Colorado Water Workshop, Gunnison, Colorado, May 22, 2007 Aqua Engineering, Inc.

Telling Our Stories The Stories behind the Stance • Colorado Water Workshop, Gunnison, Colorado, May 22, 2007 • Aqua Engineering, Inc. • Editor: MaryLou Smith • Producer: Kendal Perez

Jenny RussellTelluride, Colorado “I love the life of the river, and especially the desert river: wondering what’s around the bend and how I’ll handle the next rapid.” Attorney at Law

Tom IsemanDenver, Colorado “It scared me that something as vital as water might disappear.” The Nature Conservancy

Eric HecoxDenver, Colorado “As a child in East Africa, I learned to seek out the water holes. That’s where the animals were!” Department of Natural Resources Interbasin Compact Negotiations

Rita CrumptonGrand Junction, Colorado “Colorado water was the best water we kids ever tasted.” Orchard Mesa Irrigation District

John FetcherSteamboat Springs, Colorado “We have more west slope surplus than we can ever use. Why send it on to California?” Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District

Neil GriggFort Collins, Colorado “My father was a big river man.” Colorado State University, Civil Engineering Department

Robert DrexelGunnison, Colorado “Water was so precious to my grandfather that he refused to allow me to do the irrigating on the home ranch.” Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District

Don MagnusonEaton, Colorado “I never remember a family gathering where the conversation of the elders didn’t drift to telling stories about water.” Cache La Poudre Irrigating Company

George SibleyGunnison, Colorado “Trying to reach the Colorado River the next day under the scorching desert sun was brutal.” Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District

Mary StirlingDenver, Colorado Colorado Water Congress “I didn’t think there would be any place to sail in Colorado.”

Dennis SmithLeadville, Colorado “We raised worms in bathtubs and sold them all day to fishermen that lined the lakes thick.” Arkansas Basin Roundtable

Jane RawlingsPueblo, Colorado The Pueblo Chieftain “During the 1950’s drought, there was no flushing for ‘number one.’”

Greg HobbsDenver, Colorado “My favorite place was a creek… with crawdads scuttling in the water and blue-bellies flashing on and off the rocks.” Colorado Supreme Court

David FreemanFort Collins, Colorado “As I grew of size to help lug water pails, my job was to help my grandmother haul that water.” Colorado State University, Sociology Department

Kathleen CurryGunnison, Colorado “Fourth grade, cleaning trash out of the stream. In that moment I decided to work in the water field.” Colorado House of Representatives

Jeff CraneHotchkiss, Colorado “Although warned against it, I drank heartily from high mountain streams simply because I could.” Colorado Watershed Assembly

Bill BrownFort Collins, Colorado “I didn’t know a cfs from an acre foot, but I waded in (pun intended, I suppose.) And I was hooked.” Fischer, Brown & Gunn, P.C.

Steve GlazerCrested Butte, Colorado “I was awakened by seeing a mountain stream being completely diverted for irrigation.” High Country Citizens’ Alliance

Wayne VanderschuereColorado Springs, Colorado “I realized water had become a passion and not just a job.” Colorado Springs Utilities

Ray WrightAlamosa, Colorado “I remember when the lawsuits came that began to restrict our water supply.” Rio Grande Water Conservancy District

Daniel TylerSteamboat Springs, Colorado “When you can wrap yourself in the oldest running case in the Southwest, why not take on a new mantra? “Waterman!” That’s me!” Author, Silver Fox of the Rockies

Melinda KassenBoulder, Colorado “It is not appropriate to treat water like a commodity; it is like air.” Trout Unlimited

Ralph CurtisAlamosa, Colorado “Keeping cattle out of the riparian areas is an environmental idea that just makes sense.” Rio Grande Water Conservationcy District

John BarthelowFort Collins, Colorado “I’d rather talk about the physics of why removing water from rivers so often heats them up during the summer.” US Geological Survey

John WienerBoulder, Colorado “I feel compelled to at least witness well and contribute to showing alternatives and seeing better outcomes.” University of Colorado

Ram Dhan KhalsaGrand Junction, Colorado “Arguing over who should get the water is like two fleas on a dog arguing about who owns the dog.” Bureau of Reclamation

Doug KenneyBoulder, Colorado “Crossing the Missouri at age six, I was shocked and inspired by the scale and grandeur.” Natural Resources Law Center, University of Colorado School of Law

Rio de la VistaAlamosa, Colorado “When, I wonder, does a drop of water enter the legal system? We have not yet adjudicated the cloud.” Rio Grande Land Trust

Jack FlobeckColorado Springs, Colorado “My core belief about water is simple. It’s a gift from heaven.” Aqua Prima Center

Colorado Water Workshop, Gunnison, Colorado, May 22, 2007 Aqua Engineering, Inc.