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Ask Douglas County to Oppose the Proposed Water Raid on the San Luis Valley

The San Luis Valley in southern Colorado is facing a major threat from the ironically-named Renewable Water Resources (RWR), a proposal to pump groundwater out of the San Luis Valley and export it to Colorado’s southern Front Range. RWR is the latest variant on a failed proposal, the previously defeated American Water Development Inc. and Stockman's projects. In trying to resurrect the concept, RWR approached the Douglas County Commission, requesting $20 million of federal rescue plan funds to advance the project. The proposal is both environmentally and fiscally irresponsible.

If implemented, RWR's project would cause serious harm for the San Luis Valley and the groundwater and surface water it depends on. From the region's robust agricultural economy, to natural wonders like the Great Sand Dunes and Baca National Wildlife Refuge, water is the lifeblood of the Valley and its communities. (Learn more with this story map from our partners at American Rivers).

Unfortunately, the Valley's surface and groundwater supplies are already over-allocated. Local water districts, TU, and other partners have been tackling that challenge, working together to manage, share, and conserve water to achieve sustainability for irrigators and the environment. The RWR export would undermine those years of hard work and thoughtful collaboration.

Douglas County Commissioners are currently considering the proposal from RWR as they grapple with a growing population within their communities and an unsustainably-tapped local groundwater supply. Instead of creating similar problems by mining San Luis Valley groundwater, the County should pursue more sustainable water solutions including with efficiency and water reuse, and collaboration with willing water partners like the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District, which is already working with Parker on a mutually-beneficial water partnership.

Join us in asking the Douglas County Commissioners to reject RWR’s proposal to extract and export vital groundwater from the San Luis Valley to the Front Range.

Please take a moment today to urge the Douglas County Commission to reject funding this risky and ill-advised water grab.

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Douglas County Commissioners and County Manager

Subject: Oppose Renewable Water Resources Funding Request

Message:

I write to ask you to oppose the multi-million-dollar funding request from the ill-named Renewable Water Resources (RWR) to export groundwater out of the San Luis Valley to Douglas County. The proposal is bad for Colorado's environment and bad for Douglas County taxpayers. Water in the Valley is already over-allocated and the impacts of climate change will only exacerbate that challenge. Residents of the Valley have been working together to manage, share, and conserve water to protect their critical water resources. The RWR export would undercut years of hard work and thoughtful collaboration across the Valley, and jeopardize the Valley's outstanding stream and wetland habitats including world-class resources like the Baca National Wildlife Refuge and the Grand Sand Dunes. Our county should strive to be a good neighbor to our fellow Coloradans and this project would make us anything but a welcome neighbor to the Valley. The RWR proposal is also bad for Douglas County taxpayers. The project is the third similar proposal for exporting groundwater from the Valley - the previous two have been fought politically and in water court and defeated both times. It makes no sense for Douglas County to invest in a risky project facing major local opposition in the basin of origin when we have other win-win water efforts open to us where we can work collaboratively with local water interests that would welcome the partnership - such as the Platte Valley Water Partnership, and local efficiency and reuse efforts. Relying on the unsustainable mining of groundwater in the Denver Basin has already created the water challenges facing our region; mining groundwater in other parts of Colorado won't provide the sustainable solution we need. Please reject the RWR funding request and instead invest Douglas County dollars into other water solutions that are fiscally and environmentally sound.

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Ask Douglas County to Oppose the Proposed Water Raid on the San Luis Valley

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Thank you for lending your voice to protect water in the San Luis Valley.