WATER CRIMINOLOGY OUT RUNS HYDROLOGY

Water Criminology Out Runs Hydrology

by Roni Bell 9/17/2020

Years ago I developed Baseline Acre Production (BAP): Ag producer add
s up their past 15 years of production and amount of Water used, then divides by 15 to get an average % as to how much Water is needed to sustain the acre production.

County Commissioners could have used these averages to determine whether or not there was Water available for change of use; then relay the information - "yes we have water available without harming Ag," or "no, we don't have Water."

Water's been moved around so much since then, it's unlikely BAP would work.

Because Colorado's a semi-arid desert, wholly dependent on snow-pack/precip, Governor's Owens, Ritter and Hickenlooper have never been convincing in their argument, "Colorado HAS to meet the population demand!"

The counter to that is "Why?" Why is Colorado, a semi-arid desert, expected to "meet a population demand?"

Colorado does NOT have the water! Period!

And now Governor Polis is looking around for Water.

Of course one area 10,000 acre feet annual can be retrieved, runs in a statutes violating agreement called the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program (PRRIP)).

Solution: Get a Water availability average by adding the past 20 years of State's Water administration records and divide by 20. Pass legislation that lays out something along the line of: Developer may not acquire any new Water. Developer is required to re-cycle Water historically shown to be available in that particular area.

In other words, pretty much an update on the old BAP.

Another solution? Developers would be mandated to full disclosure, by informing those in want of moving to Colorado, "You'll have to choose:" 1) We can build your house here, but we can't get you any Water. 2) We can build your house there, where you'll receive limited amounts of safe, re-cycled Water.

When the criminology is fixed, the hydrology will fix itself.