The legislative interim has been anything but slow. There are so many interim committee meetings that many legislators have commented that they look forward to the start of the next session so the schedules will slow down. That’s been my experience, too, as I’ve been kept moving nearly constantly, sitting on four committees and chairing two of those.
The most active committee has been the water resources review committee that I chair this year. We are handling our usual workload of studying water issues of importance around the state and we’re holding nine public meetings around the state on the proposed state water plan. The water plan meetings have been another opportunity for the general public to learn about what is being proposed in the water plan and to provide their comments on the second plan draft.
We’ve heard consistently on our water tours that there’s a need for greater storage in Colorado, especially along the Front Range. We’ve met with farmers in the Montrose area of the Gunnison River Basin and in the San Luis Valley who are trying out innovative ways to improve water use efficiency in agricultural production. These methods range from changing the type of crop grown to decreasing the amount of irrigation water lost to evaporation.
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