Key Water Trends You Should Know, and The Realities and Misconceptions That Surround Them
“Every rural community in the West is grappling right now… Asking the questions, how do we want to grow, and what are we going to do about it? How do we want to protect our resources?” says Kristie Nackord, Vice President of External Affairs at the Palmer Land Conservancy. The 2023 Colorado Water Plan aimed to promote informed and collaborative answers to these questions about water resources at the local level. The Colorado Water Conservation Board focused the 254-page document on four interconnected action areas: vibrant communities, robust agriculture, thriving watersheds, and resilient planning. And today, these themes are showing up within major trends across sectors. Groups are collaborating throughout Colorado to develop win-win water solutions, keep water affordable, preserve important ecosystems and farmland, and decouple population growth from water use.
FACT!
If Recent Trends Continue, Another 400,000 Acres of Colorado Farmland Could be Lost by 2040.
TREND: FIGHTING TO PRESERVE IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE
If recent trends continue, 400,000 to 500,000 acres of Colorado’s irrigated farmland and ranch land could be lost by 2040, according to the 2023 Colorado Water Plan. Several factors including development, economic pressures, severe drought, climate change, and water availability are contributing to this farmland loss, which is occurring across the country.
“Impacts to rural agricultural sectors — a cornerstone of Colorado’s economy — will reduce local ability to produce food, plant material and related positive environmental benefits, and impart serious economic loss to communities in rural Colorado, should the status quo continue,” says Dan Keppen, Executive Director of the Family Farm Alliance.
Losing agricultural land is not only a food security and rural community concern but it can also have negative environmental impacts: “Conversion of agricultural land to commercial or residential uses is the biggest threat to healthy biodiversity in Colorado,” says Louis Wertz, communications director at the Western Landowners Alliance.
Abandoning farmland or leaving fields to fallow — meaning they are unseeded for one of several years — exposes the soil to erosion. This can create dust which impacts snowpack and runoff, worsens air quality, and exacerbates weeds, says Wertz.
Losing agricultural land is not only a food security and rural community concern but it can also have negative environmental impacts.
Meanwhile, irrigated agriculture is supporting Colorado’s wetlands and healthy landscapes, says Wertz. According to a 2012 Colorado State University study, 92% of the total wetland area of Northern Colorado is the result of water seeping from irrigation infrastructure. Increasing irrigation efficiencies could result in as much as a 50% decrease in wetland area.
Arkansas Valley projects are focusing on win-win water-sharing agreements to meet the needs of both farms and municipalities. For example, the Lower Arkansas Water Management Association provides water for Colorado Springs municipal use in five of every 10 years, while farmers in the Las Animas and Lamar areas take excess water during the other 5 years. The project, launched in 2016, was the state’s first formal water-sharing agreement between a well augmentation company and a municipal water provider.
Other water-sharing projects have helped support young and beginning farmers. In 2022, Colorado Springs Utilities purchased water from Bent County farmers Mark and Caleb Wertz, who used funds from the deal to purchase land and install center pivots on previously flood-irrigated fields. Water previously used for corners of their fields that the new pivots do not reach was acquired for growing municipal needs, while allowing the young farmers to continue their family’s legacy of more than a century of farming in the valley.
MYTH!
Growing Populations Mean More Water Use.
TREND: DECOUPLING POPULATION GROWTH AND WATER
Denver Water serves 25% of the state’s population, about 1.5 million residents. Today, the utility is using as much water as it did in
the 1970s, despite its service area growing by about 500,000 people. According to the utility, per capita water use has dropped by 35% since 2000.
This reflects a larger trend: A 2022 paper published in the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management surveyed 28 utilities reliant on Colorado River water and found that more than half have substantially decoupled their water demands from population growth, greatly reducing their per capita water use.
Fort Collins Utilities, which has seen a 35% reduction in per-person water use since 2000, attributes this to successful conservation and efficiency programs. The utility provides Coloradoscaping resources, sprinkler efficiency evaluation services, and high-efficiency product rebates, use less water. In 2022, the Aurora City Council banned the use of “cool-weather” turf grasses, including bluegrass, in all new home developments and golf courses.
In 2020, the Eagle River Water and Sanitation District in Vail began offering rebates of $1 per square foot to customers willing to replace grass lawns with landscapes that use less water.
At the state level, Colorado legislators passed a 2022 bill that delivered $2 million to programs to remove “nonfunctional” turf in areas where grass is primarily decorative and not used for recreation. This year, the legislature again appropriated funds for turf grass removal. In 2024, legislators also passed a new law prohibiting the installation of nonfunctional turf on most commercial, industrial and state government property.
But, turf removal alone doesn’t save water, said Jenna Battson, the Colorado Water Conservation Board’s outdoor water conservation coordinator, during a talk in October at the Sustaining Colorado Watersheds Conference. Turf removal has to be paired with proper irrigation to save water, she says, and transformative landscape change will come from a combination of many programs and strategies.
Those working in water argue that education is critical for developing win-win solutions that provide clean, affordable water to Colorado’s growing urban areas while also protecting rural communities, and riparian ecosystems.
MYTH!
Boaters and Fishermen Cannot Coexist.
TREND: WORKING ACROSS DIVIDES
There’s a misconception that different water users can’t get along — that agricultural interests and municipal interests are at odds, as are rafters and
anglers. But water users in the Arkansas River Basin, home to one of the country’s most popular rafting destinations and valuable agricultural economies, provide some of the most successful examples of cross-sector collaboration.
Since 1991, the Voluntary Flow Management Program (VFMP) — a partnership among the Arkansas River Outfitters Association, Chaffee County, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, and Trout Unlimited — has been dispelling the common myth that boaters and fishermen cannot coexist. From July 1 to August 15, VFMP provides a flow rate that is ideal for rafting during the height of the rafting season. In the spring, reduced and stabilized flows promote trout rearing and incubation. And in late summer and fall, water managers seek to release flows that support both spawning and the fishing experience for anglers. In ramping flows up and down, the VFMP aims to limit dramatic fluctuations in flow volume and meet multiple needs on the river while supporting a healthy ecosystem.
“Partnerships between communities, municipalities, water utilities, and conservation partners … this is what is needed in Colorado,” says Kristie Nackord with Palmer Land Conservancy.
In 2020, Palmer Land Conservancy, alongside farmers, elected officials, nonprofits, funders, and others formed a coalition to create a community conservation strategy, the Bessemer Farmland Conservation Project. The project balances water needs in Pueblo County.
Nearly one-third of Bessemer Ditch water, a 40-mile irrigation canal that supplies water to farm 20,000 acres, is now owned by a municipality. Currently, the water is leased back to farmers to meet the region’s agricultural needs, but as municipal water needs grow, farmland could be dried up.
“When water leaves a community, there is an economic disparity that happens,” says Nackord.
To prevent disaster, the coalition won a provision in Colorado’s Division 2 District Court allowing water to be transferred from less productive farms to more productive farms— a move that would previously have been illegal. Now, the community has a voluntary, market-based framework to protect the most productive farmland while the municipality receives the water it needs.
FACT!
The Cost of Water is Increasing.
TREND: STRIVING TO KEEP WATER AFFORDABLE
Both Denver Water and Aurora Water have increased their water rates by 4%-5% each year since 2022. This is a statewide and national trend: the Bluefield Research Annual Utility Rate Index found that from 2019–2023, the average water bill for 50 of the largest utilities across the U.S. increased from $42.26 to $49.96, amounting to a 4.27% compound annual growth rate.
Utilities are faced with aging systems, inflation, rising costs for energy and chemicals, and climate stressors such as drought, flooding, and other natural disasters. “Take into account all of these factors, along with the historical underinvestment in water infrastructure, and many cities are left with no other choice but to raise rates,” says Charlie Suse, senior analyst at Bluefield Research.
The industry standard for setting water rates — followed by utilities across Colorado — is the cost-of-service methodology. This approach involves calculating the level of revenue required to properly operate infrastructure and maintain service, and then appropriately allocating the cost to various customer types (residential, commercial, industrial, etc.). In other words, each class of customer pays based on the cost that they create.
“Rates are required to be set at as low as good service will allow,” says Fletcher Davis, rates manager for Denver Water.
From 2019–2023, the average water bill for 50 of the largest utilities across the U.S. increased from $42.26 to $49.96, amounting to a 4.27% compound annual growth rate.
A number of utilities are also running programs to promote water equity for municipal users by reducing costs for income-restricted families.
For example, Fort Collins Utilities — serving about 35,000 customers in Fort Collins — provides a 25% rate reduction to customers who are at or below 60% of the state median income. The city-owned utility also partners with Larimer County Conservation Corps to offer free efficiency product installation for both homeowners and renters. Meanwhile, Aurora Water has a program to help families that are past due on their water bills with up to $500 in assistance once per year for up to four years.
“Water equity is a growing theme in utilities’ capital planning documents and government funding mechanisms, particularly as cities increasingly assess utilities’ asset management through the lens of equity and environmental justice,” says Suse.
But many argue that systemic changes are needed to help keep water affordable for residents of Colorado: The American Water Works Association and other groups are advocating for the federal government to fund water assistance programs, such as permanently authorizing the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program, a more than $1 billion program established in 2020 to assist families struggling to pay water bills.
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