{"id":883,"date":"2025-07-25T07:00:35","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T07:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/waterfront\/?p=883"},"modified":"2025-12-02T19:23:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T19:23:20","slug":"colorado-river-day-celebrate-stream-water-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/waterfront\/2025\/07\/25\/colorado-river-day-celebrate-stream-water-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Colorado River Day \u2014 a time to celebrate a dedicated stream of water funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

To mark Colorado River Day today, it seems fitting to celebrate Colorado\u2019s 10-year journey to dedicating $50+ million a year to fund water projects and support the resource that makes Colorado so special: its water. And I\u2019d like to briefly highlight three very different projects that have benefited from this vital new funding stream.<\/p>\n

It started with the first Colorado Water Plan.<\/h3>\n

While drinking water utilities and large agricultural districts can often tap ratepayer fees to fund millions if not billions of dollars of improvement and maintenance projects, the same has not historically been the case for Colorado\u2019s beloved rivers and streams. In 2015, the first Colorado Water Plan highlighted the urgent need to fill a gap for reliable, dedicated funding to support rivers, restoration, recreation, and aging agricultural infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s Taxpayer\u2019s Bill of Rights makes creating a new funding stream extremely challenging, but a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision provided a new opening by eliminating a ban on state-based sports betting. In 2019, thanks in part to a bipartisan campaign supported by EDF, Colorado Cattlemen\u2019s Association and a host of other water users, Colorado voters approved Proposition DD<\/a>, which legalized sports betting and dedicated the tax revenues from it specifically to fund water projects.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Since then, sports betting has raised more than $110 million for a wide range of water projects to support farmers, the environment, urban water supplies, and outdoor recreation. In the latest round of funding applications, the Colorado Water Conservation Board, which administers the sports betting revenue for water projects, received $39 million in requests \u2014 $3 million more than available. The fact that the program is oversubscribed demonstrates how much it\u2019s needed. The good news is that sports betting revenue for water projects is expected to increase to more than $50 million a year, thanks to a recent legislative fix that eliminated a favorable tax write-off for sports betting companies.<\/p>\n

So what is the state doing with this new water funding? A lot! The projects include everything from stream restoration to new public river access to a university water fellows program to an agricultural water sharing initiative. Here\u2019s a quick dive into three projects to provide a sense of what the funding is making possible.<\/p>\n

\"Native
Silphium is a native sunflower that can be grown as an oilseed or forage crop. It is among several crops being studied to help western farmers conserve water.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cropswitching in the Upper Colorado River Basin<\/h3>\n

The Colorado River provides water to 40 million people in the western United States and accounts for 40%<\/a> of the state of Colorado\u2019s water supply. But the river, like water funding, is oversubscribed. The water level of Lake Powell<\/a>, one of the Colorado River\u2019s two largest storage reservoirs, has fallen so low that if the trend continues, there may not be enough water to create hydroelectric power by December 2026. It is, therefore, critical that we find ways to use less water and the water that\u2019s left more efficiently.<\/p>\n

Colorado agriculture, a vital part of the state\u2019s economy, uses more than 70% of the state\u2019s total water supply to feed the country and the world. One project that received $280,000 in sports betting revenue, called the Intermountain West Alternative Forages Project, is exploring how to help farmers operate more efficiently and innovatively. The project, led by American Rivers, The Nature Conservancy and Trout Unlimited, along with Colorado State University and The Land Institute, is exploring the feasibility of growing hay crops that require less water and\/ or could be more drought resilient, including sainfoin and the Kernza\u00ae variety of intermediate wheatgrass.<\/p>\n

If these crops can better sustain agricultural operations in times of drought than current forages and enhance farmers\u2019 ability to participate in water-sharing arrangements, they could improve the resilience of agriculture \u00a0in the Upper Colorado River Basin and take pressure off our hard-working rivers.<\/p>\n

“We need solutions to water scarcity that support rural communities and don\u2019t create mini-dust bowls. Identifying more drought-resilient hay varieties is an important piece of this puzzle, because hay crops account for most of the water use in Western Colorado. More drought-resilient crops can help producers get through dry times and enable more flexible water management, creating opportunities to address environmental needs in streams.”<\/em> \u2014 Hannah Holm, Director of Strategic Projects and Partnerships, Southwest Region, American Rivers<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Windy
Windy Gap Project<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Reconnecting the river for fish<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Built to supply water to the booming communities of Northern Colorado in the 1980s, the Windy Gap Reservoir collects water from the Colorado River, pumps it to nearby Lake Granby, and then delivers the water to the Front Range via the Adams Tunnel underneath Rocky Mountain National Park.<\/p>\n

Although the project has helped meet the water supply demands of these growing communities, it has also done considerable damage to the river\u2019s fish populations and water quality, leading Trout Unlimited to\u00a0champion a solution<\/a>: Build a natural stream channel around the reservoir to improve the quality of this\u00a0Gold Medal trout fishery<\/a> and nearly 30 miles of the Colorado River. A ribbon cutting for the $33 million channel project, which received funding from multiple sources, occurred in 2024.<\/p>\n

“At a time when the Colorado River Basin is experiencing a historic drought, people are looking for significant wins to show we can work together to meet multiple needs, combat the impacts of climate change, and make our waterways more resilient. The Windy Gap Connectivity Channel is just that.”<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 Trout Unlimited<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Staff
Staff from the Alliance for Water Efficiency, Thornton Water, and Mile High Youth Corps lead a community meeting with mobile home residents.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Helping an overlooked population save water<\/h3>\n

The Alliance for Water Efficiency received a $225,000 grant for a novel municipal water project that supports water conservation in mobile home parks in Colorado Springs, Thornton, and Fountain. The project provides water audits, leak repairs, and low-efficiency fixtures \u2014 all at no cost to mobile homes residents. The partners aim to gain a better understanding of water use in mobile home parks, identify barriers and opportunities to work with mobile home residents, and research submetering solutions and equity issues in current metering and billing systems.<\/p>\n

“This project is helping to shine a light on a long-overlooked segment of residents and water users. Mobile home communities are vital to Colorado\u2019s affordable housing landscape, yet many face systemic barriers to conservation programs. By understanding water use patterns, piloting solutions like free retrofits, and exploring improved billing practices, we\u2019re stewarding a more inclusive and efficient path forward for water sustainability and community livability.”\u2014<\/em>Amanda Christophe, Program Coordinator, Alliance for Water Efficiency, Alliance for Water Efficiency<\/strong><\/p>\n

A funding stream that exceeded expectations<\/h3>\n

When we started the Proposition DD campaign nearly six years ago, we conservatively estimated sports betting revenue would bring in roughly $10 million a year \u2014 just one fifth of the $50 million that is now projected to be raised. It gives me great hope about our state\u2019s ability to come together and conserve and protect Colorado\u2019s active, outdoor way of life that makes me cherish living here so much. And that\u2019s a good reason to celebrate Colorado River Day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To mark Colorado River Day today, it seems fitting to celebrate Colorado\u2019s 10-year journey to dedicating $50+ million a year to fund water projects and support the resource that makes Colorado so special: its water. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3092,"featured_media":909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,67,3],"tags":[15,43,107,108,18],"coauthors":[53],"class_list":["post-883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture","category-colorado","category-colorado-river","tag-agriculture","tag-colorado-river","tag-fish","tag-urban-water","tag-water-conservation"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/waterfront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/waterfront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/waterfront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/waterfront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3092"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/waterfront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/waterfront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1067,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/waterfront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883\/revisions\/1067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/waterfront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/waterfront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/waterfront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/waterfront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/waterfront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}