Article by Ellen Miller
Water – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
THE FIRST PUBLIC PEEK at the so-called Big Straw attracted relatively little attention considering the historic hostility that greets Front Range efforts to get its thirsty hands on Western Slope water.
Only about 80 people, most of them affiliated in some fashion with water entities, turned out June 9 at Mesa State College in Grand Junction to see various “conceptual” drawings and maps prepared by consultants who couldn’t be hired until the Legislature approved $500,000 in funding.
Formally called the Colorado River Return Reconnaissance Project, dubbed CRSS or “Chris” by state employee types but widely known as the Big Straw, the basic idea is to pump “unused” Colorado River basin water back upstream to points high enough to flow into existing pipelines and reservoirs for final transport to the Front Range via the South Platte or Arkansas River basins.
State Sen. Ron Teck, R-Grand Junction, said the study is important to determine “whether it can be done or not, and if at a doable cost. It remains to be seen.
“We’ll be able to tell how practical it looks by the number of Californians who say it’s not a good idea,” he added.
Colorado’s unused allotment from the 1922 Colorado River Compact flows downhill toward Nevada and California, where a massive congressional delegation would offer a formidable threat to Colorado’s clout in Washington.
Included from the get-go in the Big Straw are massive treatment facilities to clean the water west of Grand Junction, a vital step considering all the salinity, dissolved solids, ag pesticides and other gucky things the river picks up as it wends its way through the Western Slope.
“The engineers say, don’t pump dirty water,” said Greg Hoskin, a Grand Junction water lawyer who serves in the Colorado Water Conservation Board, the state entity serving as study sponsor. “The federal Clean Water Act applies, the Endangered Species Act applies, every conceivable federal agency will get in on the permitting.”
From the treatment plants, which Hoskin said along with the pumps might justify construction of their own separate power plant, water would be piped to reservoirs, there to be held until it starts its trip upstream.
Three possible route corridors are under consideration. Each has its cost and engineering advantages and disadvantages.
The northern corridor might start from a reservoir somewhere in the Bookcliffs northwest of Grand Junction, piping water in the general direction of Meeker, skirting north of the Flat Tops Wilderness Area and winding up around Kremmling, from which it would eventually go uphill to Dillon Reservoir.
“The biggest advantage: nobody lives there,” said Hoskin. “Another advantage, you could put water into the Colorado at Wolford Reservoir. You could get it to the Arkansas by pump or tunnel, and to the South Platte by a drop off through South Park to the Roberts Tunnel.”
The central corridor would provide the most direct route, snaking up along Interstate 70 east past Glenwood Springs. It would be costly acquiring right-of-way, but less pipe would be required and taps could be placed in the pipeline along the way for Western Slope return. The water would end up somewhere around Tennessee Pass for distribution to the Front Range via Dillon or the Arkansas basin.
THE SOUTHERN ROUTE would run roughly along the Gunnison, but would have to skirt a number of national parks, wilderness areas and national monuments. Through tunnels and pumps, water would end up in Antero Reservoir, a 60-mile pump to Tarryall for the South Platte, or in the Arkansas basin. Design challenges remain, to say the least, to allow transfer to the Colorado River above Grand Junction.
Reaction was tentative among attendees.
“Denver will look at it 50 years ahead and jump in, just like California did years ago with their diversions from northern California,” said Glen Miller, a 70-something hydrologist.
Martha Romer, a card-carrying water buffalo and longtime supporter of the defunct Dominquez Project on the Gunnison, said the southern corridor will be attractive to the Front Range.
“Look at Pueblo,” she said. “It’s easier for cities to pull water out of there than from 10,000 feet.”
Grand Junction City Councilman Jim Spehar, a Western Slope native with family and roots in Crested Butte, said he worries about water quality, cost and the future of the Western Slope.
“If we use every last drop to solve upstream Front Range needs, does it leave us anything for our future economic development?” he asked. “And you gotta think financial feasibility is the canary in the mineshaft.”
The Big Straw “fatal flaw” study, as Hoskin calls it, is due in November. If no such flaw is found, the next step could be a full-blown feasibility study.
Ellen Miller reports from Grand Junction for a variety of publications, most of them much larger than Colorado Central.