On Thursday evening, students and Colorado Springs community members crowded Gates Common Room in Palmer Hall to hear Aaron Derwingson, Agricultural Coordinator for The Nature Conservancy’s Colorado River Program, talk about water conservation in the Colorado Basin.
During the talk, Derwingson outlined the problems facing water conservation in the region and potential solutions, some of which have already been utilized in the area.
In his job at The Nature Conservatory, Derwingson works to find solutions for the massive demand on water in the state.
Balancing the needs of the 35 million people who use the river for municipal and industrial use with the ecological and recreational uses that require the river to be flowing is not easy. As the population grows and the Earth’s climate changes, it grows increasingly difficult.
Derwingson began the talk by asking a very basic question: what do all water users want?
“Water security,” said Derwingson. “Everyone from municipalities to fish [want] to know with as much certainty as possible that you will have [water] when you need it.”
The issue with this problem is that the water levels of the Colorado River are highly variable.
When droughts hit or the snowpack fails to deliver enough water, the users have to compete with one another for enough water to sustain their livelihoods.
At a certain point the system creates a zero sum game, where somebody has to lose. Derwingson is trying to create relationships between water users that doesn’t require anyone to lose, only to be smart about their water usage. This essentially comes down to two factors: tools and partnerships.
The tools are the simpler of the two issues. With the proper application and preparation, new agricultural methods are helping farmers save water while also increasing the efficiency of their harvesting. This is achieved through a variety of technologies.
One of the bigger technologies touched upon was the building of sensors in the soil to measure water content. If crops are watered more than they need, the unneeded water trickles into the dirt and is eventually reabsorbed into the ground. By measuring the water content, farmers can water their crops only when necessary, preventing this waste and saving time.
Derwingson has also helped farmers adopt new methods of irrigation to water their fields.
The old method of flood irrigation just pumps water into a field through a pipe or ditch, and the water then flows through the crops. This method loses a lot of the water in the process, and is only 35 to 50 percent efficient.
The new method of drip irrigation, on the other hand, gradually releases water directly into the soil through a vast system of tubes. This method in conjunction with the aforementioned sensors makes the process 80 to 90 percent more efficient, almost double that of flood irrigation.
Not only this, but Derwingson is pushing to remove other methods of irrigation that hurt nearby ecosystems. One pecan farmer he spoke of had an irrigation ditch that relied on an old water gate for regulation. Because it had to be adjusted manually, the busy farmer often couldn’t reach the gate everyday to make adjustments.
Derwingson’s program added a solar powered regulator that would keep the flow in the ditch to a specific CFS. That way if there was a large rainfall, the irrigation ditch’s gate could adjust to send less water to the farmer’s fields, letting the rest of the water flow into the river itself.
While these tools are effective at conserving water, it’s not enough to spread the water to every person who needs it. To ensure water security for everyone, Derwingson believes that partnerships need to be formed between water users.
“[This program] has to be based on the idea that all water users are at risk,” said Derwingson.
Derwingson believes that the route to solving this problem is to create a system that compensates users for using less water.
If water users can be paid to use less water when the climate is drier, then ecosystems and other areas that need the water can survive times that would usually kill them.
Ultimately, the partnerships are what will actually conserve water. Cooperation ensures that while water users might struggle through a drought, no one will end up going under because of it. The tools will help to make sure water users can make do with less, but unless someone implements the plan, it will just sit on the shelf gathering dust and helping nobody.
“We continue to treat the issue of water as a technical problem, when it’s really a social one,” said Derwingson.