"We Can Use the Moisture" - A Story of Why Coloradoans are Obsessed with It

Being from the small ranching, formerly mining community of Huerfano County, I have seen my fair share of dry. You may say, "what do you mean by "dry", Jena?" I mean DRY. Dry creekbeds, dry wells, dry fields, dry seasons, dry years, dry skin, dry lips, just plain dry. You name it. If you are from Southern Colorado, you know dry.

Some people come to this state with the mindset of the state they just left. This can include their attitude about water.  Maybe where they came from, they don’t have to water their tomatoes in the summer, or maybe there is so much water that mausoleums are built to keep caskets from going downstream.  They don’t know the value of a drop of water in Colorado.  Here, the value of a drop is so important that the legislature had to make a new law to allow the collection of raindrops in a barrel to water plants in your yard.  Some may say this is ridiculous, and from an outsider’s perspective, they may have a point, but here, in Drys-ville, every drop counts.  If that drop is saved in a barrel, it doesn’t go onto the sidewalk, down the stormdrain, to the river and on to California or Kansas, who may have a claim to that drop.  Combined, these drops may keep water levels in a river high enough that Pikeminnow fish can swim, or they may water strawberries that we eat, or they may provide drinking water to someone hundreds of miles away.

You may have driven between Parker and Castle Rock lately, where there is a sea of new homes being built.  Neither Parker nor Castle Rock has any claim to raindrops (surface water) but rather are pumping water from natural underground reservoirs known as aquifers (ground water).  It’s a beautiful thing to be able to put a well in the ground, and “voila”, water appears, but that has its limit.  That limit is the actual quantity of water under the ground, which is finite and diminishing.

So, what does all of this mean? Why am I bringing all of this up? 1. Context.  When you hear that our “water year” is down by 2 inches from Kathy Sabine, you know what consequences there may be other than bad skiing; 2. Conservation.  Every drop counts.  Turn the water off while brushing your teeth, don’t shower and take a bath ON THE SAME day, choose a more xeriscape landscape instead of water loving sod.  Small stuff, but every drop counts.  And when you hear someone from Colorado say, “it’s so dry”, you can honestly reply, “we could really use the moisture”.

-Jena Vail, former Water Quality Analyst and Water Accountant and current Real Estate Advisor for Engel & Völkers in Castle Pines, Colorado