Where will Fort Collins' water come from? That depends on what residents value.
Coloradoan Conversations is the Coloradoan's opinion forum. Each Friday we'll pose conversation-starting questions online at Coloradoan.com/opinion and moderate online discussion through the following Wednesday, recapping the best discussion points online the following Friday and in Sunday's printed edition.
This week's Coloradoan Conversation Starter:
In Colorado and the West, the old adage is that "whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over." It's no surprise, as one of the most frequent questions we see in stories about new development in Fort Collins is, "But where will the water come from?"
There's a straightforward answer to that: a mix of increased storage and conservation to take advantage of the annual snowmelt that comes off the Rocky Mountains. Fort Collins expects treated water demand will hit 38,400 acre-feet a year by 2065 — 40% more than current demand for both treated and raw water — as the population in Fort Collins Utilities’ service area approaches a projected 195,000 people.
But getting to that point is where things get complicated. The costs to buy agricultural water rights to feed new development, and to expand storage options like Halligan Reservoir, are rapidly increasing. And while city water users have curtailed overall consumption in recent years, many homeowners still have thirsty, green lawns to maintain as well as bodies, clothes and cars that need cleaning.
So, here's this week's question. Not where will the water come from, but where should it come from? Are you willing to xeriscape or reduce the size of your lawn to conserve water? Give up that high-flow showerhead or leisurely bath? What would incentivize you to reduce water usage, and what hope do you have for those measures to blunt costly water capacity increases? Or, if more storage is more appealing to you, how much are you willing to pay to keep up your current water use?
We hope the stories linked below can help as you form your responses.
Water storage:Cost of Fort Collins' Halligan Reservoir expansion quadruples as review milestones near
Regional water delivery:Northern Water overturns Fort Collins' denial of NISP pipeline
Inside the utilities:Fort Collins Utilities enters 'year of transformation' with new director, structure
Coping with the heat:Want to help your lawn and trees survive Colorado's dry, windy weather? Here are some tips
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This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Where will Fort Collins' water come from? That depends on what residents value.
