Triple threat to Colorado’s water, part 2
By Joe Hanel 
| September 3, 2009 | 9:01 AM
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., inspects a tree killed by pine beetles in Rocky Mountain National Park on Aug. 24, along with Bob Bobowski, chief of resource stewardship at the national park. McCain called climate change -- part of the reason for the beetle infestation -- perhaps the greatest threat ever faced by America
The first part of this story explored the effects of massive dust storms on Colorado’s snowpack and the potential impact of global warming on key water sources such as the Colorado River. Part 2 discusses the pine beetle threat to forests, and what can be done to preserve Colorado’s water for future generations.
If Sens. John McCain and Mark Udall had visited Timber Creek campground during their recent tour of Rocky Mountain National Park, they would have had a surprise. As of last month, there’s not much timber at Timber Creek, the result of a widespread pine beetle infestation.
McCain and Udall toured the eastern side of the park, which is just starting to suffer from the pine beetles.
At Timber Creek, rangers had to cut down hundreds of dead trees to prevent them from rotting and falling over on campers. Park officials say they have to cut down 1 million trees near roads, campgrounds and cabins, just for safety’s sake. They won’t do any cutting in the backcountry, where they will let the infestation run its course.
Foresters think global warming plays a role in the beetle outbreak. Winters aren’t cold enough anymore to kill off the beetle larvae, and heat-stressed trees might make more inviting targets for the bugs.
Pine beetles, of course, are a natural part of the forest ecosystem, and some people argue that they are not an environmental problem. But Steve Saunders, director of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, said that’s like saying rising sea levels that might flood the Everglades aren’t a problem because the ocean is natural.
“That is nature that we’ve knocked out of kilter,” Saunders said at a Senate hearing Udall and McCain held in Estes Park. “Yes, bark beetles are a natural part of the forest, but because we have warmed up the winters and warmed up the summers, they are now going higher than we’ve ever seen before.”
Researchers are trying to figure out what effect the massive die-off of trees will have on water. On one hand, the rivers might carry more water from the spring snowmelt because there will be fewer trees to suck water off the mountains. On the other hand, the lack of trees might increase erosion and fill the streams with sediment.
Now what?
Dirty, melting snow, rivers at risk, beetles on the rampage. What is Colorado to do?
No one has an answer yet. But water experts — many of them from the Western Slope — are beginning to raise a topic that was forbidden just a couple years ago: the regulation of land use to conserve water.
In 2008, state Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, successfully passed a bill to require cities to certify that they have enough water before approving a new housing development. While the bill included little in the way of enforcement, Curry considered it a success because until then, developers had fought off anything hinting that the water supply might limit population growth.
The next step, Curry told the Colorado Water Congress, would be a mandate in state law tying growth to a reliable water supply.
It would take years to build the powerful coalition needed to pass a law like that, and Curry doesn’t know of anyone working seriously on it now. But Front Range growth needs Western Slope water, and Curry said people west of the Continental Divide think such regulation might be a good idea.
“I believe we need to start talking about where we go from (the 2008 bill),” she said. “We’ve done just about all we’re going to do with nice language in the statutes to not be so hard-hitting.”
Oversight of land use could help with the dust problem, too. David Schimel of the National Center for Atmospheric Research testified on the topic in front of Udall and McCain’s committee in Estes Park.
Land management that reduces dust could “fairly substantially improve” the Western water supply, Schimel said.
The Western States Water Council is holding a conference in Denver at the end of September on land use and the water supply. The council’s members are appointed by the governors of 18 Western states to advise the region on water issues.
Colorado has its own high-level group starting to broach the topic. The Interbasin Compact Committee is charged with — one day — reaching a grand agreement between the East and West Slopes on water sharing. But members say such an agreement is a long way off.
Front Range members have grown tired of the IBCC’s slow pace. Rod Kuharich, director of the South Metro Water Supply Authority, told the Water Congress that he doesn’t think the four-year-old IBCC should even exist since Colorado already has boards and agencies that deal with water.
The group will talk more about the delicate topic of water and population at its Sept. 14 meeting in Steamboat Springs. The commission’s chairman, Harris Sherman, said the state can’t set a growth cap, but future Coloradans might need to have different lifestyles.
“I think we have to come to a consensus on what kind of growth occurs. You can’t control the number of people who come to Colorado, but you can talk about density,” Sherman said.
Meanwhile, water suppliers look at the future in terms of risk: Given what we know and don’t know about dust, global warming and beetles, how much risk are we willing to take by expanding cities?
Denver Water is using a “no regrets” planning system to make sure it has an adequate supply for a range of future scenarios, said Mark Waage, the utility’s water resources manager.
Water suppliers need to take action now, even though the science is imperfect, he told members of the Water Congress at its summer meeting.
“I would suggest for you not to wait for the scientists to give us an answer. I think we’re going to be stuck with this uncertainty for a long time,” Waage said.
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colorado water supply, environment, global warming, john mccain, mark udall, rocky mountain national park
