If it’s business as usual, Colorado could reach a point where lawns are uprooted, even more food imported and water use strictly limited. If oil shale plans develop, a significant portion of the state’s undeveloped water will go toward energy production, and simply won’t be available for future population growth.

The Fryingpan-Arkansas Project was designed to bring much more water into the Arkansas River basin, so it’s time to find out if, and how, that could happen. “There is a 14,400-acre-foot gap,” Executive Director Jim Broderick told the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District board last week.

Conservation measures alone could save up to 40 percent of water use and can be easily obtained without drastically altering how Coloradans take showers, wash clothes, and water their lawns, said Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) Drought Planning Chief Veva Deheza.

Since 1960, the Arkansas Valley has lost 60,000 acres of irrigated agriculture land. The goal of the Super Ditch, a water marketing corporation formed last year, is to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen in the next 50 years, said Jay Winner, general manager of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, which shepherded Super Ditch into existence.