Gregg Cooper, REPUBLICAN
Eagle County Commissioner - District 1 Candidate

If you could enact one water policy change in Colorado, what would it be? (250 word limit)
For nine years, I lived in Saudi Arabia.  50C is 122F, not unusual for summer.  In Saudi Arabia, they are depleting their aquifers overall, but make up the difference through desalination.  The cost for this process is more than river/lake per gallon but not always.  Technology has more to go, however has come a long way.  We should work with California to create this venture, and in theory, they could shore up finances by selling water back to Arizona.  California creating their own water source is essential.  Please visit www.cooper4eaglecounty.com. 

What outcomes of Colorado River negotiations would you advocate for during your term? (250 word limit)
The prior negotiation in the 1800s made sense for the time.  Now it's time to look forward.  Conservation and sharing of limited resources doesn't address the long-term problem.  California creating their own water source is essential.    Please visit www.cooper4eaglecounty.com.

Matt Scherr, DEMOCRAT
Eagle County Commissioner - District 1 Candidate

If you could enact one water policy change in Colorado, what would it be? (250 word limit)
Water in the West is unfortunately a zero sum game. In Colorado every drop of water — whether for municipal, agricultural, environmental, or recreational use — is already claimed. That means any water taken by one user or for one use is not available then to another user or another use. So players in the system naturally approach water in a protectionist way. And western water policy has reflected that protectionist approach. But water, no matter how we try to divide it, is always one system, agnostic to all of the players and uses within it.

This is, perhaps, why water policy has always been such a challenge. We have always approached policy from the legal perspective of distinct property interests, when, functionally, it is, and will always be, one thing. 

I don’t have in mind a particular policy that could address this challenge. But until we are able to create policy in a holistic and systemic way, the winners and losers in the zero sum game may begin to be determined organically, rather than legally. As it’s said in the water world, “I’d rather be upstream with a shovel than downstream with a lawyer.“ That approach may lead to resource wars in which everyone ultimately loses.

Ultimately, to achieve durable policies, we may first need to develop a common understanding of ourselves as complementary and collaborative users and uses.

What outcomes of Colorado River negotiations would you advocate for during your term? (250 word limit)
That the original Colorado River compact presumed more water than was actually available, and that our changing climate is providing even less water than that, is broadly understood. How to address that fact from our current arrangements and structures is our dilemma.

The fundamental difference between the upper and lower basins is the real time availability of water, rather than the average availability of water over time. Lower basin states have always relied upon reservoirs that ameliorate the variability of natural high- and low-water years. Upper basin states don’t have the smoothing effect of water storage. They have always had to make do with what nature provides and delivers each year through our rivers.

That makes upper basin states more practiced in the conservation and efficient use that will necessarily be required, if, as it appears, our current drought does indeed turn out to be a permanent low water condition. The lower basin is now in the more difficult position of learning how to live within the means of this low water reality.

While that is an inescapable reality for the lower basin, just as users in Colorado must understand how they all work together within one system, there is at least already an objective outcome in Colorado river negotiations that the upper and lower basins can work towards. That is, consistent and predictable water levels in our lakes and reservoirs.

For upper basin that means working on systems of delivery upstream of those reservoirs, and for down basin that means better management of use.

After several attempts to contact candidates via email and Facebook over a two week period, we did not receive comments from the following candidates for Eagle County Commissioner: Tom Boyd