Annual Water Seminar 2020

Join us for a lunchtime webinar to learn the basics of Colorado water! Speakers will go over the basics of water rights, where every discussion of Colorado River policy begins. They’ll cover how water rights are deployed to provide irrigation, drinking water and recreation in Colorado. They’ll also fill you in on transmountain diversions, and key water rights on the West Slope.
Presenters: 
Colorado River District General Council Peter Fleming 
Colorado River District Senior Council Jason Turner  
Host: Colorado River District General Manager Andy Mueller 

The Colorado River District works across a broad spectrum of water challenges with its constituents to protect the water security of western Colorado while promoting better water use and protection of the environment. Subjects to be covered are Elkhead Reservoir in Moffat and Routt counties where storage provides water for energy production and endangered fish; the Lower Gunnison Project that is helping agricultural producers modernize water use while stopping salts from seeping into waterways; and the Windy Gap Bypass in Grand County, a collaborative project with transmountain diverters and the environmental community to re-connect the Colorado River at the Windy Gap forebay.
Presenters:  
Colorado Water Conservation Board Endangered Species Policy Specialist Jojo La
Delta County Rancher Dixie Luke
Colorado River District Deputy Chief Engineer Dave Kanzer 
Mely Whiting Colorado water project legal counsel for Trout Unlimited’s Western Water and Habitat Program
Kevin Lock, water resources project engineer for Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District
Host: Jim Pokrandt, Community Affairs Director at the Colorado River District

Rising temperatures are robbing the Colorado River system of flows. Drought, aridification of the West and reduced river flows are driving down Lakes Powell and Mead while impacting local water users at the same time. A panel of speakers will review the current science, the on-the-ground impacts and how two major water providers are planning for a new normal.
Presenters:  
Jeff Lukas, senior research associate, Western Water Assessment, CIRES, University of Colorado Boulder 
Juliet Eilperin, senior national affairs correspondent at the Washington Post
Laurna Kaatz, climate science, policy, and adaptation program manager at Denver Water
Colby Pellegrino, Colorado River program manager for Southern Nevada Water Authority
Host: Colorado River District General Manager Andy Mueller 

How would demand management impact our Mainstreet economies? How would it change spending at rural businesses such as local diners and mechanics? The River District and its partners in the Water Bank Workgroup commissioned a study of how demand management of water, meaning not using it and sending it to Lake Powell, would impact communities if water were to become a “cash crop.” This study examines how spending patterns could change should a demand management program be implemented in Colorado.
Presenters:  
Sonja Chavez, General Manager of the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District 
Douglas Jeavons, managing director of water, natural resource and environmental economics at BBC Research 
Aaron Derwingson, agricultural coordinator for The Nature Conservancy’s Colorado River Program
Host: Alesha Frederick, Director of Information and Outreach for the Colorado River District