mudchickenGo anywhere in the Lower Arkansas Valley in Colorado and state you are from Aurora, CO (eastern Denver burbs) ....Make sure to have your last will and testimony plus life insurance in place. They've been moving water around since the Kennedy administration on what is locally referred to as "the BIG straw" .... Water law is one of the most convoluted things you will ever encounter, especially when urban and rural/ag interests are pitted against each other.
They've been moving water around since the Kennedy administration on what is locally referred to as "the BIG straw" .... Water law is one of the most convoluted things you will ever encounter, especially when urban and rural/ag interests are pitted against each other.
Back about 20 - 25 years ago Coors/ Golden, CO was floating () a proposal to use recycled wastewater. As I vaguely recall, the people or drainage district downstream of the STP (Sewage Treatment Plant) objected becasue it would have diverted their water, and won.
Different case, but another example of how crazy this can get:
https://www.denverpost.com/2018/06/25/colorado-supreme-court-coors-water-right/
My daughter used to live in Arvada, CO right next to the BNSF line to Coors. As I recall it was a train a day each way, maybe 40 cars. But that was Thanksgiving weekend 2007, which might not have been typical. She did say the train crews liked it when she and her friends would wave to them - "That's what you're supposed to do!"
- PDN.
samfp1943 Juniata Man Mudchicken: The situation you note in Colorado is similar to one going on here in the Southeast where, for years now, Alabama and Florida have been contesting the amount of water metropolitan Atlanta/ north Georgia draws from the Chattahoochee and Etowah River basins. Georgia has won the legal proceedings to this point but; as long as there are at least two lawyers alive, I doubt the issue will be resolved to anyone's satisfaction. Back at the 'Turn of the Century{2000!]".. I was a resident of Georgia, I learned some, interesting to me, local facts on a number of issues, particularly,Water. I learned that at that time, all the drinking water in Georgia, inclusive of Hot-Lanta, and most of the other urban areas; drew their drinking water from various impoundments, and some rivers. The number of water well was very limited...All becuse of soemthing called the Appalachian Massif; which underay most of the state. So what drinking water was available was gathered from resevoirs, and some rivers. Also, was the fact, that there were no rivers that 'rose' outside of of the State, and all flowed out of the State. Which was an unusual circumstance. In Georgia all the available water resources, fell as rain water, and were either captured in various impoundments, or just flowed outward.... My guess, is that the situation just described, has probably, changed very little?
Juniata Man Mudchicken: The situation you note in Colorado is similar to one going on here in the Southeast where, for years now, Alabama and Florida have been contesting the amount of water metropolitan Atlanta/ north Georgia draws from the Chattahoochee and Etowah River basins. Georgia has won the legal proceedings to this point but; as long as there are at least two lawyers alive, I doubt the issue will be resolved to anyone's satisfaction.
Mudchicken:
The situation you note in Colorado is similar to one going on here in the Southeast where, for years now, Alabama and Florida have been contesting the amount of water metropolitan Atlanta/ north Georgia draws from the Chattahoochee and Etowah River basins. Georgia has won the legal proceedings to this point but; as long as there are at least two lawyers alive, I doubt the issue will be resolved to anyone's satisfaction.
Back at the 'Turn of the Century{2000!]".. I was a resident of Georgia, I learned some, interesting to me, local facts on a number of issues, particularly,Water. I learned that at that time, all the drinking water in Georgia, inclusive of Hot-Lanta, and most of the other urban areas; drew their drinking water from various impoundments, and some rivers. The number of water well was very limited...All becuse of soemthing called the Appalachian Massif; which underay most of the state. So what drinking water was available was gathered from resevoirs, and some rivers.
Also, was the fact, that there were no rivers that 'rose' outside of of the State, and all flowed out of the State. Which was an unusual circumstance. In Georgia all the available water resources, fell as rain water, and were either captured in various impoundments, or just flowed outward....
My guess, is that the situation just described, has probably, changed very little?
Still the same. Drinking water for Atlanta and Gwinnett County comes from the Hooch and Lake Lanier. For the northwest suburbs water comes from Lake Allatoona.
Back during the big drought in 2007; there was some talk of building a pipeline to tap into the Tennessee River.
Apparently there is a centuries old surveying error that moved the Georgia / Tennessee line about a mile or so south of where it should have been established. Georgia's thinking in 2007 was to sue Tennessee in Federal court to have the rightful border established which would have placed the state line on the Tennessee River - thus giving Georgia access to that water source.
The rains finally came and nothing really resulted from it but; I've no doubt the next time we're in the grip of a drought, the idea will be pulled from the closet, dusted off and placed on the table for discussion.
And as long as the gauges at lake Lanier function correctly ...
I imagine there's a heck of a lot of bottled drinking water shipped into the drier climes. I think it'd be wiser to let market forces determine what can be supported. Let the desert be desert, the semiarid be semiarid. Otherwise it's a house of cards destined to crash. Just like trying to contain the Mississippi River has screwed up the Delta region. Should have let it find its new course with the Atchafalaya.
That is a common misbelief. Although most water in the metro area was/is drawn from rivers, wells have been and continue to be used.
https://www2.usgs.gov/water/southatlantic/ga/publications/ggs/ic-63/
One argument about the Atlanta area water is that Florida had seafood business that was based on a steady water supply from the hooch. That actually became available most years due to the various dams and lakes. Guess what? before the dams the flows were so different at various times of the year that the Florida business could never have survived. Where that argument went who knows ?
enA couple of decades ago, Green Bay, WI, was looking to run a pipeline east to Lake Michigan to suppliment their original one (which was put in place due to depleted groundwater). The intake crib was located off Kewaunee and at the time I thought shipping it by rail would be a great way to save the old GB&W line. As matters turned out, the 'burbs decided to go their own way, and wanted their own access to the lake. Instead of drawing from Kewaunee, they negotiaited a deal with the lakefront city of Manitowoc, whose water utility had lost their largest industrial user (Mirro Aluminum) and had the spare capacity ready to go. That could have saved the C&NW's former Lake Shore line...but, alas, neither 'twas meant to be. A pipeline went in, and much of both railbeds are now trails.
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