Two big players in Colorado’s long fight over diverting Western Slope water to the Front Range said Thursday they are close to finalizing a plan to manage new diversions. The legal settlement could stabilize the flows in the Colorado River at the Shoshone hydro power plant in Glenwood Canyon and reduce the need for large summer flows from Ruedi Reservoir down the Fryingpan River.

A coordinated approach to future water supply and needs could save Colorado billions of dollars. The Colorado Water Conservation Board is finalizing a state water needs assessment and plans to begin taking action on its findings over the past six years by January, said Todd Doherty, a CWCB staffer.

For all the sugar-coated talk of negotiation and collaboration, the latest showdown over diversions from the upper Colorado River in Grand County has the potential to turn into a bare-knuckles fight, as conservation advocates and local officials insist that Denver Water must avoid, minimize or mitigate any impacts from its planned expansion of the Moffat Tunnel collection system.

The Western Slope's leading advocacy group has tentatively endorsed a controversial water-storage project that critics say would destroy the Cache La Poudre River. Club 20 executive director Reeves Brown said that at first glance, the $490 million Northern Integrated Supply Project — which calls for the construction of two new reservoirs in northern Colorado — appears reasonable.

The Western Slope wants the Front Range to conserve more water before another drop comes across the Continental Divide. In the Arkansas River basin, resources are stretched to the limit and every option — bringing more water over, conservation, more storage and even drying up farms — needs to be considered.

An economic study that said the Front Range generates 18 times the economic value that the Western Slope does from an acre-foot of water was called “inflammatory” Tuesday by Western Slope water users.

The Colorado River Basin might carry a nebulous range of zero to 1 million acre feet of water available for farms, new homes and businesses, a study suggests. Climate change also leaves the basin with as much as 13 percent more snowfall, but earlier runoffs could mean late-season water shortages, said the report, which was presented Monday to water users and others.

All four west slope roundtables will be meeting in Grand Junction at the Grnd Vista Hotel. For more information contact Jim Pokrandt.

Simply bringing water from the Colorado River to the Arkansas River basin in Colorado does not improve protection against drought. The surprising finding was shared last week at the Arkansas Basin Roundtable by climate researchers from Western Water Assessment, a hybrid agency that combines Nation Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and University of Colorado resources.

Local officials said Tuesday that a draft environmental study for a major Denver Water project is incomplete and doesn’t accurately reflect potential impacts in Summit County. At issue is Denver Water’s plan to expand its Moffat Collection system in Grand County.