elected officials and others who could offer assistance and best practices.  Recently this new group, now named the WaterNow Alliance, was given the go-ahead to officially form, with funding continuing to come from Walton and other sources.  I’ve been asked to be a member of the steering committee along with a small number of others, including Gerry Horak, a councilmember from Fort Collins.  We’ve also gotten Sam Mamet of the Colorado Municipal League to sign on.  The emphasis for now will be on the states of the Colorado River basin since there are so many critical water issues here, but the goal is to eventually expand nationwide.
 
I’ve attached a short description of the Alliance’s goals and intent.  I just gave the MMC a short presentation (as I was giving an update on the CWP), and I’ll bring this to CML as well. I think it clearly tracks many of Boulder’s water goals and is thus a group we should be interested in assisting.  Note that there is no cost to Boulder.  There have been meetings in Denver, two in San Francisco, and one coming up next spring in Arizona;however, most of my expenses are paid for by the Alliance’s partners and, as usual, I cover the remainder myself.
 
Waters of the US (WOTUS): This is the EPA’s recently released water regulation; I think it has now been renamed the Clean Water Rule.  If you’ve been following this at all, you’ll know that the usual suspects in Congress aren’t happy, and neither are many cities and states.  Briefly put, this rule attempts to clarify which waters are under federal authority, which of course has significant implications.  Even Boulder is/was worried given that the rule would seem to expand the EPA’s authority to include certain smaller water sources, including some ditches and stormwater conveyances.  My view is that while minimal water flows/bodies should not be swept up in the rule – and the EPA claims they aren’t – any water flow, even if in a ditch, that causes water pollution of larger water sources should indeed be regulated.  But, as you might expect, this is all getting bogged down in the courts and politics.
 
So, my role in this has been very limited.  It turned out that NLC was – appropriately – concerned about the impacts of the rule on cities but – inappropriately – joining with the Rs in
Congress to take away EPAs authority on this issue.  A number of us at NLC, including current and former chairs of the Energy and Environment committee (I’m a former chair), took our strong concerns to NLC earlier this year.  I believe that as a result NLC backed off its support of any effort to reduce EPA’s authority – which would have been a horrible precedent, at minimum – and is now working with the administration to better understand the implications of the rule and ensuring that it won’t overly impact cities.  I’m sure NLC will stay involved in this issue as the saga continues, and I’ll try to keep up with it.
 
--Matt
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