By C. May
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Imagine a warm, sunny afternoon in Fort Collins, Colo. There are people hiking, picnicking, and boating at the Horsetooth Reservoir. A child in town fills a glass of water from the tap. A woman waters the flowers in her garden. Meanwhile, water is flowing through a tunnel under Rocky Mountain National Park, and farmers are faced with a growing water crisis.
Water use is a hotly debated issue. According to Joel Schneekloth, the Regional Water Resource Specialist for Colorado State University, urban areas are growing and competing with farmers for water. In the coming years, farmers will need to switch to different crops and downsize their irrigation systems.
On October 19, a new bridge opened on US 93, dramatically shortening driving time between Arizona and Las Vegas. For the first time since Sept. 11, 2001, drivers could cross the Colorado River near the Hoover Dam. The new bridge offers scenic views of the area immediately downstream from the dam and the canyon below.
The Hoover Dam, built in 1935, was one of the first dams built to supply water to the growing population in the arid West. The dam now supplies water to 8 million people living in Arizona, Nevada, and California, and irrigates over 1 million acres. The dam is a major tourist attraction, drawing visitors from all over the world.
The Hoover Dam is one of the most well-known dams in the United States, but many people don't know where their own water comes from.
When students at Colorado State University were asked where they thought their water came from, answers ranged from “the ground,” to “rain,” to “the mountains,” and many students admitted that they had no idea.
Northern Colorado and much of the Denver metro area get their water from nearby reservoirs. The reservoirs are all part of a vast water diversion system that moves water from one side of the Continental Divide to the other.
“The water diversion system is fascinating,” says John Orr, who works in the Wastewater Management Division in the Department of Public Works in Denver. “So many people have no idea that our water comes from the Colorado River.”
The Colorado-Big Thompson Project consists of 10 reservoirs, 18 dams and dikes, six power plants, and a tunnel. The project was conceived in the late 1930s as a way to divert water from the western side of the Continental Divide to the eastern side. 80 percent of the rainfall in Colorado lands west of the divide, while 80% of the population lives on the eastern side.
The water diversion system begins in Grand Lake, Colo., one of the first towns that the Colorado River flows through, after its headwaters in Rocky Mountain National Park. Water is diverted into a tunnel, where it will travel more than 13 miles under Rocky Mountain National Park. The water flows under the park and the Continental Divide and empties into Estes Lake in Estes Park, Colo.
The Horsetooth Reservoir, above Fort Collins, is the main water supply for the city and several surrounding communities. Most of the water, however, irrigates the South Platte River valley, which stretches across the state of Colorado.
The human need for water will soon surpass the supply in the Colorado River basin. “The big question here is, ‘do we have enough water to sustain the current ecosystem?'” asks Tom Siller, a civil engineer and the associate dean of Colorado State University’s engineering college. “Do we have enough for everyone?”
I really like how you begin this story with "imagine ..." because it calls the reader to consider their own use of water. I also like how, in the middle of the story, you call the readers to consider where they believe their water comes from, with the question asked to students. This story also has clear and easy to read organization. The one thing I would consider is emphasizing more on the issue you mentioned earlier in the story. You mention that there is an issue with farmers and irrigation, but you never resolve this issue by mentioning what is being done about it. I would either take this part out of the story, or make it more clear how it connects with the other aspects of the piece.
ReplyDeleteI really like how your story turned out. The flow was great, and it was packed with strong information and stats, and the sources were very credible. I think the way you started off your article was a great visual, and set the reader up for what you were going to explain. I also thought that your ending was very strong, I think ending with that quote left readers thinking, and if you were a reporter working for a newspaper, you could always come back and update the story after you found the answer to the question "do we have enough water?" It was great, good job!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really great topic for a local angle. It is a really big concern to many people all across the nation, and I feel it is especially prevalent in Fort Collins. You do a really good job at breaking down jargon and making big concepts seem small for the reader. I think your side bar was very fitting to the piece, it gives a brief prologue of what the story is about, and allows you to expect statistics. The only thing I would change about this piece is relating it more to a local angle. It is fascinating to learn about Hoover Damn but hard to relate to their statistics when you live in Colorado.
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