Several years ago during the drought the old hippies who seem to congregate around Durango were putting out rain barrels to water plants and for their annual bath. The state began to cite them and they howled like banshees. It did them no good as the law was ironclad.
Consider the plight of the poor people of Vail. Permits there are for household use only. Hottubs are not a household use. If you have a hottub the annual water use is calculated and you are responsible for replacing that number of gallons from a source outside of that watershed.
The Colorado River Compact allocates Colorado so many acre feet of Colorado River water. That water is pumped from the western slope to the cities of the eastern slope where it is needed.
To replace the water on the watersheds of the western slope hottub owners must drive to Denver and haul water from the eastern slope which has been piped from the western slope back over the divide and pour it on the ground on the western slope where it evaporates and falls as rain on the eastern slope. That's how tight Colorado water laws are.
I do not live in Colorado but the water laws of most western states are based on Colorado law and they are getting stricter and closer to Colorado law all the time. It is a matter of necessity.
It is not a necessity. Please, get that out of your head. That’s the part you glossed over to wax rhapsodic about Californians. At least think about this. Perhaps you’ve been indoctrinated to buy into this your whole life. They could indoctrinate for a thousand years, and it still wouldn’t be true.
What I see here is a person who seems to be defending the idiotic management of an important resource by government. Since when do we buy into what the government tells us, without question? They have told you that you can’t get along without them. And you being a FReeper actually bought into it, and simply will not listen to common sense?
6.734 quadrillion cubic inches of rain falls on Colorado on average each year. That converts to 346.66 trillion gallons of water. If every person living Colorado used 1,000 gallons per day, every day, it would only account for 0.539% of the total rainfall in the state. 99.46% of the water that falls on Colorado would still enter the (water resource) pipeline as it always has. And yet, how many people do you know who are using 1,000 gallons per day for each family member in their household?
Do you honestly believe everyone elsewhere downstream dies if 0.539% of Colorado’s water is used in-state? And while you’re giving that some thought, do you really think each person in the state uses 1,000 gallons per day?
Look at the absurd run-around process you mentioned to me. And then realize that you or whoever is giving you this information, does not have to live like that.
I live downstream from you. You’ve got my permission to use the full 0.53% of your own water. Tell the Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reed, and Barack Obama types to go F off.
I can’t believe the folks up there haven’t given the boot to Colorado officials long before this.