River Basin Roundtables - Colorado River District 2024

Background

In 2005, at the beginning of the current megadrought, the Colorado General Assembly passed the Colorado Water for the 21st Century Act. The act created a “roundtable” grassroots process for stakeholders and citizens in nine basins to share their individual needs and to propose solutions for consumptive, industrial, environmental, and recreational needs. The act also created the Interbasin Compact Committee to explore cooperative actions among the basins. The drought, climate change, and competing uses for a scarce resource underlie the necessity of the plan.

The executive order spurred the nine Roundtables, the Interbasin Compact Committee, and the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) to action. See the CWCB’s page for a summary of those Roundtables.

Each basin roundtable has created a Basin Implementation Plan (BIP) to examine individual needs. The CWCB has written nine chapters that give overviews of local and statewide issues alongside goals and action items.

IBCC and Roundtable Documents of the Colorado Water Plan, includes the documents from the four West slope roundtables: Colorado, Gunnison, Southwest and Yampa-White-Green Basins.

The CWCB created a Colorado Water Plan website that contains critical documents and draft plans from the CWCB and the basin roundtables. You can find out more at www.coloradowaterplan.org.