A Massive Plumbing System Moves Water Across Colorado’s Mountains. But This Year, There’s Less To Go Around

Photo by Alex Hager / KUNC

Above: Water in the Lost Man Canal runs under Highway 82 at Independence Pass in this photo taken on June 17, 2021. It is a small piece of a massive pipeline system that transports snowmelt and high-altitude rainfall through the Colorado mountains to its inhabited cities .

High up on Colorado’s Independence Pass, a narrow, winding road meanders through the evergreens and over mountain streams, the Continental Divide at more than 10,000 feet high and crossing. At one point this street crosses a canal.

It’s easy to miss if you’re not looking for it, but this canal is part of the water infrastructure that makes life in Colorado’s Front Range possible.

The state has a geographic mismatch between where water appears and where much of the population has settled.

“Wherever you are in this state, you are either the source of the drinking water supply, you are in the middle of the drinking water supply, or you are at the end of the tap,” said Christina Medved, Outreach Director at Roaring Fork Conservancy. “So on the western slope we are at the source of the water.”

About 80% of Colorado’s water falls on the west side of the state. Much of it is high mountain snow and rain that eventually trickles down into streams and rivers like the one at Independence Pass.

But about 80% of Colorado’s residents live on the east side of the mountains. Because of gravity, this water doesn’t naturally flow to them. Instead, Colorado’s densely populated front range relies on a massive pipeline system to maintain the flow of drinking water to the taps.

For a century and a half, engineers have opened up the mountains with tunnels and canals that divert water through the state through mountain-crossing diversions. Part of this infrastructure is near the high alpine headwaters of the Roaring Fork River, which eventually flows through Aspen and Glenwood Springs on its way to the Colorado River. Near Lost Man Reservoir, a dam and tunnel create a connection between water that follows this natural path west to Colorado and water that is diverted east through the mountains and into cities like Colorado Springs.

A tunnel through the mountains attracts water that flows through two reservoirs and the Arkansas River on its way to the southern portion of the Front Range. Water diverted from the Colorado River basin by diversions over the mountains makes up 60 to 70% of the water used by Colorado Springs. Denver, Greeley, Fort Collins, and smaller Front Range communities are also heavily dependent on the waters of the Western Slope.

And those kind of setups aren’t limited to Colorado. Similar systems bring water to large cities across the region. Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, and Los Angeles rely on canals and tunnels to transport distant water into their pipes. New ones are in the works in the Front Range and southern Utah.

But these systems are not without critics.

Roaring Fork River Water and High Mountain Reg ...

“When you first find out about this, the concept of a trans-mountain diversion is insane,” said Andy Mueller, general manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District. “It seems wrong. It seems to be contrary to the health of the river. And I have to say, that’s all true. “

His organization was founded in the 1930s to counter these diversions and ensure the people on the west side of the state have enough water.

“The idea that a large population center hundreds of kilometers away can draw water from a stream and bring it to its city for use is difficult to accept under the current ecological and ecological values ​​of our society,” said Müller.

The problem is that contemporary environmental values ​​are not written into western water law. Instead, water use is defined by regulations written when Colorado first became a state in the 19th century. The rules say that if you have the right to use water, it doesn’t matter if you want to use it hundreds of miles from its source – even if it requires miles of plumbing to do so.

Right now there is less water to draw in every part of the state. The Front Range escaped drought after steady spring rains, but the high mountain areas that usually provide a reliable source of water for all of Colorado experience a different fate. The western slope is deep in the second year of drought, so snowpack and river flows are lower than they should be.

Mueller believes this will only exacerbate the need for the Front Range to limit their water usage. Although they retain the legal right to use a certain amount of water, he urges them to use less – which, in his opinion, promotes the health of the rivers and their ecosystems west of the watershed.

High mountain snowmelt is collected in the Lost Man Reser ...

On the front range, the recipients of diversions say that at particularly critical times they will listen to their Western colleagues when they issue emergency signals. They also say that conscious nature conservation work pays off in the long term. Nathan Elder, Denver Water’s water supply manager, said that per capita water use in his district has decreased by 22% over the past two decades.

“Everyone in Colorado needs to cut their consumption,” he said. “We saw that. And we’ve been successful with our conservation efforts, customer messages, and irrigation rules. “

Amid the tension between the need for water on both sides, exacerbated by extreme drought, there are few alternatives. The Colorado water system was built to accommodate the fact that the majority of residents and most of the water are distant from each other. Without fundamental changes to the bedrock of water law, those asking for water must operate within a system built on mountain-crossing diversions.

“You cannot do one without the other,” Elder said. “It has to work with the water from the western slope to the eastern slope. Because I don’t see how to take in the population and move people to the western slope. “

Some contingency planning – within the reality of a diversion-centered system – is already in place. In Colorado Springs, which receives part of the river that is diverted from the top of Independence Pass, the city’s reuse practices are helping to pull more miles out of allotted water.

Abby Ortega, water resource manager at Colorado Springs Utilities, said recycled water makes up 26% of the city’s total portfolio and the city relies heavily on storage to survive dry years like this.

But climate change threatens to increase the frequency and intensity of droughts, leading water managers to look more intensely for ways to maximize the resources available.

“Every water planner in the state worries about the rapidly declining hydrology of the Colorado River,” Ortega said. “I’d be stupid if I didn’t say I’m worried.”

This story is part of ongoing coverage of the Colorado River, produced by Aspen Public Radio, distributed by KUNC, and supported by the Walton Family Foundation.

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