Water Use and Management in an Arid Region (Fort Collins, Colorado and Vicinity)
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Water Use and Management in an Arid Region (Fort Collins, Colorado and Vicinity) By J.W. Anderson, C.W. DeRemer and R.S. Hall. Information Series Report No. 26 WATER USE AND MANAGEMENT IN AN ARID REGION (Fort Collins, Colorado, and Vicinity) by John W. Anderson Craig W. DeRemer Radford S. Hall Submitted to The Water Resources Planning Fellowship Steering Committee Colorado State University in fulfillment of requirements for AE 795, Special Study in Planning September 1977 COLORADO WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH INSTITUTE Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado 80523 Norman A. Evans, Director ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The assistance and helpfulness of the many local officals and private citizens who were contacted during the preparation of this paper is gratefully acknowledged. A special word of thanks is extended to the staff of the Fort Collins, Colorado Water Department without whose assistance much of the information essential to this report might not have been gathered. The guidance and assistance of the Water Resources Planning Fellowship Steering Committee is also acknowledged and appreciated. The committee consists of Norman Evans, Director of the Colorado Water Resources Research Institute and Chairman of the Committee; Henry Caulfield, Professor Political Science; James Meiman, Dean of the Graduate School; Kenneth Nobe, Chairman of the Department of Economics; and Everett Richardson, Professor of Civil Engineering. i i TABLE OF CONTENTS Section I INTRODUCTION 1 II HISTORIC FACTORS 3 Causes and Effects ...•. 3 Drought History and Cycles . 3 Local Precipitation History . 6 Predicting Precipitation Patterns . 12 III WESTERN WATER POLICY . 16 Genera1 . • 16 Historic . 19 Current .. 21 Local Area 24 IV OBSERVATIONS ON CURRENT WATER USE 31 Genera1.........•.... .... 31 Agri cul tura1 Water Use ... .. 32 Municipal Water Use . 38 Fort Collins Water Restrictions, Summer 1977 49 V AGRICULTURAL WATER MANAGEMENT 53 General ....... 53 Management Techniques . 54 VI URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT . 60 Water Rationing .. 60 Water Meters ..•.. 67 Incentives and Taxation •...... 72 Conservation Measures Inside the House 74 Conservation Measures Outside the House . 78 Public Education ....... , . 85 Land Use .•...•.......•• 88 L,ega1...•.......•..... 93 Water Supply Development .•........•. 97 Possible Future Water Supply Development Measures . 101 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS (Cont'd) Section Page VII CONCLUSIONS AND COMMENTS 106 APPENDIX A• 108 APPENDIX B 113 APPENDIX C• 115 APPENDIX D• 124 APPENDIX E. 129 APPENDIX F• 135 iv FIGURES Number 11-1 The Hydro-illogical Cycle .. 7 11-2 World-wide Ocean Currents . 10 11-3 Western Drought History Based on Tree-ring Data 11 IV-l Percent Municipal and Industrial Water Consumption Used for Lawn Irrigation 1925-1959 . 41 IV-2 Percent Municipal and Industrial Water Consumption Used for Lawn Irrigation 1960-1976 ..... 41 IV-3 Total Yearly Consumption and Lawn Irrigation 42 IV-4 Calculation of Monthly Breakdown, 1976 Lawn Irrigation .•... 43-44 V-l Crop Water Use Data ... 57 VI-l Johns Hopkin's Comparison of Metered vs. Flat-rate Average Annual Use .. 70 VI-2 Bathroom Water Reuse Systems 76 VI-3 Photograph of Water Wastage .. 79 VI-4 Photograph of Alternative Landscaping. 81 VI-5 Education Brochure on Water Conservation 87 VI-6 Restaurant Notice on Water Conservation 89 VI-7 Map of Fort Collins Growth Pattern 92 VI-8 Proposed Reservoir and Diversion Projects in Colorado . 99 v APPENDICES A. Precipitation History in Fort Collins, Colorado, 1898 to Present ..... 108 B. Precipitation Probabilities in Fort Collins, Colorado . .. .. · 113 C. Manufacturers and Distributors of Water Conservation . .. ... · . 115 D. lIGood Lawns With Less Wa ter" , a Brochure .. · 124 E. lIConserve", a Brochure of Colorado State University Extension Service .... 129 F. Total Water Consumption in Fort Collins, Colorado, 1925 to 1976 with Projections to 2000 ..... 135 vi SECTION I INTRODUCTION Water consumption and allocation have historically been controver sial issues in the arid west. These issues have traditionally intensified during periods of prolonged drought as is presently being experienced throughout the west. This report is directed toward examining these issues and presenting an overall perspective of water consumption and means of conservation with respect to the Colorado Front Range, with emphasis on Fort Collins, Colorado and the surrounding area. Through a cursory reflection on the development of western water policy and observations on current municipal and agricultural water use, the report will examine the need for more efficient water use in the Fort Collins area. The vast majority of water use in the area is by agriculture. The report will discuss a few of the major items of concern with respect to agriculture irrigation. This, however, is a highly technical and special ized subject, and it appears that the greatest overall need may be for additional area-specific research to determine efficient irrigation tech niques. Water in the past has been viewed as plentiful enough that efficiency has not been considered as vital as it may be in the future. Although agriculture is the largest user at the present time, munici pal water demands are increasing due to the rapidly growing population in the area. Water For Tomorrow, Colorado State Water Plan states: "In the market place, irrigated agriculture is able to pay substantially less for water than can be paid by some of the other productive uses, such as municipal and industrial development. In the past, this situation -2- has resulted in many irrigation water rights being converted or transferred to other uses, and in the future, the ultimate result is likely to be a signif icant decline in overall irrigated acreage and in livestock production from irrigated hay and pasture land. This decline will occur more rapidly if cities have prescriptive rights to the water they need for expanding populations. 1I (Water For Tomorrow, 1974). It also appears that the mood for water conservation is set in the urban areas. Thus, the report will concentrate upon the identification of a range of urban water management measures available to local urban areas for water conservation programs. The discussion of these measures will, when applicable, document the effectiveness, problems and degree of public acceptance experienced through actual implementation of the measures by other municipalities. SECTION II HISTORIC FACTORS Causes and Effects Be~re discussing possible causes and effects of drought conditions, it is important to know what is meant by drought. Arid and semi-arid regions are usually defined in terms of the number of inches of annual pre cipitation occurring there. While there is no fixed number for these types of areas, regions with less than ten inches of precipitation (rain and snow included) per year are generally classified as arid, and those with ten to twenty inches per year are classified as semi-arid. The Fort Collins area has, with about 90 years of record, an average of some 14 inches per year, making it, like the rest of the Front Range of Colorado, a semi~arid region. The section on local precipitation history will dis cuss variations in yearly and monthly amounts. Drought, unlike arid and semi-arid, cannot be defined precisely as a reduction of a given number of inches of precipitation per year or even a percentage decrease. A decrease of ten inches per year over a several year period would be disastrous in areas such as Fort Collins, while having an almost negligible effect in an area receiving, say, 50 inches of rain per year. It should be noted that parts of the U. S. receive well over 200 inches per year, and most of the U. S. east of the Mississippi receives 30 to 40 inches per year. Also, the need for volumes of water varies according to types of industry, agriculture, and social habits of the region. ~3- -4- Drought can, however, be defined in at least two useful ways. Some would agree that drought exists where the reduction in available water is such that significant economic and social impacts are felt. Others believe drought is better defined as a similar reduction in naturally occurring water supplies. The distinction turns on whether such projects as water diversion (e.g., Western Slope water to Eastern Slope) and storage facili ties or cloud seeding and similar techniques should be considered separately from drought conditions. The effects of low precipitation are felt less severely where diversion and storage facilities are available and where, in an appropriation doctrine legal system, extensive water rights are held, separate from the land. Marin County, California with few storage facilities or alternate water sources is one area greatly affected in a short time by lack of natural water sources, whereas Fort Collins has many more sources, although these are not infinite. However, the use of water and the populations and economic developments needing water tend to rise to (or above) the level of water availability. Thus, even if current water sources exceed water demand today, even in precipitation short periods, the future situation will be far more serious, unless per unit consumption and population stabilizes. New water sources and storage facilities are limited (see Water Supply Development in Section VI), and therefore the number of users and the amount of user consumption will be limited, either through planning or through hardship or even disaster. This will surely occur even if agricultural changes take place in the region, freeing more water for urban use (see Agriculture, Section V). The precise cause or causes of drought is, as yet, not well under stood. Indeed, many experts argue that there is no consistent or -5- discernible cause other than arbitrary fluctuations of weather and climatic patterns. We do know, however, that there is great variability in precipi tation locally, and that this variation calls for preparation for the water-short periods. Some of the possible physical causes of drought periods and their potentially cyclic nature, are discussed in the following section.