We spoke with Karen McCormick, a current Water Education Colorado board member and Colorado State Representative for the Summer 2025 issue of Headwaters magazine, which focuses on groundwater.
Can you share with us a little background on your work and career, and how it’s led to your involvement in the water conversation?
I am a career small animal veterinarian, and when I first came to office four or five years ago, one of my top requests was to be on the Agriculture, Water, and Natural Resources Committee because of my background in animal care. At that point in time, I really knew nothing about water in the West and the incredibly complicated system that we have. I was very much intimidated by the whole discussion. I took it upon myself to find out everything I could. I learned about Water Congress from the chair of the committee at the time. Shortly after, she left the legislature and I became chair of that committee. I felt a huge responsibility to learn about this area I had no experience in. Even during COVID, when it was hard to meet people, I made it a point to go to Water Congress every summer, meet with people in the water space, whether it be conservation, water managers, water districts, municipalities, recreation, and more. That helped a lot. Water Congress did a great job addressing the fact that entering into the water world was intimidating. They focused on becoming more open to newbies like me and on creating a space where I could feel free enough to ask questions that may seem simple to them, but could help to untangle the web of water law and how we address water issues in our state. It’s really been these last four and a half years that I’ve gone from kindergarten to maybe second grade in terms of my understanding of Colorado water. I realize this is an area that I’ll never be an expert on, but I find it fascinating and incredibly important. That is how I’ve become involved, learned about Water Education Colorado at the time, learned about the publications that you have, and also the different seminars and events. We have worked with WEco to have forums for our legislators here in the building. That’s how I’ve gotten where I am.
As a Colorado State Representative, and the chair of the Agriculture, Water & Natural Resources committee. What does your role look like in this committee and how does your role involve conversations around issues of water?
Because I did get one of my first choices on which committee to be on when I was a freshman first-year legislator, the Colorado House of Representatives speaker at the time, Alec Garnett, asked if I would be willing to be the Vice Chair of this committee. I said, yes, even though I had never sat on a committee, but I knew that I was going to be Vice Chair to then Chair Jenny Arndt, a very experienced legislator.
What they failed to tell me is that Jenny was running for mayor of Fort Collins that same year and she won, so all of a sudden, still in my very first year, I became Chair. This was such a huge honor, but also a huge responsibility for me. I needed to take all parts of different policy discussions that come to that committee and dig in as much as I could to the Department of Natural Resources, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, with water. I had to learn about the Division of Water Resources and find out about how the Colorado Water Conservation Board works and what they do at the different basin roundtables across our state, etc. It was a lot. It still is a lot, actually. I am doing the best I can to continue to listen and learn and have many of the things reviewed so that it sticks with me.
I do have a few new legislators on the Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources Committee this year, and want to do my best to be the connector that they might need to learn more. They may not be learning it straight from me, but I can at least point them in the right direction to organizations like WEco and other legislative liaisons. I feel like it is my role to help the new people as I continue to learn myself and stay open to continue to learn. That’s a really important part of the job and my attitude.
I am the point of contact because I’m chair of the committee, but also we engage in Water 101 presentations to the committee to hear from DNR and CWCB. We recently heard from Anne Castle, who was our federal partner until recently, just so folks could get an overview of the issues with the Colorado River and what we’re facing here in Colorado. It is also my role to bring in those experts to talk to us and to give us a little bit of the 60,000-foot view of things so that if a policy matter comes to our committee in the form of a bill, or there’s a budgetary concern that we have to look at, at least the committee members have been introduced to the idea or know who to go to to find out more. That is a big part of how I see my role in conversations around water. For legislators that aren’t on the committee, if they’re contemplating bringing a bill that has to do with water, I make sure that they connect with the folks on Water Congress to be able to look at their bill and give feedback because very often it’ll make their bill better and even more implementable. That’s important because some legislators don’t realize there are such incredible groups such as WECO and Water Congress out there.
Could you discuss any recent work on legislation and/or any priorities that relate to groundwater (or water in general?)
One major bill that impacted water was when the state got the American Rescue Plan Act funds during COVID, where we put around $30 million [through Senate Bill 22-028] toward the Republican River groundwater project and the San Luis Valley projects to help those farmers and ranchers in specific areas buy out their water or pay them to shut down their wells and to stop removing groundwater in order to save those systems. This also helps protect us by keeping us in compact compliance, especially in the northeast part of the state. That was really important, and we were so fortunate to be able to get that federal money to help facilitate this, especially up in the Republican River area. Those farmers that had been trying so hard to raise their own money to reimburse or to compensate farmers for fallowing their land or going to dryland farming. I am really proud of that effort and our ability to have those funds at that time, because I think that really put us on a path to be able to meet the deadline for the amount of wells that we do need to turn off.
The follow-up to that was the bill from 2023 [House Bill 23-1220], studying the impact of what would happen if indeed all of those wells had to be shut down, because that’s what the state engineer said, is if you don’t hit these targets by this date, I’m going to have to come up there and shut down all the wells, like there won’t be a pick-and-choose situation, it’ll be all of them turned off. So the study was to really look at what shutting down these wells would do to the whole economy of the area, including parts of Kansas and Nebraska, because there’s so much overlap across the state line. The goal of that study was to further inform the State on what the economic consequences will be if we don’t meet this goal of shutting down wells. This is going to be a huge hit on the state of Colorado’s economy, and it’s important that we continue to fund the ability of these farmers to pay them to stop using their water versus having the whole area shut down. The study is currently ongoing and the Colorado Water Center, based out of Colorado State University, is required to prepare a progress report on the findings of the study on or before January 1, 2026. That was the biggest one that was directly related to groundwater, but there was also, Senate Bill 23-270, the stream restoration bill. That one also had a lot to do with the whole water cycle of streams and groundwater replenishment and downstream use. That one also was a really great one to work on … We started with big ideas and had to pare it down with these stream restoration projects that were on a smaller scale. After a few years, we might take another look at that, if needed, to see how the program is working and if we need to do more. I’m really happy to have been part of that one too. It’s been really fun to learn about an area that I knew very little about five years ago.
We also have the Soil Health Program focused on building better, healthier soils. Those soils are able to be the sponge that holds the water and acts as another reservoir for us, so that the water stays in the system and slows down that process of runoff. If the soil is healthy, it holds water, and we can utilize it more in future. There has also been a stream restoration bill focused on the whole cycle of water and groundwater replenishment.
Other Bills of Note:
Study Green Infrastructure in Water Quality Management SB24-037
Waterwise Landscaping in Homeowners Assoc SB23-178
Wildfire Prevention Watershed Restoration Funding HB23-1379
Are there any current bills being brought into the 2025 legislative session that you are working on related to water?
In order to continue to fund the incredible needs around water, we need around $100 million a year to try to fund these projects. However, we are seeing the potential decline in severance taxes and since water funding is tied to severance taxes, we need to be forward-thinking on other possibilities of funding mechanisms for the water plan. The goal of Senate Bill 40 is to convene a group that will look into what those possibilities for funding may be. We don’t know what they are yet, but we need to have this study so that we are prepared, as potentially the severance taxes will start to wane as the oil and gas industry might transition into more renewable energy sources.
We did expand on last year’s Senate Bill 5, which is more focused on the water conservation side, working to continue the conversation on where we are wasting water and how we could potentially be better stewards of the water that we have. That is exactly what House Bill 1113 will do for future development of apartments and condominiums, where we need to stop using water-intensive turf. We can use turf that’s been hybridized for air conditions, but these grasses that were meant for the East Coast, we have to stop putting those down, when they’re not in a functional space like a playground or a sports field or whatever else might be used for functional turf. If it’s just there to look at it, then we need to use drought-tolerant plants and grasses that are made to live in the West on limited water.
Do you have anything to say about your time on the Water Education Colorado board or our work?
My contribution to WEco is that when we do have educational tours that are available to legislators that are sponsored by WEco and others, I do my best to encourage members of my committee or others to participate in those because they’re amazing. The Basin Tour last summer was incredible. I’m still thinking about it, up the Arkansas River. I’m honored to be a board member, even if I’m not always active. I appreciate being part of WEco’s messaging and helping spread the word.
What do you see is the role of WEco’s work to inform the legislature and how can we best share resources with our policy makers?
I think we’ve done a pretty good job with the Water 101/102 series with the legislators. I think it’s going better this year because of the time change versus the first rollout, it seemed like it was just Senator Simpson and me that would show up. I think building on the success of the past and having open arms to other legislators that may not be connected to the water world, like some of our farmers and ranchers are. It is important that people in the urban areas and the front range know that they are more than invited. They’re welcome to come to learn about an area that they too may not know a thing about because that’s how I started. You don’t have to know anything. You can show up and learn a little something.
I wish we had more time to do more programs, but we do get overwhelmed with trying to fit things into our schedules, so having those sessions, we may only get one, two or three because of the bandwidth of the legislators. Even though they might want to, they just can’t show up. I love these sessions and I hope WEco will continue that effort. I’ve seen a big improvement in participation just in the last two and a half years, so I think the word is getting out and it’s working.
I also really appreciate Headwater’s Magazine. I love it. I love the hard copy. There have been some issues that I’ve held onto at home and they’re done so well. Thank you to everyone who works on those publications. They are so helpful, so beautiful and such a great tool for any Coloradan. They’re easy to read, informative, with beautiful pictures. I really appreciate the work that WEco does in that regard.
Stay tuned for more on water markets in Colorado in the Summer 2025 issue of Headwaters magazine.
Rep. Karen McCormick grew up in a career Navy family with a father who served 30 years in the US Navy, retiring as a Rear Admiral. Her two brothers, mother, and dad moved every year or two during her childhood, exposing her to the vast diversity of communities that make up our country. Through this experience, Karen learned the meaning of service, respect, integrity, and dedication to democratic values.
She serves as Chair of the House Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources Committee at the Colorado General Assembly. She is also a member of the House Health and Human Services Committee. Her work revolves around civil liberties, housing, animal care, water in the West, climate, and healthcare.
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