Gov. Bill Ritter outlined three “pillars” for providing water to Colorado in the future at Thursday’s opening session of the Colorado Water Congress. “We face really serious challenges,” Ritter told the group at its 52nd annual convention.

Gunnison Basin water users are bristling at suggestions made last summer to the Interbasin Compact Committee, saying their concerns about economy and environment are equal to Front Range alarm at potential changes in the “urban landscape.” The Gunnison Basin Roundtable responded this month to letters from the Arkansas Basin Roundtable and the Front Range Water Council in July asking

A new report by the Arkansas Basin Roundtable summarizing the first four years of its work sparked comments this week from roundtable members. On one hand, most all are pleased with the work so far.

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Sharing water, municipal conservation and tamarisk removal were listed as the best ways to improve water supply in a recent survey of the Arkansas Basin Roundtable.

State Rep. Sal Pace found some allies for his plan to protect rural communities in water transfers Wednesday. The Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District board voted unanimously to back Pace’s concept for a bill that would encourage those who take water from rural areas to work with conservancy districts to develop mitigation plans.

With demographers forecasting 35 percent more people in Colorado by 2035 and climate scientists predicting 15 percent less water available in the Colorado River Basin by mid-century, something has to give. More and more, public officials, business groups and environmental organization have been talking about additional dams and reservoirs to augment those built in the mid-20th century.

While some see a thaw in Western Slope resistance to transmountain water transfers, others are more optimistic about future chances of moving more water over the Continental Divide. “I’m starting to feel that on the West Slope, a bit of reality is breaking through,” Jeris Danielson told the Arkansas Basin Roundtable this week.