Often the water needed to advance these diverse uses originates in watersheds and waterways far from its ultimate point of use. There are many instances throughout Colorado’s water history where the exportation of a remote water supply to fuel a local need was achieved with a supply that had not yet been developed. Put another way, at the time such waters were claimed, the water was not yet needed near its point of diversion; or in water terminology, was unappropriated. Regardless, cross-basin transfers have been, and will continue to be, controversial. In several instances, beneficiaries of this previously unclaimed water were required to compensate the basin of origin and make pledges to reduce unintended consequences.

There remains the ability in some of Colorado’s basins to legally capture, store, and use water supplies not yet claimed. But as our state grows in population and our climate gets hotter, there will come a day when such excess supplies will be gone, and water development will only occur by reallocating water from one existing use to a newly identified demand. If historic trends continue, this reallocation will largely occur by municipal water providers purchasing and extracting agricultural water supplies from remote regions and redirecting them to fast-growing, thirsty cities. Such targeted water supplies will be permanently removed from lands presently used to produce food and forage. In recent decades, this tactic has often been referred to as the “Buy and Dry” strategy of water development.

An essential economic building block departs when water leaves the agricultural areas of our state to meet growing municipal demands along Colorado’s Front Range. When this happens, the options for maintaining a strong, vibrant, and sustained rural community are lost forever. One need not look too far across Colorado’s territory to observe regions long-since decimated by Buy and Dry practices that have seemingly become the “easy button” for water development.

To minimize the sacrifice of productive agricultural land and associated communities, not to mention squandering future options for rural communities, we must further advance a commitment toward an improved water-use ethic and using every drop of water in a thoughtful and intentional manner across our state. We should also promote conversations between urban areas seeking its next increment of water and agricultural-based communities to ensure that local economies, rural amenities, and quality of life are maintained if and when water might leave the region. Much of the Colorado that we love and enjoy today could become a casualty to the status quo approach of Buy and Dry in the absence of these conversations. Ultimately, we must seek deliberate and meaningful action to alter the way we reallocate water when looking into the future. 

Learn more at Safeguarding Water Resources.