What a cool time today at the CWCB’s drought tournament.
Teams were tasked with working through a three year drought across a river basin with cities, storage, sub-basins, whitewater sports, flat water boating, agriculture, past mining activity, endangered/threatened species, groundwater pumping, federal reserved water rights, transbasin diversions, prior appropriation, recreation in-channel water rights, instream flow rights, state parks, oil and gas, a ski resort and a compact senior to all other water rights.
AMEC organized the event and developed the materials, including the drought news, which became grimmer as time went on.
On the bike ride back to Gulch Manor from the Colorado History Center I determined that the real takeaway, for me, was the complexity of planning on that level.
The mix of players from recreation, energy, water and environment present was a real eye-opener as well. The conversation was as varied as the experience around each table.
Congratulations to the winning team whose frugal use of funds tipped the scales after the competition ended in a tie.
More CWCB coverage here.
