River districts to host joint meeting Thursday; new fines to be considered for water wasters

When Colorado River District General Manager Andy Mueller visited Vail earlier this month for the Eagle County stop of the district’s State of the River tour, he acknowledged that his tone was fairly grim.

Mueller said he was pessimistic regarding Colorado’s future water rights post 2026, saying that state of Colorado lawyers feel “we’re prepared to fight and we think we can win in the Supreme Court,” while he thinks the opposite is true.

Mueller urged everyone with a lawn in Eagle County to move to a one-day-per-week watering schedule, telling homeowners to keep trees alive, but stop watering lawns and flowers. He said agricultural users — which includes golf courses, many of which have existing agricultural water rights — have already “cut their water use to the bare minimum that they can get by and make their systems work,” and now it’s time for homeowners and HOAs to do the same as historically low snowpack threatens local water supplies.

“Keep your urban canopy alive, keep your trees alive, but your grass will come back,” he said. “Please, it’s not the year to plant annuals. It’s not the year to do a major landscaping project. And it sure as heck isn’t the year to plant new turf.”

Mueller also discussed the effort to secure and preserve the historic Shoshone Hydropower Plant water rights, widely viewed as one of the most important water protection efforts on Colorado’s Western Slope. But he wasn’t optimistic about that either, as it’s a $98.5 million effort that will rely on a massive amount of federal funding.

Support Local Journalism

Donate

“The Bureau of Reclamation awarded us a $40 million grant on the last day of the Biden administration,” he said. “So guess what happened on the first day of the Trump administration? It got paused … It was Inflation Reduction Act funding that was, back in 2022 when that was passed there wasn’t a single Republican vote for that act in Congress. Republicans never liked it, it’s not a real good way to do business, to not have any compromise and have only one party pass something, because what happens is when they come into power, the next party throws it out.”

But when Mueller returns to Vail on Thursday for a joint meeting between the Colorado River District and the Eagle River Water and Sanitation District, he may have a more hopeful tone, as just this week the Bureau of Reclamation released the $40 million promised to the district for the acquisition of the Shoshone water rights.

Mueller will update the Eagle River Water and Sanitation District on how that will shape the effort to preserve the Shoshone Hydropower Plant water rights, which is still likely to include a court battle, and will also brief the group on the status of the ongoing discussions among the seven basin states and the federal government over new operating guidelines for Lake Powell and Lake Mead.

Whether he makes another plea to see the area reduce its water use to one-day-per-week outdoor watering remains to be seen. The Eagle River Water and Sanitation District has moved users to a two-day per week watering schedule, and is expected to pass a resolution establishing escalating penalties for violators of the water conservation rules on Thursday.

Under the proposal, which will be considered at the Eagle River Water and Sanitation District board meeting on Thursday, first-time violators would receive a warning, provided they have not received another warning within the previous 12 months. Second violations would carry a $500 fine, followed by $750 for a third offense and $1,000 plus mandatory flow restriction equipment for a fourth violation. During a declared stage-V emergency water shortage, those penalties would double to as much as $2,000 for repeated violations.

“A fourth violation within 12 months may result in the installation of a flow restrictor at the customer’s expense,” according to the district. “The intent of this program is to encourage lasting changes in how customers use water every day. It is these changes that will protect the District’s water supply during what is forecasted to be a high-demand summer, when in-basin water use must compensate for
the snowpack that did not accumulate this winter.”

The joint meeting of the Colorado River District and the Eagle River Water and Sanitation District is scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday in the ERWSD administrative offices at 846 Forest Road in Vail.